Grand Rapids Business Journal 01.25.21 NEWSMAKERS by Grand Rapids Business Journal

BUSINESS Journal profiles its Newsmakers of the Year.

PAGE 19

JAN 25, 2021 VOL. 39, NO. 2

The Business Newspaper of Metro Grand Rapids, Holland, Muskegon & West Michigan

THIS WEEK

DIRECTOR’S URBAN EXPERIENCE HELPS Ryan Kilpatrick drives Housing Next to create housing at all price points. Page 8

Innovation marks real estate response COVID-19 forced brokers to set up a whole new way of doing business in 2020. Ehren Wynder

ewynder@grbj.com

Miss the mark? H-1B visa modifications designed to benefit U.S. workers, but startups may become victim. PAGE 3

Breaking away Veteran real estate advisers leave Colliers to launch new brokerage. PAGE 3

RECOVERY MODE Manufacturing continues expansion but economist says Grand Rapids still lags behind national recovery. Page 5

THE LISTS

The area’s top risk management companies. Page 9 The area’s top business insurance agencies. Page 10

West Michigan brokers and agents had to adjust to weather the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 across the industrial, office, retail and multifamily markets, according to real estate leaders who spoke at the virtual West Michigan Economic and Commercial Real Estate Forecast. “West Michigan made it through an extremely tough year

Multifamily housing picked up in the third quarter and became a safe haven for investors who still expressed conﬁdence in West Michigan. Courtesy Colliers West Michigan

in 2020, and I am confident the commercial real estate industry will continue positively in 2021,” said Jon Potvin, managing director of Colliers West Michigan. “We have learned a lot in the past year and multiple sectors made many changes that will likely be in place post-pandemic. As we

see a more widely available vaccine this year, we’re cautiously optimistic this year will be one of recovery.”

Retail In Grand Rapids, the vacancy rate as of Q3 2020 was 4.78%, which increased throughout the year

due to closures because, in many cases, retailers were not able to make their rent. Advisers predict moderate demand going forward, but only in key retail corridors. They expect the vacancy rate to increase in the CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

GR chamber survey reveals top priorities for 2021 700 members say COVID-19 business relief/recovery, talent and health care affordability are primary issues. Rachel Watson

rwatson@grbj.com

A Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce survey shows COVID-19 business relief and recovery, a talented workforce and health care affordability are the top three issues concerning West Michigan businesses in 2021. Results of the 2021 West Michigan Business Advocacy Survey are in, representing the outlook of more than 700 Grand

Rapids Chamber members. “With vaccines and an end to the pandemic on the horizon, this is valuable input from our business community as we work to build a strong recovery,” said Rick Baker, president and CEO of the chamber. “The message is clear: create a business climate that supports small businesses and those impacted by public health restrictions, as well as tackle barriers to business growth, like talent, to make West Michigan a prosperous region for all.” In this year’s survey, over 70% of respondents said the West Michigan business climate was either favorable or very favorable — a significant backtrack from last year’s 94% favorability and many preceding years in the upper 90s. About 78% of this year’s

respondents represented small or mid-sized businesses. “Public health measures and business restrictions put in place to beat the pandemic have certainly impacted this metric,” Baker said. “We are focused on working local, regional and state leaders to get this perception back on track. We must strive to be the best place to start and run a business in 2021.”

COVID-19 recovery Unsurprisingly, COVID-19 relief and recovery was at the top of the list for this year’s survey respondents. From the respondents who classified themselves as business owners or executives, over 44% of them said revenue is down by more than 26% from this time last year.

Inside Track ....... 8 Guest Columns.. 12 Housing for all

FOUNDER grows U-Plant Landscape Designs.

Change-Ups ..... 14 Calendar .......... 14 Public Record .... 15 Street Talk ....... 17

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Additionally, over 46% of these respondents need financial assistance to stay viable, with 23% being at risk of closing under current conditions within the next 12 months. “This information is concerning and shows a huge threat to our economy,” said Andy Johnston, vice president of government affairs at the Grand Rapids Chamber. “These businesses support thousands of families and help make West Michigan a vibrant and attractive comJohnston munity. We are CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

ALWAYS OPEN FOR MICHIGAN BUSINESSES. As we move through 2021, Michigan businesses will continue to adapt. And the Michigan Economic Development Corporation will be here, helping to connect businesses to new resources, meet new partners and access the additional capital they need from the start. If your business needs support to reach its new potential, the MEDC is available to help in any way we can. Find customized business assistance at michiganbusiness.org/pure-partnership

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 25, 2021

Founder grows U-Plant Landscape Designs

Business provides professional landscaping plans that homeowners can install themselves. Rachel Watson

rwatson@grbj.com

Sandy Jonick started U-Plant Landscape Designs after hearing from homeowners who would be happy to dig a hole and plant their own flowers and shrubs if someone could just provide a blueprint. Jonick — who has a background as a florist and digital landscape designer — in 2019 established her business, Grand Rapids-based U-Plant Landscape Designs, to provide custom curb appeal for homeowners at their new builds and renovations. U-Plant’s slogan “We design it … you plant it,” encapsulates the collaborative philosophy of the business. U-Plant serves clients located within 25 miles of Grand Rapids, including Grandville, Jenison, Wyoming, Rockford, Sparta, Cedar Springs, Cascade, Ada, Lowell, East Grand Rapids, Byron Center and Zeeland. Jonick started her career in the lawn and tree care industry as a customer service specialist

many years ago at AAA Lawn Care in Grand Rapids. In the late 1990s, she purchased a 50-yearold flower and gift shop, Country Greenery in Coopersville, which she ran for 13 years before selling it due to life changes. While working for a grocery store broker in customer service just after that, Jonick found she couldn’t shelve her passion for plants and floral design — her true creative outlet. She soon decided to go back to her first love, joining a West Michigan landscaping company as the office manager. “About a week into working there, they asked me if I wanted to learn digital landscape design, and of course, I said I did. With my background in … designing with plants and flowers, it came naturally to me to do landscape design,” she said. Jonick parted ways with the company in the winter of 201819, when the owners shifted their business model to require all employees to become snowplow drivers in the off-season, which she didn’t want to do. Not knowing quite what to pursue next, Jonick pondered that winter about a recurring theme from the customer calls she had fielded while on the job. “We always had people asking if we would do a landscape design for them that they could in-

Sandy Jonick can provide her clients with plans that address several areas of the property so the work can be completed all at once or over a period of time. Courtesy U-Plant Landscape Designs

stall. They didn’t mind doing the work; they just wanted the design. I had talked to the owners about that, and because they had equipment and crews and that sort of thing, they didn’t want to get involved in something that didn’t include that,” she said. “I pondered it for a little bit and decided there was a market for that just based on the calls that I had received.”

In February 2019, she registered her business as U-Plant Landscape Designs and developed a logo with the help of her daughter, a graphic designer. Business cards in hand, she attended the West Michigan Home & Garden show in March 2019 at DeVos Place. She didn’t have a booth, just the will to network and spread the word about her new enterprise over the course

of four days. By the next Monday, Jonick started getting phone calls from prospective clients. All throughout 2019, she worked on marketing, dropping off business cards at greenhouses that they agreed to display at their checkout counters. Whenever she got business from that, she was able CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

T:14.5"

B:14.75"

S:13.62"

H-1B visa changes may miss mark Modifications are designed to benefit U.S. workers, but startups could be unwitting victim. Danielle Nelson

dnelson@grbj.com

Advantage Commercial Real Estate principals, from left, are: Mark Ansara, John Kuiper, Tim Van Noord, David Rapp, Duke Suwyn, Steve Marcusse, Michael Visser, Gary Albrecht, Trent Wieringa and Mike Murray. Courtesy Advantage Commercial Real Estate Services

Veteran real estate advisers launch brokerage Ten former Colliers members decide to strike out on their own. Ehren Wynder

ewynder@grbj.com

A group of senior real estate advisers have spun out of Colliers West Michigan to start their own brokerage firm with a hyper-local focus.

Advantage Commercial Real Estate Services LLC recently opened its new office location at 1575 Arboretum Drive SE, Suite 402, in Grand Rapids. Advantage Commercial Real Estate Services was created by high-performing senior advisers focused on brokerage services in the office, investment sales, vacant land and site selection, multi-family, retail and industrial sectors. The new office space, located in the Watermark Tech Office

Park, will initially be home to 10 commercial real estate professionals, as well as support staff. The firm plans to add additional advisers and support staff to the team throughout 2021. “We look forward to a number of opportunities in the coming year, including the creation of a property management division,” said Mark Ansara, managing principal and senior vice president-retail. “As we continue to CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

When employers resume requesting H-1B visas for temporary foreign workers in specialty occupations this spring, they might have to rethink their wages. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently modified the H-1B visa to prioritize wages to incentivize employers to offer higher salaries, and/or petition for higher-skilled positions, and establish a more certain path for businesses to achieve personnel needs and remain globally competitive. “The H-1B temporary visa program has been exploited and abused by employers primarily seeking to fill entry-level positions and reduce overall business costs,” said USCIS Deputy Director for Policy Joseph Edlow. “The current H-1B random selection process makes it difficult for businesses to plan their hiring, fails to leverage the program to compete for the best and brightest international workforce and has predominately resulted in the an-

nual influx of foreign labor placed in low-wage positions at the expense of U.S. workers.” Prior to the modification, the selection process for H-1B visas was through a lottery system. Kim Clarke, an immigration attorney at Grand Rapids-based Varnum, said the selection process was random in which anyone could apply and a maximum of 85,000 applicants would be selected. “They would first randomly Clarke select 20,000 from all of the applications that had a master’s degree and then when that selection was done, they would put all those (remaining) master’s degree applications in the general pool and select another 65,000,” she said. The specialty occupations that qualify for an H-1B visa include doctors, scientists, researchers, IT professionals and engineers. Clarke said the notion behind the government’s modification is that it will protect American workers because American employers would have to pay more to get visas for foreign workers and CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

JAN 25, 2021

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

Innovation marks real estate response CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

first half of the year. Rental rates continued to decrease throughout the year to an average of $13.67 per square foot. Interest rates also were low during last year and are predicted to remain low throughout 2021. Despite its challenges, the retail sector did show some activity in 2020, particularly with restaurants that have a drive-thru component. New restaurants came to the Grand Rapids market, some local restaurants rebranded, and others opened new locations in walkable neighborhoods. Colliers Associate Vice President of Retail Chris Prins said national retailers are better equipped to come out strong compared to local businesses. “Your chains, your corporate America companies, they can get creative enough and have enough capital behind them to go back to the bank and say, ‘lets restructure some of these deals, let’s get creative on how we use our apps,’” Prins said. “I don’t see the hit as hard on them just because of the firepower behind them. For the locals, it’s going to be difficult, especially the ones in downtown Grand Rapids.” The Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority approved up to $243,000 in 2020

to help businesses winterize outdoor dining experiences during the pandemic. People also enjoyed “social zones” in downtown Grand Rapids during the warmer months of this year, adjusting to primarily outdoor dining to help slow the spread of COVID-19. The latest surge in COVID-19 cases in late 2020 heading into the winter months was the biggest challenge yet, and there may yet be more restaurants that join the list of small local businesses that announced their closures in 2020.

Industrial The industrial sector continued to fare better than others. After a brief slowdown at the beginning of the year, by year’s end, the industrial market picked up to preCOVID-19 levels. This is good news for Grand Rapids, which historically has attracted major manufacturers in the commercial furniture, automotive, technology, medical device and food processing sectors. The U.S. unemployment rate was high at 6.9% in November 2020 due to surging COVID-19 cases, after nearly recovering since the Great Recession over a decade ago. Job growth will be slow, and there are concerns for a rough winter with the continuing pandemic and uncertainty in the

workforce. Manufacturers have employees and customers have been forced to adjust by offer- come through 2020 slightly beting more flexible shift times and ter than others, because both emdealing with frequent absentee- ployees and customers feel more ism due to mandatory quarantin- comfortable in those businesses. ing. They also have been able to avoid Market activity this year came frequent stops and starts caused predominantly from demand by an employee testing positive for manufacturing and ware- for the virus. housing space In 2020, the for large compaWest Michigan “Your chains, your nies re-shoring office vacancy corporate America operations and rate was 7.79%. supply chain locompanies, they can Average rental gistics. Investors rates increased get creative enough remained confito about $18.06; and have enough dent in the West however, the Michigan market capital behind them trend of increased through the conrates may reverse to go back to the tinuing economic if employees are slowdown. The staying home bank and say, ‘lets industrial vacanwell into 2021. restructure some of cy rate remains “The good these deals, let’s get low at 2.38%, and news is that the demand has reeconomy is good. creative on how mained greater Tenants are paywe use our apps.’” than supply all ing rents,” said year. Low interest Scott Morgan, rates have been a senior vice presChris Prins motivational facident of office at tor for buyer activity, which will Colliers. “We’re not seeing debe a continued trend as rates are faults in the leases. We’re seeing expected to remain low through payments made. We’re seeing 2021. companies do very well economically overall … Probably the biggest issue we’re going to run into Office After hospitality, the office market is the extent to which subleases was arguably the second hard- go up on the market.” Despite 2020’s challenges, deest-hit real estate sector. Due to COVID-19, most businesses put sirable spaces and buildings conlooking for a new office on the tinued to perform well. Perrigo, backburner. People don’t know an Allegan-based pharmaceutical what the office environment will company, is investing $44.7 millook like in the short- and long- lion to move its North American term when employees are able to corporate headquarters to Medical Mile in downtown Grand come back to work full time. Companies that have set high Rapids, a move expected to create standards for safety and care for 170 jobs. However, this is an out-

lier. Many companies declined to expand and haven’t grown ini the past year. Even health care, which reportedly has been weathering the pandemic better, has seen slow growth.

Multifamily When the pandemic began, there was a significant slowdown in multifamily transaction activity, but things changed in Q3, when the multifamily sector returned as both a bright spot and a safe haven for investors, proving West Michigan still is a place where people want to live. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population is nearly 1.1 million people in the Grand Rapids MSA, with a median age of 36.1 and a median household income of $65,739. West Michigan’s multifamily sector added over 1,100 units in 2020, and more than 1,000 units are planned for this year. “Between 2015 and 2020, we obviously as a market have delivered thousands and thousands of units,” said Matt J. Jones, associate vice president of multifamily investments at Colliers. “Locally, a lot of the easy, low-hanging fruit from a development site perspective has been picked already. So you’re starting to see developers get creative … or find sites that need some work.” While there is high demand for additional units, the cost of construction remains high and is pricing some projects out of the market. Many developers are turning to tax credits and grants to make projects work financially but this already is a highly competitive process.

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 25, 2021

Manufacturing activity continues expansion trend PNC Financial Services Group economist says Grand Rapids market still lags behind national recovery. Rachel Watson

rwatson@grbj.com

Manufacturing growth accelerated in December, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), but an economist who monitors West Michigan said the region is not recovering quite as quickly as the rest of the nation. The ISM PMI rose to 60.7% in December, up from 57.5% in November. A reading of above 50 indicates expansion in the industry. This was the strongest growth in manufacturing since August 2018, the ISM December report said. Manufacturing was flat in late 2019 and early 2020, and then contracted sharply in March through May as consumers stayed home, states implemented restrictions on economic activity and factories shut down temporarily. But the ISM index has been above 50% since June and was especially strong in December.

“Grand Rapids has seen recovery in manufacturing, which corresponds to the recovery in the ISM survey nationally, but it’s still more than 10% below (the area’s) manufacturing from this time last year. That number compares nationally with manufacturing being about 5% below the national number compared to last year.”

Manufacturing activity expanded in December despite coronavirus cases hitting record highs. Overall economic activity continues to improve, thanks to stimulus spending earlier in 2020, a continued strong housing market, excellent consumer balance sheets and extremely low interest rates. Manufacturing growth should continue in early 2021 with the new stimulus bill, the rollout of vaccines and very low customer inventories that will need to be rebuilt, according to an analysis by The PNC Finan-

cial Services Group. However, Kurt Rankin, vice president and economist for PNC, said Grand Rapids’ manufacturing sector “was hit harder and has been slower to recover” than the industry overall. “If you look at Grand Rapids’ manufacturing employment, it fell much more dramatically. At its peak, it was down almost 30% year over year as the pandemic hit in early 2020. Grand Rapids has seen recovery in manufacturing, which corresponds to the recovery in the ISM survey

nationally, but it’s still more than 10% below (the area’s) m a n u f a c t u ring from this time last year. That number compares nationally with manufacturing Rankin being about 5% below the national number compared to last year,” he said. Rankin said this was part of

a natural slowdown in growth that occurred after Grand Rapids quickly outpaced other states in economic growth from 2015 to 2018, with unemployment at the “exceptionally low” rate of 2.8% prior to the pandemic. But he expressed pessimism that manufacturing jobs will return to pre-COVID levels as automation proliferates and production facilities are able to become leaner than they previously were, similar to what happened CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

Take Heart, Michigan.

Kurt Rankin All five of the components used to calculate the overall PMI index rose in December, and all were above 50%. New orders were especially strong, rising to 67.9% from 65.1%, pointing to continued expansion in early 2021. Supplier deliveries increased to 67.6% from 61.7% over the month, while production rose to 64.8% from 60.8%. Employment rose to 51.5% from 48.4%, suggesting solid industry job gains in December; this is only the second time in the past 17 months that the employment indicator has been above 50%. All six of the major manufacturing industries expanded in December: fabricated metals; computers and electronics; transportation equipment; chemicals; petroleum and coal; and food, beverages and tobacco. Sixteen of the 18 manufacturing industries covered reported growth over the months, with the biggest gains in apparel, furniture and wood products. Printing and nonmetallic mineral products reported contraction.

When “Financial security from generation to generation” is your wealth management firm’s tagline, you tend to take a long-term view of market performance. You also tend to be optimistic, given that historical market data overwhelmingly favors that mindset—even in the midst of a pandemic. A profound sense of gratitude helps. Gratitude to the pharmaceutical firms that are producing vaccines in record time; to the many who are visibly fighting the virus day and night at risk to their health; and to the equal number of good people who, beyond the spotlight, are providing products, services and aid to so many. As author Mary Anne Radmacher once said, “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it’s the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” With you, and in good measure thanks to you, we, the people, are prevailing.

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JAN 25, 2021

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Founder grows U-Plant Landscape Designs CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

to return the favor by recommending those greenhouses to customers when it was time for them to buy their plants. In March 2020, Jonick rented a booth at the Home & Garden Show, which was one of the last big events at DeVos Place before the state economy shut down due to COVID-19. “We had over 100 people sign up for designs. I only had 15 people out of the 100 who didn’t do it, which was huge,” Jonick said. After completing those jobs, Jonick got a ton of referrals, and she was able to create landscape designs for a total of over 200 West Michigan clients in 2020 with the support of a part-time employee. She hopes to be able to hire at least one more person this year. Unlike many companies in the service industry, the nature of U-Plant allowed it to not only survive the social distancing required by the pandemic, but to thrive because of it. “Because we met outside on the lawn, I never had people not wanting to meet,” she said. “They were able to still purchase the plants that they needed — greenhouses opened late (in 2020) but they did open — so people were able to go and get the things that they needed and work outside. It really was a bonus for us.” When a client books U-Plant’s services, Jonick meets with them

to discuss the areas they want to large flower bed), $30-$50 for address — provided the ground the second image (e.g., the side isn’t covered by snow — writing of the house or small flower bed), notes on their ideas and sharing another $30-$50 for a third imsome of hers. Then she takes pic- age, and $50-$70 for a fourth image (such as the tures of all the arback of the house eas that the client “A lot of people don’t or another large wants to landknow anything about flower bed). Adscape. Back in the ditional designs, studio, she inputs plants or flowers or which could inthe pictures into anything like that. clude areas such her software program and cre- They know they want as a pool, gazebo, wall, ates the designs, a beautiful design; they retaining fire pit or more working back and forth over know they want really flower beds, are phone or email beautiful curb appeal priced based on with the client — they just don’t know the size of the area. and making any With the panrequested chang- where to begin. And so es before send- that’s what we do. We demic in full ing over the final come in and give them swing, 2020 was the year of the images. All final everything they need fire pit, Jonick designs include a said. She helped full plant list, inexcept the shovel.” quite a few famicluding what valies either design riety to buy, and Sandy Jonick from scratch or a labeled image enhance the deof where to place sign of their fire pit areas to exeach plant. “I do tell them that variety is tend their living and entertaining very important, because I’m go- space to the outdoors. For small ing to choose plants that, at ma- jobs, Jonick said clients someturity, will be the correct size for times hired her to create a fire their space. And then, of course, I pit design, then took the image tell them how many of each to get to a landscaper and had them lay the pavers for the fire pit or patio for each area,” she said. U-Plant offers free 30- to area, which she said is a perfectly 60-minute consultations fol- acceptable approach. Jonick said she is available to lowed by an exact quote of how much it will cost. Jonick charges answer questions and provide ad$145 for the first image design vice and troubleshooting at every (e.g., the front of the house or stage of the installation process.

TALK IS CHEAP. But good advice is priceless.

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“The nice thing about the plant list is that the way I break it down, if they just want to do the front yard in the spring, and they can’t do the sides and the back yet, they can just go to the greenhouse and buy what I put down for the front yard and cross it off and go back to the backyard later. It’s in pieces for a reason, so that they can do it as time and budget allows,” she said. For new builds, Jonick goes over with the homeowners how to create plant beds — what dimensions to make them and how many feet from the foundation. Other tips might include how to incorporate rocks into the design if they want that, which greenhouses sell what types of plant materials, etc. Jonick said her relationship with greenhouses is becoming mutually beneficial. Many of the

places she regularly works with are starting to become familiar with her plant list and are working with her to get her customers what they need. U-Plant strives to be known for its customer service, Jonick said. “A lot of people don’t know anything about plants or flowers or anything like that. They know they want a beautiful design; they know they want really beautiful curb appeal — they just don’t know where to begin. And so that’s what we do. We come in and give them everything they need except the shovel.” More information about U-Plant Landscape Designs is at uplantlandscapedesigns.com.

GR chamber survey reveals top priorities for 2021 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

hopeful that these businesses can pull through but know they will need additional assistance to get through the winter.” When it comes to top barriers preventing people from getting back to work, employee fear, consumer confidence and behavior, clear guidance on safe operations, and employee logistics, such as transportation and child care, were of greatest concern.

TOP 5 MEMBER POLICY ISSUES 1. COVID-19 recovery 2. Talented workforce 3. Health care aﬀordability 4. Regional housing supply and aﬀordability 5. Tax climate

Talent Members once again ranked a talented workforce as one of the top priorities they would like to see addressed. About 69% of respondents with a direct role in hiring said they hired and/or added new positions within the past 12 months. Of those, over 55% said they had difficulty finding qualified applicants. These numbers are substantially lower than last year’s numbers of 80% and 71%, respectively, yet are more aligned with the 2018 survey results. “Policymakers should take note of this continued concern and how it impacts our COVID-19 recovery,” Johnston said. “Supporting policies and programs to increase workforce participation and attract top talent are at the top of our to-do list. A focus

on growing existing proven talent programs, like the Going Pro Training Fund, must remain a top priority for Lansing.” As with past survey results, members said the positions that are the most difficult to hire and retain run the gamut from entry-level to executive-level positions, including nurses, software engineers, retail workers, IT, custodial services, sales and skilled trade workers. In response to the challenge, members reported enhancing recruitment efforts, increasing wages and upskilling current staff members.

Health care aﬀordability Health care affordability returned to a top spot and dropped housing supply and affordability out of the top three. Health care access and affordability always have been a priority for the Grand Rapids Chamber, and coming up on the one-year anniversary of a global pandemic has put a spotlight on the cost burden to employers, lack of access to employees and inequities in the system, the chamber said. The Grand Rapids Chamber’s Government Affairs Annual Survey, coupled with its legislative priorities, is the foundation for the chamber’s advocacy for member-driven policy and provides data by which to advocate for business’s needs with the state government. Complete results from the 2021 West Michigan Business Advocacy Survey are at bit.ly/advo cacy-survey-GRchamber.

78% of respondents represent small or mid-sized businesses

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 25, 2021

NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED Pat Dalton, left, and Spencer Olson, partners and shareholders at BHS Insurance, say telemedicine has proven to be time-saving and cost-eﬀective for both employers and employees. Courtesy Studio 616/Dave Burgress

FOR SAFETY & QUALITY

Telemedicine continues to grow in popularity Positive result from the pandemic is lowering costs for employees and employers. Danielle Nelson

dnelson@grbj.com

What seemed like the last alternative for individuals, doctors and nurses just two years ago has become a lifeline over the last year. Telemedicine use has ballooned over the course of the last 12 months because of the limitations that have been place on some of the face-to-face consultations, treatments and recommendations due to the coronavirus and it will continue to grow in popularity long after COVID-19 ends, according to health care benefits providers. Spencer Olson, partner and shareholder for Grandville-based BHS Insurance, a full-service insurance provider, said prior to COVID-19, the participation rate was less than 5%, but that figure has jumped to more than 50% with the advent of the pandemic. The increase in the participation rate is heavily driven by mental health services, he said. As telemedicine and telehealth grow in popularity, it is expected to account for 440 million visits in 2021. “The telehealth market is expected to nearly quadruple this year — from $45 billion to $175 billion,” said Jasmine Piggott, BHS benefits specialist. Pat Dalton, who also is a partner and shareholder of BHS Insurance, said telemedicine has proven to be time-saving and

cost-effective for both employers who are paying for health insurance and employees who are using health insurance. “A typical doctor’s visit is between $125 and $130 and a virtual visit is about $50, which is just for primary care,” he said. “If someone can be treated for migraine headaches, they’ll go to the urgent care because they don’t have a primary care doctor. That urgent care visit is going to be between $200 and $500. If the urgent care isn’t open, and that same person with that migrain headache goes to the ER, now that ER visit is between $500 and $1,000. That is the big differential, the cost of health care and why virtual doctor’s visits are so much more affordable. It also saves time because you can do this right from your own house, sitting at the kitchen table and have that conversation with your health provider and within 15 minutes you are done.” Olson said having virtual doctor visits instead of going to the emergency room proves to be beneficial for employers, too. “When employers are looking at their claims experience, they see all these emergency room visits for things that are not urgent,” he said. “If employers can get their employees to start using virtual visits for (medical issues that are not serious) and they just need a prescription, then employers definitely want to drive their employees that way because it saves on the claims spent, which in turn helps lower prices and rates that the employer gets charged and that get charged back to the member. So, it doesn’t only benefit the employer, it benefits the members, too.”

Metro Health – University of Michigan Health earned the nation’s top distinction for patient safety with an “A” grade from the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. The “A” recognizes our high standards in patient safety. As the only hospital in Grand Rapids to receive this rating, you can visit our offices in confidence. MetroHealth.net

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When employers are looking at their claims experience, they see all these emergency room visits for things that are not urgent. SPENCER OLSON

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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 25, 2021

Nonprofit director draws on development experience

INSIDE TRACK Housing Next in Ottawa County looks at barriers to housing, including government policy, tax structures and incentives. Courtesy 616 Media

Ryan Kilpatrick’s work and familiarity with urban settings led to his position as executive director for Housing Next, which strives to create housing at all price points. Ehren Wynder

ewynder@grbj.com

he one-man powerhouse of Housing Next, Ryan Kilpatrick, is working to reduce barriers to the creation of housing at all price points, utilizing his experience in building bridges between nonprofits, developers and state and local authorities. Prior to leading Housing Next, Kilpatrick served as senior community assistance specialist for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. In that role he facilitated business development for urban mixed-use projects in West Michigan, reviewing pro formas, grant requests and helping projects acquire financing through the state’s gap financing tool. “A lot of these urban mixeduse projects tend not to produce the rate of return that a traditional investor is looking for in order to have their return match their level of risk,” Kilpatrick said. “In order to get that project done, it needs some gap financing from the state.” When he first started, the MEDC was working with Rockford Construction on redeveloping the old Morton Hotel building in downtown Grand Rapids into what is now the Morton Apartments. Rockford purchased the property in 2011, and the renovated building opened for leasing in 2014. Kilpatrick also was involved with the development of Rockford’s Bridge Street Market, next door to its Grand Rapids headquarters, and the development of the Hyatt Place Hotel in Grand Rapids built by Orion Construction. For the Bridge Street project, Rockford wanted the Inner City Christian Federation to come along and build the affordable housing project behind it, Kilpatrick said. But the developer was

having trouble convincing the Michigan State Housing Development Authority and MEDC to work together on those sites. “I got to know Ryan VerWys over at ICCF and the team at Rockford and help to make sure both the MEDC and MSHDA were going to invest in the same project to get a mix of affordable and market rate housing next to the grocery store,” Kilpatrick said. The MEDC is mainly involved in helping to incentivize market-rate housing in urban districts, but through that work in 20152016, Kilpatrick began to realize he was solving problems for one need, but helping to create additional needs. “As we help to generate more activity and vibrancy in those neighborhoods, it caused some prices to escalate in those neighborhoods, and we didn’t have good mechanisms to preserve existing affordable housing or help to build more affordable housing alongside the existing market rate,” he said. Because of his developmental work, Lakeshore Advantage President Jennifer Owens, sought out Kilpatrick to discuss with a group of Ottawa County entities the formation of a new organization called Housing Next. “We started to talk through how does housing get built and not get built? What are the barriers? And the more we talked the more it felt like there might be a good fit between my background and what they were looking for to run this new organization,” Kilpatrick said. Kilpatrick was aware the Ottawa County United Way had done work via a collective impact model to try to understand the barriers to housing across Ottawa County. The Community Foundation for the Holland/Zeeland Area was looking to invest in the creation of something new that would help drive housing supply at all price points across the county. Kilpatrick was introduced to

RYAN KILPATRICK Organization: Housing Next Position: Founding executive director Age: 40 Birthplace: Grand Rapids Residence: Grand Rapids Family: Married to Amber Zidarevich; children Henri and Ben Business/community involvement: Community Catalyst consultant, Grand Valley State University Design Thinking Academy adviser, GVSU master’s in social innovation program adviser, Grand Rapids Board of Zoning Appeals member, Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. Alliance for Investment committee member, Grand Rapids Child Discovery Center fundraising committee member. Biggest career break: Former Grand Rapids Economic Development Director Kara Wood recommended him to the vice president of community development at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Mike Goorhouse, president and CEO of the Holland/Zeeland foundation, who wanted to better understand barriers to housing. After six months of conversations about the dynamics at play, Kilpatrick got the request for him to apply as executive director for the newly formed Housing Next. The Housing Next Leadership Council appointed Kilpatrick as executive director in 2017. Housing Next has three primary objectives in the housing ecosystem, Kilpatrick said. The first is to understand the data to quantify where housing is needed, how much is needed and at what price point, and which partners in the marketplace can help produce that type of housing. The second component is recognizing where public policy is helpful or harmful to getting the kind of housing supply communities need. “Then it’s working with local municipal officials to unpack those policies, understand why they’re written the way they are and see if we have some ways to augment those policies to enhance our ability to produce more supply with the private sector,” Kilpatrick said. Third is putting projects together with for-profit and nonprofit developers — after policies are in place — making sure there are financial resources to get the project done. “When we don’t have financial resources, then we have to figure out what is the story we need to tell around this project, and who do we need to tell it to in order to close the financing gap and get the deal done,” Kilpatrick.

In the first year of Housing Next, Kilpatrick worked with Black River Flats in Holland, a proposed multifamily housing project, which was well on its way but had issues with financing. The project’s owner/developer, Scott Geerlings, president of Midwest Construction in Zeeland, was concerned with the amount in taxes the project would have to bear once it was complete. “There weren’t good comparable sales in the market at that time for new apartment construction,” Kilpatrick said, “So the only way to assess the project was based on the construction value, and that was going to give him a really high taxable value on the front end, and he was concerned he couldn’t pass that cost onto his tenants, because that would raise the princes above what the market could afford.” Housing Next worked with Midwest Construction and the city of Holland to put together a brownfield tax increment financing (TIF) plan, where Geerlings’ costs related to infrastructure would be tax-reimbursed to him over a 10-year period, while he agreed to maintain at least half of his apartment units at 80% area median income. “Historically TIF doesn’t get used for those kinds of projects,” Kilpatrick said. “It’s often much more oriented toward contaminated brownfield sites that need a lot of cleanup. So in this instance we used the tool a little bit creatively to ensure we were making the financing work for the developer and also guaranteeing a maximum rent level for the residents.” Kilpatrick said larger lot sizes

tend to be a point of high cost for developers. If a developer has to build out sewer, water and roads across more land, there’s no other option but to pass those costs on to the end buyer. One of Housing Next’s strategies for dealing with this is working with local municipalities to pass zoning updates. “For example, if the local zoning code says you’ve got to have a 100-foot-wide lot, is there a reason for that? Are we perpetuating something that’s really important to the community, or would the neighbors be just as comfortable with an 80-foot or a 70-foot-wide lot,” Kilpatrick said. “And if we reduce those lot widths, what are opportunities to add homes into the neighborhoods where we already have infrastructure?” In those instances, municipalities may only add one or two houses per block, but on a regional scale, those one or two houses can add up to the thousands, Kilpatrick said. Multifamily housing can benefit from this approach as well. Kilpatrick said when he was in college, he rented the upstairs unit from the owner of a two-unit building. Allowing for those situations on a regular basis, without forcing homeowners to go through extensive regulatory hurdles, will make a big difference, he said. “Instead of spreading buildings out across multiple acres of land, sometimes it can be valuable to bring those buildings up a little bit closer to the street, concentrate residential development in one part of the site and preserve the rest of the site as recreational space,” Kilpatrick said.

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

THE LIST

JAN 25, 2021

Risk Management Companies (RANKED BY NUMBER OF LICENSED WEST MICHIGAN AGENTS) 2020 No. of Year 2019 licensed W. established in total W. Mich. Mich. agents/ Top Local Executive(s) W. Mich. revenue support staff

Compensation

Acquisition Risk management services

Other special services

*Acrisure LLC 100 Ottawa Ave. SW Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 265-1633 acrisure.com

Greg Williams

2006

$1.99B $1.88B

224 537

Commissions, Fees Program design and placement, All lines of insurance, surety manage total cost of risk, develop and bonding, employee benefits, implement workforce strategies financial services products

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. 300 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 301 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 233-0910 f 233-0923 ajg.com

Michael Miller

1991

DND DND

131 92

Commissions, Fees Insurance, risk management and consulting

Lighthouse Group, An Alera Group Company 56 Grandville Ave. SW, Suite 300 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 698-7373 lighthousegroup.com

Commissions

Risk control consulting, claims expertise, OSHA training and compliance, safety program development, workplace hazard assessments, statistical loss analysis and projections, training resources for specific industries

DND

New position

Thomas Helmstetter Jaclyn Brussee David Hildenbrand Harold Burrell Brian DeKorte

1995

$34.5M $34.5M

130 19

Ottawa Kent 7472 Main St. Jenison 49428 p (616) 457-1320 f 457-4050 ottawakent.com

Mike Haverdink

1973

DND DND

52 17

Commissions, Fees Safety, OSHA compliance, risk DND management consulting, loss control, ergonomic analysis, Certified Risk Architects, claims management

HUB International Midwest Ltd. 1591 Galbraith Ave. SE Grand Rapids 49546 p (616) 233-4111 f 233-4110 hubinternational.com

Caroly Hofstee Brian Eggleston Shannon Jones Mark Lenderink Douglas Nagel Josh Stanford Kyle Bloemers Katherine Strong

1998

$35.02M $32.77M

50 110

Commissions, Fees Loss control, captives and alternative, Property, casualty, employee risk solutions, claims management, benefits, bonds and surety, trade trade credit, risk consulting, nurse, credit case management, emergency action planning

International capabilities, alternative risk financing, self-insurance, captives, personal lines, employee benefits, business, life

Jodie DeVries

1970

DND DND

25 DND

Jeff Lumpp Greg Nemmers Karen Barnes Jim Kenyon Guylaine Donavan Ken Bos Ian Hibbard Bob Barss Max Rispler Ken Fortier Casey Johnson

2006

$6M $5.8M

12 37

Marsh USA 125 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 400 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 233-4200 marsh.com

Hylant 85 Campau Ave. NW, Suite 100 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 855-7900 f 855-7910 hylant.com/about/locations/grand-rapidshylant-office

Crosby & Henry 590 Cascade West Pkwy. SE Grand Rapids 49546 p (616) 942-5480 f 942-0346 crosbyhenry.com

Jamie Crosby Ellen Miller

1858

DND DND

11 3

Commissions

DND

Brown & Riding 85 Campau Ave. NW, Suite 310 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 977-7800 f 977-7813 brownandriding.com

Chris Dockery Cathy Griffin Brad Vandenbroeck

2000

$4.76M $3.79M

10 7

Commissions

Casualty, property, management and DND professional liability, binding authority; specialty and industry-focused practice areas include amusement attractions, construction, energy and oil and gas, entertainment, environmental, financial institutions, franchise industry, healthcare, hospitality, life sciences, mining, non-profits, product recall, real estate, technology, transportation, and workers' compensation

Nathan Steffen

2011

$8M $8M

10 25

Commissions

Property and casualty insurance brokerage; employee benefits brokerage; bonding, captives and alternative risk solutions; strategic risk and claims advisory services

Risk clarity process/safety culture enhancement, disaster recovery and business continuation planning, DOT compliance, loss control consulting, industrial hygiene and ergonomic consulting, innovation of risk management scorecards and dashboards

Consulting

DND

Risk identification, analysis, implementation and follow up, including risk transfer and audits; online resources for safety, HR, compliance and OSHA

Aviation, group health benefits, commercial and personal insurance, professional liability, key man and cross purchase life insurance

Internal audit and enterprise risk, compliance, technology assurance and risk management, cybersecurity, forensics, and governance, risk and controls

Intelligence-based solutions including third-party risk, enterprise performance, accounting and regulatory compliance

hni 140 Monroe Center NW, Suite 200 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 264-3000 hni.com

Other

Risk identification and quantification, DND workersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; compensation pre- and postloss cost reduction, property/asset protection, accelerated claim closure and collateral reduction, cyber security and risk quantification, forensic claim accounting, business continuity planning, emergency response/disaster recovery

Commissions, Fees Risk consulting, captive insurance feasibility studies, global program management, insurance program review, analysis and evaluation

Glenn Morris & Associates 6011 West River Drive Belmont 49306 p (616) 361-3400 f 361-3401 gma-insurance.com

Glenn Morris

2007

DND DND

9 4

DND

AIC Insurance Services 7275 Bronson St. SE Ada 49301 p (888) 695-9777 f 676-4010 theaicgroup.com

Mark Vickery Jason McNamara Tom VanderVelde Stacy Higgins Samantha Lamberts

1997

DND DND

5 3

Commissions

KPMG LLP 99 Monroe Ave. NW, Suite 400 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 831-8600 f 831-8519 kpmg.com/us

John Maynard

1916

DND DND

DND 71

Fees

Alera Group, an independent, national insurance and financial services firm, acquired Lighthouse Group on Dec. 1.

Alternative risk modeling, enterprise risk management consulting, worker compensation claims consulting

Hylant named Ken Fortier the vice president of business development for the West Michigan division. It was a new position that was created in February.

Tech officer Brown & Riding chose Nathaniel Turner to become its chief technology officer. He has been with the company since 2006.

Practice lead KPMG LLP appointed Angie Gildea the national sector leader for its Energy, Natural Resources and Chemical practice.

DND

The Grand Rapids Business Journal list of top area risk management companies, ranked by the number of licensed W. Mich. agents, is the most comprehensive available. The list is based on responses to Business Journal surveys. The Business Journal defines "West Michigan" as Allegan, Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon counties. The Business Journal surveyed 88 companies; 13 responded and 13 are listed. To be considered for future lists, email dnelson@grbj.com. DND = Did not disclose. * Revenue represents 1/1/20-11/30/20.

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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 25, 2021

THE LIST

Top Area Business Insurance Agencies (RANKED BY NUMBER OF LICENSED WEST MICHIGAN AGENTS)

New tagline

Year 2020 No. of licensed Independent established in 2019 total business W. Mich. agents/ insurance Top W. Mich. executive(s) W. Mich. insurance premiums support staff agency Types of business insurance/other specialties 1

*Acrisure LLC 100 Ottawa Ave. SW Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 265-1633 acrisure.com

Greg Williams

2006

$14.45B $11.9B

224 537

Auto, aviation, executive and financial lines, flood, inland marine, general liability package, professional liability, property, surety, workers' compensation

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. 300 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 301 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 233-0910 f 233-0923 ajg.com

Michael Miller

1991

DND DND

131 92

Insurance, risk management and consulting

Lighthouse, An Alera Group Company 56 Grandville Ave. SW, Suite 300 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 698-7373 lighthousegroup.com

Thomas Helmstetter Jaclyn Brussee David Hildenbrand Harold Burrell Brian DeKorte

1995

$355M $355M

130 19

BHS Insurance 3055 44th St. SW Grandville 49418 p (616) 531-1900 f 574-3317 bhsins.com

Steven Olson Zackery Vandenberg

1939

$325.48M $323.24M

120 18

Business and employee benefits insurance, risk management, safety, loss control, human resource consulting, ACA consulting, wellness consulting, technology solutions, retirement plan consulting

Ottawa Kent 7472 Main St. Jenison 49428 p (616) 457-1320 f 457-4050 ottawakent.com

Mike Haverdink

1973

$30M $29M

52 17

Certified workers' compensation advisers, wellness strategies, risk profile improvement, certified risk architects, ACA consulting

HUB International Midwest Ltd. 1591 Galbraith Ave. SE Grand Rapids 49546 p (616) 233-4111 f 233-4110 hubinternational.com

Caroly Hofstee Brian Eggleston Shannon Jones Mark Lenderink Douglas Nagel Josh Stanford Kyle Bloemers Katherine Strong

1998

$361M $343M

50 110

Property, casualty, bond and surety, self-insured workers' compensation, trade credit, employee benefits, loss control, risk consulting, personal insurance

Doyle & Ogden Insurance Advisors 3330 Broadmoor Ave. SE, Suite E Grand Rapids 49512 p (616) 949-9000 f 949-9568 doyle-ogden.com

Michael Doyle

1958

DND DND

38 8

Business, auto, home, life, health, employee benefits, transportation

Lake Michigan Insurance Agency 5550 Cascade Road SE Grand Rapids, MI 49546 p (616) 234-6979 lmcu.org/insurance

Sandy Jelinski

2002

$60.5M $59.28M

30 22

Commercial property, general liability, professional liability/ E&O, inland marine, product liability, lessor's risk, commercial auto, workers' compensation, commercial umbrella

Marsh USA 125 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 400 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 233-4200 marsh.com

Jodie DeVries

1970

DND DND

25 DND

DND

Commercial, cyber, environmental, transactional, intellectual property, D&O insurance, reinsurance, risk identification and quantification, workers’ compensation pre- and post-loss cost reduction, property/asset protection, accelerated claim closure and collateral reduction, cybersecurity and risk quantification, forensic claim accounting, business continuity planning, emergency response/disaster recovery

Crosby & Henry 590 Cascade West Pkwy. SE Grand Rapids 49546 p (616) 942-5480 f 942-0346 crosbyhenry.com

Jamie Crosby Ellen Miller

1858

Buchanan Agency Inc. 2305 East Paris Ave. SE, Suite 201 Grand Rapids 49546 p (616) 949-8871 f 949-6488 buchins.com

William Buchanan II Michael Buchanan

hni 140 Monroe Center NW, Suite 200 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 264-3000 hni.com

DND DND

11 3

Property and casualty, group life and health

1967

$8.9M $8.8M

10 1

Business, home, auto and life

Nathan Steffen

2011

$75M $70M

10 25

Property and casualty, employee benefits and risk advisory services, safety performance, claims management, employee engagement, performance management, accountability, branding and culture enhancement

Glenn Morris & Associates 6011 West River Drive Belmont 49306 p (616) 361-3400 f 361-3401 gma-insurance.com

Glenn Morris

2007

DND DND

9 4

Workers' compensation cost reduction

AIC Insurance Services 7275 Bronson St. SE Ada 49301 p (888) 695-9777 f 676-4010 theaicgroup.com

Mark Vickery Jason McNamara Tom VanderVelde Dave Emmette Stacy Higgins Samantha Lamberts

1997

DND DND

5 3

Risk management, commercial property, general liability, professional liability, pollution liability, medical malpractice, aviation, employee benefits, personal lines, life insurance

Gibson 650 Trade Centre Way, Suite 310 Portage 49002 p 49002 f (269) 682-8843 thegibsonedge.com

Gary Carey

2019

DND DND

4 4

Employee benefits, commercial business, personal lines

Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC 125 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 405 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 223-1801 mma-mi.com

Becky McLaughlan Denise Christy Ron Erway

2007

$6.9M $3.24M

4 0

Group benefits consulting and risk management brokerage; culture and well-being strategy development; benefits trends benchmarking; diversity equity & inclusion consulting; 401(k) advisory services; employee benefits communications; HR compliance; HR education

The Grand Rapids Business Journal list of top area business insurance agencies, ranked by number of W. Mich. licensed agents,is the most comprehensive available. The list is based on responses to Business Journal surveys. The Business Journal defines "West Michigan" as Allegan, Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon counties. The Business Journal surveyed 134 agencies; 18 returned surveys and 16 are listed. To be considered for future lists, email dnelson@grbj.com. DND = Did not disclose. *2020 premiums represents 1/1/20-11/30/20

Acrisure unveiled its new tagline, “Powered by exceptional partnerships and technology.” The tagline follows the company’s recent acquisition of Tulco LLC, an artificial intelligence company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Members join board Cristal Brisco, a trial attorney, and Hugh Reynolds, a retired partner for Crowe LLP, are now members of Gibson’s board of advisors.

New vice president Marsh & McLennan Agency named Tyrone Jordan vice president for its health and benefits practice in Troy.

US practice leader Marsh USA appointed Eddie Albers U.S. life sciences practice leader.

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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 25, 2021

COMMENT & OPINION

GUEST COLUMN Ryan Kilpatrick

We all win with enough housing at all price points

first glance, rising home prices may appear to signal the economy is booming and household incomes are increasing.Look a little closer, however, and that just isn’t the case. A recent study shows home prices in the Grand Rapids metropolitan area are expected to maintain their upward trajectory again this year, increasing by another 6.5% after growing by 6.8% between 2019 and 2020. The reason: We haven’t built enough housing to keep up with demand at all price points. Add to that regional wage growth hasn’t kept pace with the rise in housing prices and zoning laws have limited our ability to meet the needs of our growing communities, and it’s clear why residents at all income levels can’t find housing within their price range — also known as housing affordability. Housing affordability is the amount of money we spend on housing relative to our income. Housing is affordable when it costs 30% or less of a household’s gross income. This includes mortgage, rent, taxes, insurance, etc. Why it matters to everyone To prosper, all people and all places need housing for all income levels. High-quality, stable housing at all price points is central to the health and well-being of all of us. Communities with enough housing at all price points offer greater economic stability, better health and great-

er access to quality education for all residents. When we don’t support housing supply at all price points, tremendous strain is placed on the social support systems we all depend on and each of us is impacted. Health care, education, public safety and regional economic competitiveness are all affected by the ability of residents to find housing within their price range. As long as demand for housing continues to outstrip the available supply, housing prices will continue to rise, and we won’t be able to provide a high quality of life for all. The solution So how can we make sure our communities offer enough housing for all income levels? We need to put the pieces of responsible community development together. Think of it like a puzzle that requires multiple sectors to solve it: government, developers and nonprofits. Government decides the regulations and zoning that set the borders of the puzzle. Developers decide where commercial pieces go. Nonprofits make sure all the puzzle pieces are seen and assembled in a way that ensures the community is a fair and functional place.Working together, we can reduce regulatory barriers that impede the creation of new housing and find opportunities to allow for more housing that aligns with the community’s vision for its future. It’s a simple matter of supply and demand — an adequate supply

makes housing more affordable at any price point. In other words, we all win. Ryan Kilpatrick is the founding executive director of Housing Next, an orga-

nization that partners with local governments, developers and nonproﬁts to remove barriers to the creation of housing at all price points. He can be reached at ryank@housingnext.org.

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GUEST COLUMN Lou Glazer

Talent equals economic growth

ustin Texas voters just voted to raise property taxes to pay for the operations and maintenance of Project Connect, a high-capacity, $7.1-billion transit system expansion. At the same time, Austin voters also approved a $460 million pedestrian- and bicyclist-centric transportation bond proposal. Project Connect is highlighted by a new light rail system with 27 miles of service and 31 stations. It also includes a transit tunnel under downtown (think subway); four new rapid bus routes; and 15 new neighborhood circulators, on-demand pickup and drop-off to locations within zones. The tax also provides funding of $300 million for transit supportive anti-displacement housing strategies. The tax increase is permanent. This is what winning economically in the 21st century looks like. Austin, of course, is one of America’s high-growth regions. At the core of its success is that it’s a talent magnet. Austin leaders understand the 21st century economic development reality that quality

of place attracts talent, and talent equals economic growth. Transit Now — the cross-sector supporters of the initiative — described the benefits of Project Connect: “It’s time we invest in a new future for Austin that gives our transit-dependent neighbors dignity, that gives everyone else a viable option to sitting in traffic, that helps prevent climate change and protects the quality of our air and water, that prevents displacement and creates complete communities with expanded access to opportunities to all residents, and that keeps our economy humming now and for decades to come.” Keeping an economy humming now and for decades to come is exactly right. Concentrated talent is what attracts high-wage employers. Talent is also entrepreneurial, so where it is concentrated are the places with the most high-wage business startups are located. Where you have concentrations of high-wage workers you get increased demand for local services. Their spending power ripples through the region’s economy via increased demand for retail, hospitality, construction and other locally provided goods and services. Michigan, of course, is a transit laggard. And we are paying a price for being a laggard. The lack of talent and transit is what Amazon cited in explaining why neither metro Grand Rapids nor metro Detroit made their final 20 regions to be considered for its 50,000 high-paid jobs at a new HQ2. If Michigan is going to be competitive in retaining, attracting and

creating high-paid 21st century jobs, it is going to require our making public investments in creating places where talent wants to live and work. The economic policy priority for a high-prosperity Michigan is to prepare, retain and attract talent. Talent is the asset that matters most to high-wage employers. Understanding the characteristics of where mobile talent is concentrating has become an imperative. Then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in a 2012 Financial Times column, describes where talent is concentrating: “The most creative individuals want to live in places that protect personal freedoms, prize diversity and offer an abundance of cultural opportunities. … Recent college graduates are ﬂocking to Brooklyn not merely because of employment opportunities, but because it is where some of the most exciting things in the world are happening — in music, art, design, food, shops, technology and green industry. Economists may not say it this way, but the truth of the matter is: being cool counts. When people can find inspiration in a community that also offers great parks, safe streets and extensive mass transit, they vote with their feet.” We know how to create welcom-

ing communities. We know how to pay for and provide high quality basic services, infrastructure and amenities. We know how to create high-density, high-amenity, transit-rich neighborhoods. What is missing is an understanding that as Bloomberg puts it, “talent attracts capital far more effectively and consistently than capital attracts talent.” The path to prosperity for communities is human-capital driven. The asset that matters most to employers is talent. The business-friendly agenda — primarily from the right — and the support industries and entrepreneurs strategy — primarily from the left — that have been the core of Michigan’s approach to economic development are at best the icing on the cake. What Michigan needs, first and foremost, is a human-capital-centered economic strategy rather than a economic strategy centered on business creation, retention and attraction. The economic development foundation now is high-quality education systems that prepare the next generation for the economy they are going to live in and communities where mobile talent wants to live and work. Lou Glazer is president of Michigan Future Inc.

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COMMENT & OPINION

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 25, 2021

GUEST COLUMN Chintan H. Vaishnav and Nevan C. Hanumara

Can the Heartland teach us to innovate better together?

he year 2020 brought us a pandemic, deepened political divides and highlighted long-existing inequalities. Yet the promise of an effective vaccine, developed at hitherto unimaginable speed, shows us the power of solving large problems with approaches that are collaborative, not competitive. This philosophy of “Stronger Together,” regularly perceived as naive in the hyper-competitive innovation hubs of Silicon Valley and Boston, is integral to the societal and corporate fabric of America’s heartland as evidenced by the Seamless Consortium of Grand Rapids. Over the last five years the organization has fostered an innovation ecosystem that brings together multinationals and startups to leverage each other’s strengths, while contributing to prosperity and a culture of inclusion in the region. Our long-term study of the Seamless Consortium has shown the ability of companies to collaborate with great effectiveness — current members include Whirlpool, Gentex, Bissell, Amway, Haworth and Trinity Health, one

of America’s largest health care providers. Over the last five years they have fostered an innovation ecosystem that brings together multinationals and startups to leverage each other’s strengths, while contributing to prosperity and a culture of inclusion in the region. How can such industrial clusters of excellence foster the innovation necessary to retain (or regain) their competitiveness? Seamless was founded in 2015 as an offshoot of Start Garden, a Grand Rapids incubator, by locally based multinational enterprises that realized that as a consortium they could provide a stronger value proposition to engage with startups developing cutting-edge technologies. Initially, they focused on technologies that could help their businesses find entrées into the world of IoT; today, they scout worldwide driven by broad, forward-looking themes, such as “well-being,” that span verticals. Why is this important? As COVID-19 further shows us, where staying safe requires vigilance at home, at work and in between, the life of a consumer is a continuum. Seamless’ mem-

bers recognize that some of the best opportunities for innovation lie in connecting industries. Startups are adept at finding the gaps, while industry knows how to scale. Herein lies the potential for a fruitful collaboration. While eager to engage with startups, many enterprises lack the methods to do so efficiently and effectively. There are significant operational barriers that hinder collaboration between an enterprise, whose revenues are measured in billions, and a startup, working fast toward its next funding round. The most notable include identifying the right opportunities, finding points of contact in the bigger company, defining an engagement and legal wrangling. Seamless has evolved into a “middleware” that addresses these barriers, providing a single point of contact that scouts worldwide for promising startups, organizes real hands-on experiments together with enterprise members, streamlines funding and ensures that the results are shared within the group. Traditional scouting looks for plugand-play solutions to grow exist-

ing businesses, while this model empowers its members to test drive startups that blur the lines between industries, services and products, the physical and digital, and the public and private sectors, in fields as broad as autonomous transportation, mental health and logistic. The startups also gain value by avoiding formulaic demonstrations and, instead, capturing the data and insights that come from applying their technologies to test cases that touch multiple industry verticals. Collaborating spreads risk, enables much richer engagements and provides unique learning opportunities for enterprises and startups alike. Time from first contact to an experiment can be as short as three months and we know of no other model that enables enterprises to move at startup speed. Can other regions of America use this model to harness their industrial legacy, step out of their comfort zones and foster economic growth in their region in the post-pandemic world? The Grand Rapids experience would suggest that such a recipe has five

GUEST COLUMN

tion for high-earning households, as it allows you to fund a Roth IRA while also maximizing other retirement savings options. Another proposal that Biden discussed on the campaign trail was taxing capital gains as ordinary income for taxpayers with taxable income over $1 million. This could effectively double the current top rate from 20% to a potential 39.6%. Planning solutions to this proposal include selling investment securities with an embedded gain before the potential tax increase and an increased focus on tax-loss harvesting after the potential tax increase. Accelerating capital gains would mean recognizing gains and paying capital gains taxes (20% for individuals filing single that have over $441,450 in taxable income and for married couples filing jointly that have $496,600 in taxable income), based on 2020 long-term capital gains tax rates. If you are a high-income earner, recognizing capital gains could lead to less capital gains taxes now, as compared to recognizing the same amount of gains after the potential tax increase. In addition, tax-loss harvesting could become even more valuable after the potential tax increase. Tax-loss harvesting is the process of selling securities with a loss in order to offset capital gains in a taxable account. With the possibility of capital gains taxes increasing, tax-loss harvesting becomes a powerful planning tool to lower the amount of capital gains taxes due. Lastly, there is a proposed reduction of the federal estate and gift tax exemption to $3,500,000 from its current level of $11,580,000. This proposal makes it incredibly important to examine your estate plan and understand the benefits of certain trusts, especially in a historically low interest rate environment that we are in today. A Grantor Retained Annuity Trust (GRAT) exploits the low IRC 7520 interest

rate (0.6% for December 2020) that is used to value retained interests, in this case the grantor’s retained right to receive an annuity. The grantor funds the trust with assets and retains an annuity right for a period of years. The GRAT can be “zeroed out” so that there is no taxable gift of the remainder interest on the GRAT’s formation. As long as the assets held in the GRAT grow at a rate higher than the IRC 7520 rate, at the end of the annuity payment period, the assets that remain in the GRAT pass gift-tax free to the remainder beneficiaries. A GRAT works well for those who have already fully used their lifetime federal gift tax exemption. Along with a GRAT, taxpayers can consider intra-family loans. Intra-family loans are an easy way to shift wealth, gift-tax free, to family members using the AFR interest rate. With the AFR rate at historic lows, the loaned funds can be invested by the borrower and can earn a rate of return in excess of the AFR rate charged for the loan. For example, a parent could loan a child $1 million on a 20-year note and charge 1.17% for the entire 20-year period. If the loaned funds were invested in assets that achieved a rate of return greater than the minimal AFR rate, all appreciation is essentially shifted to the next generation free from gift or estate tax. A divided government could create hurdles for tax increases and other initiatives proposed by Biden on the campaign trail. However, due to the unprecedented amount of fiscal deficit that the U.S. government has incurred in 2020, it is likely a non-partisan issue to raise taxes to some degree.

GUEST COLUMN Jason Allen

Steve Davis

Tax planning opportunities for a Biden-Harris presidency

ast year was filled with unprecedented actions and unknowns. Following the presidential and congressional elections, it is appropriate to examine planning opportunities for a Joe Biden presidency with mixed congressional support. President Biden has proposed a number of initiatives surrounding tax increases for high-income earning individuals as well as businesses. These tax increases aim to balance a budget deficit of more than $3 trillion in 2020. While there are many proposed policies to discuss, there are a few with very specific planning ideas that should be considered. The first proposal to be examined is raising the top marginal tax bracket from 37% to 39.6%. This proposal impacts high-income earning individuals ($518,401 in taxable income for individuals filing single and $622,051 in taxable income for a married couple filing jointly), based on 2020 federal income tax brackets. A potential strategy to consider is accelerating income. This might include a Roth conversion, which allows you to transfer funds from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA while paying ordinary income taxes on the amount transferred. The Roth IRA grows income tax free, never to be taxed even upon withdrawal. A Roth conversion is a powerful planning op-

Steve Davis is a wealth management associate at Greenleaf Trust, where he supports the development of comprehensive wealth management plans, the execution of goal-based planning, and the management of investment portfolios.

ingredients: (a) a carefully curated non-compete industry group that can work together and share confidential information (b) local private and public investment capital (c) manageable geographical proximity for enterprises and startups to work together (d) a culture of design and innovation and (e) a community of trusted professionals. Arguably, this ingredient is the most important, hardest to replicate and the true precursor ingredient of Seamless. Smaller cities, often in need of renewal, are some of the best at forming close networks that leverage their underlying fabric of trust. We believe that this model from the Heartland of America can lead the way to faster, better solutions in the post-COVID world. Chintan Vaishnav is a socio-technologist. He teaches at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and builds solutions for resource-poor communities. Nevan Hanumara focuses on human-centered design. He co-teaches teaches medical device design in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Rural broadband improvements welcome in southwest Michigan

espite the challenges of COVID-19, USDA Rural Development had a phenomenal year in Michigan during 2020. Throughout our program areas, we invested more than $1.1 billion in our rural cities, townships and villages. Perhaps even more striking than the amount was the focus of those investment dollars in durable, longterm infrastructure projects. As someone who has worked for many years to remedy shortfalls in rural telecommunications, this was one area where 2020 brought a pleasant surprise. Southwest Michigan Communications Inc. received a $3.3 million grant and a $3.3 million loan to deploy a fiber-to-the-premises network to connect 3,203 people, 40 farms and 27 businesses to high-speed broadband internet in Van Buren, Kalamazoo and Allegan counties. Barry County Services Company received an $11.8 million loan/grant combination to provide affordable, fiber-based broadband services in rural Barry County. This project will extend broadband availability to 17 farms, 16 businesses and 12,000 residents spread over 127 square miles. In addition to building lines, USDA helped finance end-user projects as well. Ferris State University received a $669,216 grant to create a system that establishes classrooms equipped with virtual reality in 17 rural high schools and three career and technical education centers located in Benzie, Isabella, Kent, Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Missaukee, Montcalm, Oceana,

Osceola and Wexford counties. The investments didn’t end there. Michigan received more than $138 million for 65 projects to expand access to safe drinking water and improve wastewater management systems, as well as $25 million for 129 investments for emergency vehicles, municipal buildings, road upgrades and other improvements. In addition to working with utilities and local communities, USDA worked directly with individuals and businesses to build rural prosperity. More than 6,000 families purchased homes in rural Michigan thanks to USDA direct loans or loan guarantees through a participating lender. This added almost $800 million to the state economy. In addition, 127 rural businesses used our programs to finance renewable energy, improve energy efficiency or allow business development and expansion, with a total investment of more than $36 million. These investments make Michigan families safer, provide cleaner water, protect the environment and improve the quality of life for rural communities across the state. At USDA we understand that when rural America prospers, we all do better. With offices across the state, we are ready to assist local governments, business and individuals. To learn more about how we can help you, visit our website at www. rd.usda.gov/mi. Jason Allen is the USDA Rural Development state director for Michigan.

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 25, 2021

ADVERTISING & MARKETING

DEKSIA ranked No. 17 on Agency Spotter’s Top 100 Marketing Agencies 2020 Report. King Media opened its third Michigan office in Ada. LEAD Marketing Agency hired Emily Gagnon as digital media specialist and Cody Boomsma as an accountant and promoted Olivia Memberto to senior designer and Nick Pollice to account manager.

ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING

Matt Schmalzel joined Mathison/ Mathison Architects as an architect after working in Washington for the last five years.

AWARDS

Schmalzel

Stiles Machinery for the second year in a row is the recipient of the Gold HIRE Vets Medallion Award from the United States Department of Labor.

Sue Tellier, president of JetCo Federal, is the recipient of the Small Business Association of Michigan’s 2020 Energy Waste Reduction Champion Award for her commitment to reducing energy waste. The George and Lucile Heeringa Civic Center in Holland (contractor: GO Construction, Owen-Ames-Kimball and GDK Construction Co. partnership); Grand Haven State Park Channel Restroom Building Replacement (architect: Straub Pettitt Yaste, contractor: 44th Street Construction); Critical Infrastructure in Grand Rapids (architect: Lott3Metz Architecture); and Information Technology at Steelcase Global Headquarters (architect: Progressive AE, contractor: The Christman Company) are among the projects that received the American Institute of Architects Michigan’s Design Awards.

BANKING

Davenport University graduate Beatrice Kelly has joined Comerica Inc. as senior vice president and director of community

JAN 25-FEB 28 Muskegon Museum of Art Contemporary Native American Art Exhibitions. MMA’s major winter show is in partnership with the Grand Valley State University Art Gallery and guest curator Jason Quigno. The MMA will present Jim Denomie: Challenging the Narrative, and Levi Rickert: Standing Rock, Photographs of an Indigenous Movement, along with The Art of the People. 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Tuesdays-Sundays. Information/registration: www.muskego nartmuseum.org. JAN 25-APR 24 Lakeshore Museum Center Quilt Exhibit. Displaying the work of the late Rosie Lee Wilkins in Who is Rosie Lee Wilkins: Piecing Together Her History. Cost: free/members and those living in the area, $5/non-Muskegon County residents. Information/registration: (231) 722-0278 or lakeshoremuseum.org. JAN 26 Builders Exchange of Michigan Class. Topic: OSHA 10-Hour. 8-2 p.m., RVC Offices Conference Room, 678 Front Ave. NW, Suite 212. Cost: $199. Information/ registration: (616) 949-8640, courtney@ grbx.com, or home.grbx.com/event/osha10-hour-january-2021. JAN 26 Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce 133rd Live Streamed Annual Meeting. Keynote speaker is Josh Linkner, jazz guitarist and founder and CEO of five tech companies. 5:30-7 p.m. Information/ registration: grandrapids.org. JAN 26 Small Business Development Center Webinars. 11 a.m.-noon.: Topic: How

development lending. Independent Bank opened a new branch at 8700 N. 2nd St. in Brighton. Kalamazoo-based Consumers Credit Union announced the internal promotion of Mauri Story to mortgage loan officer in the Kalamazoo market, specifically the Corner@Drake office. Lake Michigan Credit Union announced the addition of Tim Gortsema, president of the Grand Rapids Griffins, to its corporate board of directors. Lake Michigan Credit Union has hired Dinah Mohr as mortgage loan officer for the Greater Grand Mohr Rapids area and Rob Arnoys as vice president of treasury management.

EDUCATION

Aquinas College for the 10th time has been listed by the Princeton Review as one of the nation’s most environmentally responsible colleges in its Guide to Green Colleges: 2021 Edition. The college also was listed as one of the top performers in the area of waste minimization and reduction by the Association

for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s 2020 Sustainable Campus Index lists. Austin Marsman, 21, became the youngest elected official in Allegan County by winning a seat on the Martin Public Schools Board of Education. Michigan State University announced the promotion of Tony Avellino, MD, MBA, to assistant vice president for health sciences and chief clinical and medical officer.

GOVERNMENT

The Kentwood City Commission extended changes through October 2021 to business approval requirements and procedures as part of the city’s continued efforts to support local businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The resolution allows for an expedited site plan review process for temporary outdoor retail, food, beverage and personal service uses. The extension also means time limits on temporary sign display and certain business licensing fees remain suspended. The changes were set to expire Nov. 1. Kent County hired Jennifer Kimball James as deputy county administrator.

GRANTS

Arbor Circle received a $30,000 grant award from the PNC Foundation in support of The Great Start to Quality

Mendez joins GR Chamber as talent development manager Monica Mendez is the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce’s new talent development manager. She is responsible for overseeing Leading Edge, Leadership Advantage, and expanding upon ATHENA Grand Rapids programming, as well as providing support to chamber members. An immigrant from Mexico, Mendez came to the United States 20 years ago. She spent the first 15 years of her career as a business professional in a variety of different sales roles, but the magna cum laude graduate from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in International Business said she always felt drawn to other causes related to creating positive change within the community.

Stress Affects Our Mental Health and Well-Being at Work. 8-9:30 a.m.: Topic: Google: Get Your Local Business On Search and Maps. 11 a.m.-noon.: Topic: Angel and Venture Funding, Cost: all webinars free. Information/registration: 11 a.m.-noon, bit.ly/3nKMxeq; 8-9:30 a.m., bit.ly/2KfmiPr; 11 a.m.-noon, bit.ly/2X FuNXb. JAN 26 Wyoming Business Leaders Meeting. 8-9 a.m., Marge’s Donut Den, 1751 28th St. SW, Wyoming. Information/registration: (616) 261-4500 or d.kuba@instantcashmi. com. JAN 27 Talent Innovation Network of West Michigan Virtual Conference. Topic: Job Sync and Decoding Qualifications for Success: An Understanding of In-Demand West Michigan Jobs and What It Takes to Succeed at Them. 9-10 a.m. Information/registration: bit.ly/ JobSync2021. JAN 28 Holland Area Arts Council Fire & Ice 2021. Enjoy a sizzling evening of amazing hors d’oeuvres, fiery libations, and cool jazz. 6:30-10 p.m., Cento Anni, 136 E. 6th St., Holland. Information/registration: hollandarts.org/events.html. JAN 28 Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce Virtual Networking/Happy Hour Event. Meet everyone in the “room,” engage in meaningful conversations, and have an opportunity to share your 60-second elevator pitch and provide a door prize. 4-4:45 p.m. Information/registration: (616) 392-9720 or keegan@westcoastchamber.org.

JAN 28 Michigan Women Forward Virtual WomanUp & Pitch Competition. Features eight women entrepreneurs from West Michigan presenting their business plans to a panel of business leaders and an audience of community leaders, business owners and potential investors. 5:30-7:30 p.m. The competition will be broadcast live on MWF’s Facebook (facebook.com/ MichiganWomenForward) and YouTube (http://bit.ly/3bpa1mO) pages. JAN 28 Small Business Development Center Webinar. Topic: Business Legal Issues: Tax and Liability Issues, Basic Elements of Contract, Collections, Licenses, Registrations, Employment, Property Issues, Leasing and Insurance. 9:30 a.m.12:30 p.m. Cost: $45. Information/registration: bit.ly/BusinessLegalIssues. JAN 28-29 GVSU Johnson Center Online Workshop. Topic: Find Your Voice: Persuasive Grantmaking Writing. 12:30-4:30 p.m., both dates. Cost: $595/person, $565/group, $565/TGS alumni. Information/registration: bit. ly/2021GrantWritingWorkshop. JAN 29 Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce Virtual Economic Forecast Business for Breakfast. Presented by economist Paul Isely, Grand Valley State University Seidman College of Business. 7:30-9 a.m. Information/registration: muskegon.org. JAN 29 St. Cecilia Music Center Live Streamed Concert. Featuring Portuguese vocalist

CHANGE-UPS & CALENDAR

Western Resource Center, part of Arbor Circle’s Early Childhood division. Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce received a $25,000 grant from the Consumers Energy Foundation supporting the chamber’s efforts in addressing the small business community’s needs during the COVID-19 crisis, with a focus on women- and minority-owned businesses. Mel Trotter Ministries has been awarded a grant from TCF Bank to be used to expand its Workforce Development Programs for MTM’s guests. TCF National Bank has awarded $15,000 to Community enCompass toward Eviction Prevention Services in Muskegon and partnered with Community enCompass Homeless Services to provide financially focused educational opportunities to neighbors, such as budgeting, building credit and homeownership classes. The Gun Lake Tribe announced donations totaling $500,000 that came from the Tribe’s Coronavirus Relief Fund pursuant to the federal CARES Act to several local schools and the Allegan County government to assist in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States Environmental Protection Agency selected the city of Grand Rapids as a recipient of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for its Nation Act grant. The $5.1 million grant will help fund the replacement of lead service lines in the city’s Neighborhoods of Focus and support public engagement on the risks of lead in drinking water. The West Michigan Edward Jones Foundation conferred $17,000 that was raised by West Michigan Edward Jones employees and presented to Junior Achievement; Grand Rapids Community Foundation Recovery Fund; and the Community Foundation for Holland/ Zeeland.

to its family practice. Spectrum Health has selected Dr. Marzia Leacche, MD, as the Richard DeVos Endowed Heart Transplant and Ventricular Assist Device surgical director for its Richard DeVos Heart & Lung Transplant Program. Leacche has been a member of the transplant team since 2016. Wyoming-based Metro Health– University of Michigan Health opened its first office exclusively for pediatric care in Hudsonville at 2917 Port Sheldon St. Pediatricians Caitlin Mlynarek and Kurt Meppelink have moved to the new office from the nearby Metro Health Hudsonville office on 32nd Avenue.

LEGAL

Attorney Michael J. Huff, an associate at Mika Meyers PLC, was selected as a member of the Michigan Lawyers Weekly 2020 Up & Coming Lawyers. CMC Family Law Group PLLC opened an office in Grand Rapids. Founding attorney and managing partner Cristina M. Crescentini continues to maintain offices in Beverly Hills, California. Foster Swift Collins & Smith PC is included in the 2021 U.S. News – Best Lawyers Best Law Firms list. The firm has five Tier 1 rankings for its Grand Rapids office. Warner Norcross + Judd LLP’s Grand Rapids location has received top tier rankings in multiple practice areas in the 2021 Best Law Firms by Best Lawyers and U.S. News & World Report.

LEISURE & RECREATION

Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek announced a baby black and white colobus monkey recently was born at the zoo.

Muskegon-based Hackley Community Care welcomed Dr. Byron Varnado, MD

CHANGE-UPS POLICY: The Business Journal welcomes submissions to the Change-Ups section. Send announcements concerning personnel changes, new businesses, changes of address etc. to Change-Ups Editor, Grand Rapids Business Journal, 401 Hall St. SW, Suite 331, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 or email bjchangeups@grbj.com.

Mariza paying tribute to Fado singer Amalia Rodrigues. 8 p.m. Cost: $40/person, proceeds support SCMC. Information/ registration: bit.ly/2021MarizaConcert.

Information/registration: (616) 949-850, Courtney@grbx.com, or home.grbx.com/ event/legal-series-lunch-learn-suretybonds.

FEB 2 Builders Exchange of Michigan Virtual Workshop. Topic: Building With Cultural Intelligence. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Cost: $425. Information/registration: home.grbx.com/ event/building-with-cq.

FEB 11 St. Cecilia Music Center 2021 Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Virtual Series. Featured artist: Gloria Chien, piano. 7 p.m. Cost: free, viewed exclusively on SCMC’s website. Information/registration: (616) 459-2224 or scmc-online.org.

Wedgwood Christian Services for the second year in a row has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Perrigo Foundation.

HEALTH

FEB 3 Institute for Supply Management Greater Grand Rapids Webinar. Topic: Cost Transparency: Let The Data Do The Talking, by Rod Sherkin. 1-2 p.m. Cost: free/members, students, $35/nonmembers. Information/registration: ismggr.org. Link will be emailed prior to meeting. FEB. 8 World Affairs Council of Western Michigan Live Streamed Great Decisions Series 2021. Topic: North Korea: Getting Diplomacy Back of Track, by Suzanne DiMaggio, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 6-7:15 p.m. Cost: free/members, $10/ nonmembers. Information/registration: worldmichigan.org/greatdecisions2021. FEB 9, 10, 11 Van Andel Global Trade Center Basics of Exporting Live Virtual Training. 9-11 a.m. each day. A link to virtual training will be sent to registrants 24 hours before first session. Cost: $235/members, $395/ nonmembers. Information/registration: bit. ly/2021ExportBasics. FEB 11 Builders Exchange of Michigan Virtual Legal Series Lunch and Learn. Topic: Surety Bonds. Noon-1:30 p.m. Cost: free.

MEETINGS & CONVENTIONS Information: Stephanie Bradley, (616) 233-3577 or sbradley@experiencegr. com. JAN 29-31 2021 Huntin’ Time Expo. DeltaPlex Expo & Entertainment Center.

CALENDAR POLICY: The Business Journal welcomes submissions to the calendar section. Send items to Calendar Editor, Grand Rapids Business Journal, 401 Hall St. SW, Suite 331, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 or email bjcal endar@grbj.com. Submissions must be received at least three weeks prior to the event. The Business Journal calendar posted on the publication’s website (grbj.com) includes listings for events extended beyond those printed in the weekly publication that are limited by space restrictions.

PUBLIC RECORD MORTGAGES

Selected mortgages filed with Kent County Register of Deeds HARTMAN, Bryce W. et al, Independent Bank, Parcel: 412111324005, $396,000 TOMCZAK, Edward, Heartland Home Mortgage, Parcel: 411411477030, $440,000 SANDER, Todd et al, USAA Federal Savings Bank, Plainfield Twp., $510,400 MOLESTA, Michael J., Benchmark Mortgage, Rockford, $373,996 MOHAMMED, Shahid et al, FirstBank, Parcel: 411411477026, $372,000 RIVERLANDS LLC, Mercantile Bank, Parcel: 411025190024, $772,500 ANGUS, Eric J. et al, United Wholesale Mortgage, Cascade Twp., $327,000 HUGHES, Andrew et al, Inlanta Mortgage, Ada Twp., $443,250 TSAI, Jenny P., Mercantile Bank, East Grand Rapids, $880,000 PLISKA, Robert et al, Sirva Mortgage, Cascade Twp., $472,625 WHITMORE, Anna M. et al, Finance of America, Wyoming, $509,250 TERBEEK, Emmett C. et al, Independent Bank, Cannon Twp., $305,000 DUPEY, Josh et al, ChoiceOne Bank, Solon Twp., $332,400 EDGIN, Kyle et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cascade Twp., $701,250 MEHTA, Jasmeet K., Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cascade Twp., $432,000 SCRANTON, Kathy L., MIMutual Mortgage, Cannon Twp., $311,000 MILANOWSKI, Matthew J., Old National Bank, Courtland Twp., $352,000 WIERINGA, Jon et al, Quicken Loans, Parcel: 411428230024, $324,700 WILLIAMS, Scott A. et al, Citizens Bank, Solon Twp., $424,000 SINGH, Harpreet G. et al, Finance of America Mortgage, Byron Twp., $439,501 SWETS, Roger et al, Mbank, Caledonia, $364,000 MCCAHILL, Peaches, Neighborhood Loans, Parcel: 411427126020, $390,000 SCHMIT, Aaron et al, Guaranteed Rage, Cannon Twp., $510,400 SCHAEFER, Karen et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411423201012, $500,000 CZEKUC, Ryan A. et al, Freedom Mortgage Corp., Plainfield Twp., $309,000 GHAREEB, George M. et al, Independent Bank, Cascade Twp., $853,100 DOYLE, Douglas A. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411422103014, $328,000 COOK, John R. Jr. et al, Quicken Loans, Caledonia, $327,500 DECLARK, Darin B. et al, Old National Bank, Walker, $308,000 LEWIS, Gordon et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Caledonia, $440,000 SPARTA9 LLC, Consumers Credit Union, Sparta, $450,000 SZILAGY, Nicholas S. et al, Fifth Third Bank, Cannon Twp., $314,000 HOLTZ, Ryan et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cannon Twp., $441,000 BAKER, Erin et al, Quicken Loans, Courtland Twp., $401,319 HUMPHRIES, James W. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Ada Twp., $820,000 QUELLET, Joshua D. et al, Union Home Mortgage Group, Gaines Twp., $301,500 SCHMITZ, Marcia et al, Union Home Mortgage Group, Byron Twp., $357,000 HAGERAN, Cory et al, Cross Country Mortgage LLC, Grattan Twp., $336,000 HARTUNG, Caleb et al, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Parcel: 411432432015, $311,900 SEBASTIAN, Michael D. et al, Mercantile Bank, Parcel: 411403102003, $485,730 FELLOWS, Jeremy et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Algoma Twp., $397,800 OLSON, Warren, Stockton Mortgage Corp., Plainfield Twp., $318,200 MANDSAGER, Matthew D. et al, Benchmark Mortgage, Gaines Twp., $322,500 NAUMANN, Kyle P. et al, Northpointe Bank, Parcel: 411417001008, $462,000 RICHARDSON, Lisa L. et al, Independent Bank, Cannon Twp., $782,000 PORTZLINE, Carey L. et al, Plus Relocation Mortgage LLC, East Grand Rapids, $472,500 FRAZIER, Todd J. et al, Independent Bank, Algoma Twp., $339,100 SPAIN, Christopher M. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cascade Twp., $360,000 KU, Lawrence et al, Mercantile Bank, Cascade Twp., $499,920 VELTING, Taralynn T., Meijer Credit Union, Ada Twp., $359,200 DYKHOUSE, Brian T. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Ada Twp., $345,450 JUAREZ, Rosa et al, Consumers Credit Union, Cannon Twp., $375,200 JOHNSON, Ann M. et al, United Bank, Ada Twp., $417,300 KOOPS, James E. et al, United Bank, Cascade Twp., $332,000 JAMESON, Andrew P. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cannon Twp., $648,000 BROWN, Christopher J. et al, First Heritage Financial LLC, Byron Twp., $311,800 OAKWOOD PROPERTIES LLC, Old National Bank, Wyoming, $1,260,000

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL HENDERSON, Ryan J. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Caledonia, $275,200 SOLDAAT, Benjamin et al, Team Mortgage Co. LLC, Algoma Twp., $473,100 STREMERS, Jacob et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Byron Twp., $490,000 HANG, Zackery et al, A Best Financial Corp., Ada Twp., $356,000 ROSENDALL, Jeffrey L. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Vergennes Twp., $404,000 SPIELBERG, Logan J. et al, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Cascade Twp., $369,000 GORSUCH, Kerry et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cascade Twp., $1,095,000 PHILLIPS, Justin L. et al, Independent Bank, Caledonia Twp., $458,000 CAMERON, David et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Ada Twp., $804,000 FORS, John S. et al, Polaris Home Funding Corp., Cascade Twp., $340,050 WHITMAN, Claire et al, Mercantile Bank, East Grand Rapids, $496,200 KENT, Jacob M. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Algoma Twp., $443,000 GIPSON, Sean E. et al, Level One Bank, Plainfield Twp., $317,500 NEWBERG, Erica L., Level One Bank, Plainfield Twp., $321,300 GERKE, Brandon et al, PFCU, Byron Twp., $610,000 MOCCIA, Ashley et al, Huntington National Bank, Cascade Twp., $310,500 GOEBEL, Denise et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Plainfield Twp., $850,000 HAINES, John P. er al, Huntington National Bank, Parcel: 411431205002, $499,375 MCMAHON, William T. et al, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Ada Twp., $337,500 VIDRI, Boris, Old National Bank, Cascade Twp., $690,000 ROSSMAN, Andrew C. et al, Home Point Financial Corp., Caledonia, $384,750 SHAFFER, David N. et al, Benchmark Mortgage, Lowell, $368,000 ROTTSCHAFER RENTALS LLC, Mercantile Bank, Parcel: 411810401011, $943,500 ROGERS, Kelsey et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 412013252012, $323,000 HINMAN, Adam J. Sr. et al, Mercantile Bank, Cascade Twp., $445,500 THOMPSON, Kyle, Finance of America Mortgage, Parcel: 411430477020, $392,755 MCCONE, Christopher et al, Huntington National Bank, Ada Twp., $749,160 VERGOUWE, Joel T. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411401176012, $435,000 BONTOMASI, Victor et al, Supreme Lending, Byron Twp., $303,200 TUUK, David M. et al, Benchmark Mortgage, Cannon Twp., $371,000 SLOT, Phillip B. et al, Old National Bank, Parcel: 411425351007, $423,000 HARDY, Ryan M., Consumers Credit Union, Algoma Twp., $370,500 WELLER, James G. et al, Independent Bank, Grattan Twp., $383,300 VANGESSEL, John M. et al, United Wholesale Mortgage, East Grand Rapids, $406,200 ABREUS, Jatinna et al, Finance of America Mortgage, Caledonia, $311,129 LEMIEUX, David, Huntington National Bank, Cascade Twp., $332,500 STRACKE, Joel D., US Bank, Parcel: 411324335154, $310,500 FABRIZIO, Patrick L. et al, Vibe Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $700,000 PITSCH, Joel et al, First United Credit Union, Cannon Twp., $446,500 SADOWSKI, Richard et al, Grand River Bank, East Grand Rapids, $510,400 AGRILLO, Charles D. et al, Wells Fargo Bank, Cascade Twp., $1,000,000 WIKANDER, Matthew L. et al, TCF National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $480,000 MEYER, Matthew P. et al, Independent Bank, Parcel: 411407401068, $316,825 FRATTALLONE, Sylvia J., Old National Bank, Ada Twp., $1,000,000 MALSTROM, Natalie L. et al, Old National Bank, Cannon Twp., $920,000 LANGSCHIED, Jason et al, Quicken Loans, Lowell, $433,500 PEREZ PROPERTIES LLC, Carter Products Co. Inc., Parcel: 411304326004, $625,000 DUNN, Charles C. et al, Old National Bank, Ada Twp., $510,400 ANDRES, Stephanie et al, Consumers Credit Union, Vergennes Twp., $352,000 MOLNAR, Christin M., Mercantile Bank, Parcel: 411809228020, $350,000 MSH INVESTMENT PROPERTIES LLC, Fifth Third Bank, Parcel: 411415426055, $3,420,000 MOLLA, Azizur R. et al, United Bank, Gaines Twp., $320,000 WEVER, Blake et al, United Bank, Gaines Twp., $500,000 ANTEN, Christopher J. et al, Flagstar Bank, Plainfield Twp., $312,150 VANDENBERG, Craig T. et al, Huntington National Bank, Parcel: 411403452001, $337,000 JOHNSON, William D., Huntington National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $443,200 OWEN, Vincent et al, Huntington National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $365,000 QUICK, Robert D. et al, Meridian Home Mortgage, Oakfield Twp., $307,997

BAER, William H. II et al, Fifth Third Bank, Cascade Twp., $565,000 MERDZINSKI, Steven et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cannon Twp., $329,000 SNYDER, Scott A. et al, Greenstone Farm Credit Services, Byron Twp., $509,000 CHRISTOPHEL, Scott et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cannon Twp., $328,000 SHANK, Monica A. et al, Quicken Loans, Parcel: 411403125021, $344,819 WOODS, Jill et al, Independent Bank, Lowell, $370,000 IZENBAARD, Mike et al, Greenstone Farm Credit Services, Caledonia, $728,000 BAJEMA, Brandon et al, Mercantile Bank, Algoma Twp., $457,000 POCKLINGTON, Jeffrey D. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411425376008, $320,300 GEORGE, Daniel C. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $820,000 MCLEAN, Ryan et al, Wells Fargo Bank, Cascade Twp., $900,000 GABRIDGE, Robert J. Jr. et al, Mercantile Bank, Plainfield Twp., $740,000 BULLOCK LLC, ChoiceOne Bank, Parcel: 411429353032, $940,000 MCGINNIS, Mark N. et al, ChoiceOne Bank, Ada Twp., $351,000 AUYER, Lance et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $453,500 RICH, Matthew R. et al, Northpointe Bank, Algoma Twp., $315,100 FREDRICKSON, Todd W. et al, TCF National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $575,000 COUP, Julie, Mercantile Bank, Cascade Twp., $350,000 DEMAAGD, Scott et al, Neighborhood Loans, Parcel: 411432481002, $350,700 LINCOLN PROPERTIES LLC, Horizon Bank, Parcel: 410935454002, $750,000 HORKY, John K. et al, Mercantile Bank, Cascade Twp., $510,400 JUMP, Dawn R., Colonial National Mortgage, Parcel: 411618400009, 420,375 CLINGERSMITH, David et al, USAA Federal Savings Bank, Rockford, $339,000 CLEGG, Ryan et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Algoma Twp., $408,500 BOYER, Jessica L. et al, Horizon Bank, Caledonia, $499,100 DRESEN, Scott D. et al, Old National Bank, Plainfield Twp., $300,001 VRUGGINK, Nicole L. et al, Inlanta Mortgage, Caledonia, $508,800 BUCHTA, John et al, Lazic Investments LLC, Parcel: 411423340006, $335,000 TRAN, Hong et al, Independent Bank, Byron

JAN 25, 2021

Twp., $303,500 VEREECKEN, Ryan et al, Neighborhood Loans, Courtland Twp., $316,000 WERRA, Michael et al, Finance of America Mortgage LL, Cannon Twp., $492,729 MERPI, Kaitlin et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $308,000 MCARLAND, John T., Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cascade Twp., $439,500 LEWIS, Tyler et al, Neighborhood Loans, East Grand Rapids, $348,750 GODLEWSKI, Thomas R. Jr., Fifth Third Bank, Cascade Twp., $472,500 DORAN, David et al, CitiBank, East Grand Rapids, $805,000 MITCHELL, Christopher J., Benchmark Mortgage, Ada Twp., $510,400 REYELTS, Fredric A. et al, Independent Bank, Cannon Twp., $510,400 SCARLATO, Mark F. Jr. et al, Northpointe Bank, Ada Twp., $300,000 VANDUINEN, Joshua et al, NBKC Bank, Byron Twp., $372,500 STRAUSS, Paul G. et al, Mercantile Bank, Cascade Twp., $320,000 LEBSTER, Gregg et al, Old National Bank, Cascade Twp., $3,838,200 WESTGATE, Christopher et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $580,000 LEITER, Bradley J. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Courtland Twp., $331,800 ELLIOTT, Brian et al, Mercantile Bank, Ada Twp., $925,000 BOONSTRA, Annelies et al, Northern Mortgage Services, Lowell, $402,000 BOWERS, Adam et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Grattan, $356,800 SAGANSKI, Matthew J. et al, First United Credit Union, Plainfield Twp., $373,600 MCCONNELL, Douglas W. et al, Old National Bank, Cascade Twp., $419,400 GREGORY, Kane L., Northern Mortgage Services, Wyoming, $373,400 HILGER, Andrew et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Lowell, $427,500 HUBBELL, Colin J. et al, Benchmark Mortgage, Cannon Twp., $486,000 ABBOTT, Matthew et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $747,000 LOBER, Joseph V. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $458,915 KAMINSKI, Brian et al, Plus Relocation Mortgage LLC, Cannon Twp., $356,000 BOS, Jack W. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cascade Twp., $500,000 FENTZKE, Brian D. et al, Benchmark Mortgage, Cascade Twp., $430,000

O’BRIEN, Andrew et al, Neighborhood Loans, Parcel: 411430252046, $344,000 LAFONTAINE, Jason J. et al, Mercantile Bank, Cascade Twp., $325,000 KELLEY, Marc et al, Guaranteed Rate Affinity LLC, Plainfield Twp., $320,100 GREEN, Shari L. et al, Huntington National Bank, Cannon Twp., $324,000 ALBERTA, Kevin D. et al, Independent Bank, Gaines Twp., $310,000 DICKE, Karen M. et al, State Bank & Trust Co., East Grand Rapids, $510,400 CRITES, Donald J. et al, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Byron Twp., $305,000 HAUSCH, Kevin M. et al, Huntington National Bank, Cascade Twp., $472,000 TRUPIANO TRUST, Guaranteed Rate, Gaines Twp., $510,400 VANDYK, Lee, Mutual Mortgage, Byron Twp., $468,444 SNEAD, Jon et al, Envoy Mortgage Ltd., Byron Twp., $350,000 SOMMERS, Jeffrey et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Byron Twp., $317,000 BERGHUIS, Joshua et al, TCF National Bank, Walker, $510,400 KERR, Troy et al, Primelending, Grattan Twp, $312,500 NUHAGIC, Almin, Flagstar Bank, Gaines Twp., $468,255 ARMSTRONG, Andrew T. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Grattan Twp., $320,500 VANDERLAAN, Kyle, Fifth Third Bank, Vergennes Twp., $324,000 HOLLERN, Richard J. et al, Benchmark Mortgage, East Grand Rapids, $376,000 RUSSELL, Kyle E. et al, Mercantile Bank, Byron Twp., $436,000 AURAND, Raven et al, Northern Mortgage Services, Parcel: 411409154007, $315,200 FAIRLESS TRUST, Interfirst Mortgage Co., Caledonia, $450,000 PETERS, Chad A. et al, Quicken Loans, Parcel: 411411202135, $328,000 FIELD, Matthew et al, JFQ Lending, East Grand Rapids, $353,100 ASSELTA TRUST, Old National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $800,000 OTTENWELLER, Brian et al, Old National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $399,905

PUBLIC RECORD AVAILABLE ONLINE: For the full version of this week’s Public Record, visit the Grand Rapids Business Journal’s website at grbj.com.

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JAN 25, 2021

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

H-1B visa changes may miss mark Veteran real estate advisers launch brokerage CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

grow, our goal is to establish a permanent location in downtown Grand Rapids, where we will continue to invest locally.” Looking to remain West Michigan-focused with the ability to react quickly to clients’ needs, Advantage Commercial Real Estate Services’ clients will benefit from the team’s extensive involvement in thousands of completed transactions representing over $2 billion in deal volume. “We’ve gathered an extremely tenured and successful team of professionals seeking to create a unique client experience,” said John Kuiper, CEO and industrial adviser. “We will assemble the best project team, whether the client’s needs are local or across the globe, while maintaining the ability to make decisions locally that benefit our clients, their investors and the local community.” The Advantage team consists of Kuiper and Ansara, as well as Tim Van Noord, David Rapp, Duke Suwyn, Steve Marcusse, Michael Visser, Gary Albrecht, Trent Wieringa and Mike Murray. The team of 10 has roughly 130 years of collective involvement and experience in West Michigan real estate. Each member is a principal owner of the firm while serving in their own re-

spective industries. Kuiper said the impetus for the former Colliers advisers branching out and forming their own firm was to satisfy an entrepreneurial spirit and create something that’s local and allows them to quickly and creatively respond to clients’ needs. “Real estate is local, and it’s that desire to be a team that can be part of the community,” Kuiper said. “Truly it is a blend of us having that entrepreneurial spirit and looking to serve our clients better and faster.” Ansara echoed Kuiper’s statement, saying, “We can make local, quick, fast decisions among our partnership whether it’s adding staff or helping clients much quicker than we could under a different umbrella.” In spinning out of Colliers to start their own firm, Kuiper emphasized there is no animosity between the Advantage Real Estate team and their former employer, and Kuiper personally reflected positively on his time there. “My only other job after college was at Colliers,” Kuiper said. “We have no intention of having anything but positive feelings about our time there. This is us pursuing a mindset and a dream … It’s a difficult time. You form great friendships, but for what it’s worth, we want to keep it positive.”

also pay them a higher wage. To avoid the excess expenses, companies might be more apt to turn to American workers instead, she said. However, Clarke said employers are facing a much bigger challenge with demand. “What we find with our clients is not a wage issue because they would pay more than what they offer foreign workers if they could find American workers to fill positions,” she said. “We find that our clients are unable to find American workers who are qualified for their positions and that is why they seek H-1B visas. “It costs about $25,000 from

beginning to end to employ a foreign worker over an American worker, so this is not something that companies do because it is easier, or they can pay less. They have to pay a significant amount of money to go through the (selection) process (to employ a foreign worker.)” To develop American students to fill in specialty occupation positions, companies have been working with schools to place an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), according to Clarke. In the past, Clarke said there was a demand for physical therapists, but American schools are producing students who now are meeting the demand.

While the modification seeks to help American employers to find American employees who can fill specialty occupations by increasing wages, there is another set of people in the American economy that might be negatively impacted. “There is a significant chance that startups will be impacted because they cannot pay higher wages when they are developing their business and getting their funding together,” Clarke said. “That is where a lot of innovation comes from, a lot of new products, new ideas. I don’t think it is in the best interest (of the United States) to cripple those startup operations through not being able to get the talent they need to operate.”

Manufacturing activity continues expansion trend CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

during and after the Great Recession. “Those businesses might survive. Revenues might come back. Profits might come back. But the number of jobs — which is really the only measure (we have) as far as it pertains to how Grand Rapids is doing economically — if jobs aren’t recreated, that’s not going to benefit the local economy in Grand Rapids because it’s not going to recreate incomes and allow those incomes to be

DIFFERENTLY. DOING THINGS

spent back into the local economy,” Rankin said. He said while the U.S. furniture industry saw among the biggest gains in December, its recovery may not as quickly extend to the commercial furniture sector that includes West Michigan’s office furniture giants, Herman Miller and Steelcase, as the commercial market will undergo “significant changes” to account for downsizing of real estate footprints as remote work continues in the near term and possibly the long term. Rankin said with so many households dependent on manufacturing income, he believes additional stimulus dollars would jumpstart Grand Rapids’ economy, which tends to be supported by West Michigan residents, as

Residential solar soars COVID-19 in some ways has been a boon for the industry. Ehren Wynder

ewynder@grbj.com

Opening a new banking office is always exciting – and even more challenging during a global pandemic. Because we’re focused on creating a great space to deliver an outstanding experience for the community and our team, we sweat the details. See how we are doing things differently at our new location opening soon! grandriverbank.com/crahen

opposed to the shopping meccas of other places like New York that draw in a steady stream of tourists and travelers from elsewhere pumping cash into the local economy. “Grand Rapids is an example of a market that has a great deal of potential, but it’s going to have to depend on local confidence almost exclusively in order to achieve that potential from a consumer-oriented, household-oriented stimulus, as opposed to things like the PPP program keeping businesses open. That’s all well and good, but they’re going to need customers, especially in the services industry, in hospitality and retail,” he said. The full ISM report for December is available online.

Residential solar saw a steep decline in installations early in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the U.S., but POWERHOME SOLAR, a North Carolina residential solar company with strong business ties in Michigan, reported exponential growth last year. On the sales side, POWERHOME closed 2020 with approximately $350 million in revenue, an 88% increase from 2019 and a 240% increase from 2018 when the company first expanded into West Michigan. POWERHOME now employs over 1,750 workers, a 124% increase from 2019 and a 190% increase from 2018. Jayson Waller, POWERHOME CEO, attributed much of the success to the company’s battery storage service, which it launched in January 2019 and has since been a hit with Michigan consumers. Because of the 2% cap on Michigan solar, Waller said, customers are encouraged to add battery storage

to their solar array so they have it in the event of an emergency and don’t have to sell excess energy back to utilities. “It took off like wildfire. We see the consumers are tired of utilities monopolizing the grid.” POWERHOME SOLAR launched it commercial division in early 2019, the Business Journal previously reported, but with government-mandated shutdowns to suppress the spread of COVID-19, solar arrays for commercial businesses that can barely meet their rent has been a hard sell. Alternatively, as the virus forced many people to work from home, more Michigan residents are relying on a reliable power source for their homes. “With the pandemic, you’ve got businesses who don’t think they can finance solar, but with residential, a lot of our competitors are continuing to grow as well, and the new election really looks promising for solar,” Waller said. “We’re dealing with the pandemic. But with people more at home, they wanted to control their power usage. We were already on the climb of having a great year, even with all this. I really think it is people saying, ‘Hey, I don’t want my power to go out.”

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

STREET TALK

Made in the shade Essential service.

rand Rapids’ goal of having a 40% tree canopy citywide by 2025 has some more green behind it. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation recently supported the effort with a $250,000 grant to the nonprofit Friends of Grand Rapids Parks. The grant is part of the NFWF Sustain Our Great Lakes program, which funds projects that restore key habitats for wildlife, improve water quality and enhance urban greenspace throughout the Great Lakes basin in 2021 and beyond. Since 2015, Friends has collaborated with the city to plant and maintain trees that add to the urban forestry canopy goal. The organization engages community volunteers to add 750 trees, on average, to the city’s canopy each year. “Trees play a critical role in our community by cleaning our air, creating cool spaces, beautifying our community and enhancing health,” said Stephanie Adams, executive director of Friends of Grand Rapids Parks. “Our longtime collaboration with the city and our volunteers has been even more validated by this tremendous partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.” City commissioners adopted a Green Grand Rapids amendment to the city’s master plan in 2011 to

BUSINESS JOURNAL STAFF

activate the social, economic and environmental benefits of trees. Provisions to that amendment set sights on a 40% tree canopy goal for the city. The city’s current tree canopy cover is roughly 35%, according to the 2015 Tree Canopy Survey. Adams said new trees provide myriad benefits, such as increased soil stabilization and erosion control, reduction in the urban heat island effect, and provision of habitat for birds, squirrels and other animals. Trees also provide a host of social benefits, including enhanced recreational opportunities, positive effects on physical and psychological health, an increase in community pride and higher property values. Founded in 2008, Friends is an independent, citizen-driven nonprofit with a mission to empower people to cultivate vibrant parks, trees and green spaces in Michigan’s second largest city. Friends works to mobilize volunteers, generate resources and raise awareness about issues that impact urban parks and natural systems. SEEING THE LIGHT UV Angel, a Grand Haven-based maker of next-gen pathogen control technology, partnered with certain McDonald’s franchise owners in Texas and Illinois to help create safer and cleaner en-

vironments for customers and staff at multiple locations in the Chicago, Dallas and Houston markets. Under the partnership, the McDonald’s locations were equipped with UV Angel’s proprietary ultraviolet light surface and air technology. The room-level source control technology works continuously to neutralize surface and airborne bacteria, viruses and fungi to reduce the risk of exposure to infection-causing agents. “As has been published in many studies, people are the main source of contamination and disease transmission,” said Tom Byrne, CEO of UV Angel. “The recent pandemic highlights the need to add controls right at the room level and source of potential contamination.” Unlike building-level source controls like HEPA filters and UV-C HVAC units, UV Angel technology targets pathogens at their source. “The COVID-19 pandemic has put new emphasis on the safety of indoor spaces,” said Matt Kades, a McDonald’s owner-operator in the Houston area. “That is especially important for a brand as trusted and recognized as McDonald’s. While we have already taken significant steps to help ensure the safety of our employees and customers, we believe the addition

JAN 25, 2021

of UV Angel technology is a true game-changer. We want the air inside our locations to be as safe as the air outside, and we are proud to be one of the first restaurants in the world to add this technology to our infection control arsenal.” UV Angel’s technology was originally designed and tested for use in hospitals to neutralize deadly pathogens and reduce the risk of hospital-associated infections. The company’s Adapt surface technology mounts over high-touch areas — like touchscreens and keyboards — and uses ultraviolet light to autonomously treat the surfaces after every human interaction. “While our company started in health care, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of our technologies in many different industries looking to create measurably safer indoor environments for staff, customers and families,” Byrne said. ABOVE AND BEYOND West Michigan Works! is now accepting nominations for an annual award recognizing essential workers. The West Michigan workforce development agency is accepting nominations for its 2020 Essential Service Awards. The annual awards recognize frontline workers who go above and beyond their daily responsibilities and display integrity, passion and commitment. Nominations will be accepted in 11 categories, including administrative/office worker, cleaning/ housekeeping/groundskeeping, child care, food service, government, health care/elder care, hos-

pitality, nonprofit, retail, skilled labor and transportation. The deadline for nominations is 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7. “Although we have been celebrating the Essential Service Awards for 13 years, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic underscores how critical frontline workers are to our region’s well-being and economy,” said Mark Bergsma, chair of the West Michigan Works! workforce development board. Anyone can nominate a frontline worker for an Essential Service Award. To be eligible, the individual must have at least two years of employment with their current company, hold a nonmanagerial position, exhibit pride in their job, a positive attitude, strong work ethic and effective time management. Additionally, the nominee must work within the West Michigan Works! service area of Allegan, Barry, Ionia, Kent, Montcalm, Muskegon and Ottawa counties. A committee established by the West Michigan Works! workforce development board will select the winners who will be honored at the April meeting of The Economic Club of Grand Rapids. Each honoree will also receive a $100 Meijer gift card. “Essential workers continue to risk their health to ensure that we have access to groceries, critical services and health care. These extraordinary frontline heroes keep West Michigan running during a time of uncertainty, and it is an honor to recognize them,” Bergsma said. To nominate an essential worker, visit westmiworks.org/esa.

PROMOTIONAL CONTENT

BUSINESS SHOWCASE Metro Health – University of Michigan Health

Only one hospital in Grand Rapids receives ‘A’ in safety

For the staﬀ at Metro Health – University of Michigan Health, “Go Blue” is more than a sports cheer. It’s also a phrase they use to remind colleagues to wash their hands, a vital practice for healthcare safety and quality. “It’s a good phrase for us, as a Michigan institution,” said Dr. Ronald Grifka, chief medical oﬃcer. “It’s also just a gentle reminder that we’re working as a team and we’re going

to help each other to get better as a team.” Getting better as a team is a constant at Metro Health, the only Grand Rapids-area hospital to earn an “A” rating in the Leapfrog Group’s most recent Hospital Safety Grade. “That’s just one measure of the hospital and it certainly is a nice descriptor of the care for our patients and their safety,” Grifka said. “But

the goal isn’t to get the grade of A. The goal is to be really good at taking care of people – and then you’ll get the grade of A.” Leapfrog, an independent nonproﬁt group, uses up to 27 measures in its safety review of hospitals nationwide, including rates of preventable errors, injuries and infections, and whether hospitals have systems in place to prevent them. The “A” grade does not mark an endpoint, said Stacie Bommersbach, Metro Health’s vice president of quality & patient safety. “We’re going to continue the journey as a highly reliable organization,” she said. “It’s really about having a transparent culture, because if people are not able to bring issues forward, and we don’t know about them, then we can’t correct them.” Bommersbach, who joined Metro Health in October, said she was drawn in part by the senior leadership’s commitment to quality and patient safety. “I don’t think we’re ever going to rest from trying to make it better for our patients,” she said. “It’s pretty exciting, because we have physicians coming over from Michigan Medicine

to bring that level of care to the west side of the state. As we bring on new clinical services, we want to make sure that we’re designing quality processes so the community can trust us.” Bommersbach and Grifka alike said the “A” rating is a testament to the entire staﬀ’s commitment to quality and safety. “Everybody pitches in to make this a really good place to take care of patients,” Grifka said. Like the “Go Blue” reminder, another phrase Grifka encourages is one he learned earlier in his career: “How did you make us better today?” “We’re a very good hospital,” he said, “but how can we get a little bit better today? And if we can do that every day, we’re heading in the right direction.”

5900 Byron Center Ave SW, Wyoming 616.252.7200 • metrohealth.net

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Who made news in 2020? The people behind the headlines 21 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Jasmine Bruce Freelance visual artist and illustrator

24 HEALTH CARE Adam London Kent County Health Department

27 SPORTS Joe Chamberlin West Michigan Whitecaps

21 BEVERAGES Terry Rostic Jamaal Ewing Black Calder Brewing Co.

24 LAW Edward Perdue Perdue Law Group PLLC

27 STARTUPS Francesca “Frankie” Volkema Joven Coffee

25 MANUFACTURING Thomas Ross Grand River Aseptic Manufacutring

28 SUSTAINABILITY James Hurt City of Grand Rapids

25 NONPROFITS/PHILANTHROPY Erika VanDyke Grand Rapids Community Foundation

28 TECHNOLOGY Michael Finn Pro-Vision Video Systems

22 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Guillermo Cisneros Jamiel Robinson The Right Place Mike Ramirez Holly Johnson Lakeshore Advantage 23 EDUCATION Leadriane Roby Grand Rapids Public Schools

26 REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT John Wheeler Wheeler Development Group

23 FINANCE John Irwin Huntington Bank

26 RETAIL Tom Benson Fluresh

29 NEWSMAKER OF THE YEAR

C O N G R AT U L AT IO N S, 2020 N E WS M A K E RS Opportunity

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CATEGORY: ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT WINNER: Jasmine Bruce ORGANIZATION: Freelance visual artist and illustrator

Artist’s messages beautify city amid year of social unrest AT THE HEIGHT OF the social unrest over the summer in Grand Rapids, Jasmine Bruce used her artistic talent to raise awareness and bring her community together. The freelance illustrator helped to lead four different art projects that featured artworks by herself and other Grand Rapids artists. Bruce was a part of the Women’s Way Initiative, which highlighted four women leaders in Grand Rapids. She painted a mural of Harriet Wood Hill, who was the first African American police officer at the Grand Rapids Police Department. The mural of Hill is in the alley of Louis Street NW at the northwest corner of the Grand Rapids Police Department. She also took her paintbrush and painted the “Break the Cycle” memorial mural, which features victims of police brutality, at the Lions and Rabbits Gallery on the north side of town. The mural featured the faces of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, Botham Jean, Michael Brown, Renisha McBride, Atatiana Jefferson and Aiyana Jones. Following the riots last summer that saw windows of businesses shattered, Bruce along with artists Asia Horne, Guillermo Sotelo, Kendall Redmon, Leandro Lara, Adrian Butler and Erik Lauchie led Windows GR. Some business owners gave the artists otherwise known as Element 7 permission to paint murals on their boarded-up windows. The artists put out a call for local creatives to join in on the project, which was supported by Lions and Rabbits and Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. Over 300 boards covering damage were painted honoring African Americans, turning the ugly aftermath of rioting into something much more beautiful. Bruce also led After Dark, which installed 35 murals across five Grand Rapids neighborhoods. In addition to being a freelance visual artist, Bruce was the summer illustration instructor at West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology and a programming coordinator for Lions and Rabbits Center for Arts. PHOTO COURTESY LEANDRO LARA

JAMAAL EWING

CATEGORY: BEVERAGES WINNERS: Terry Rostic and Jamaal Ewing COMPANY: Black Calder Brewing Co.

State’s ﬁrst Black-owned brewery opens in Grand Rapids TERRY ROSTIC AND JAMAAL EWING unveiled their vision to be Michigan’s first Black-owned brewery at Start Garden back in 2018. Even though a series of trademark disputes and rebrands slowed their dream, 2020 turned out to be the year of kings. Formerly planned as King’s Brewing Co., Rostic and Ewing officially started business as Black Calder Brewing Co. in November. The road to opening was long, but worth the effort. “Black Calder Brewing Company was established to make great beer and provide a platform for innovation, art, culture and inclusion in the craft beer industry,” Rostic said. “We appreciate the significance of being recognized as Michigan’s first Black-owned brewery. It’s something Michigan and the craft beer industry has been longing for, but it’s not the only thing we want to be known for. Our motto is simple: ‘Make dope beer for dope people.’” Rostic and Ewing celebrated the opening of Michigan’s first Black-owned brewery with the launch of Black IPA, the first in a series of Black Calder beers to come, including imperial stouts, barrel- and wood-aged beers, fruit ales, kettle sours, IPAs, lagers and craft ciders. “The craft beer industry was full of flavor, community and creativity,” Ewing said. “The passion that brewers, owners and staff put into creating a unique experience was refreshing. What we didn’t see were diversity and themes that spoke to the culture that we represent.” Rostic and Ewing said they are proud to be part of the movement of diversity and inclusion in the Michigan craft beer scene and hope their example encourages other members of minority communities to get involved in the industry. PHOTOS COURTESY BLACK CALDER

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GUILLERMO CISNEROS

JAMIEL ROBINSON

MIKE RAMIREZ

HOLLY JOHNSON

CATEGORY: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WINNERS: Guillermo Cisneros and Jamiel Robinson for The Right Place, Mike Ramirez and Holly Johnson for Lakeshore Advantage > > > ORGANIZATIONS: The Right Place and Lakeshore Advantage

Community leaders channel pandemic recovery funds THE REGION’S TWO FOREMOST economic development agencies, The Right Place and Lakeshore Advantage, leveraged community leaders’ input in 2020 to administer state and federal funding to hundreds of small businesses to help them survive the COVID-19 pandemic and economic fallout. The Michigan Strategic Fund, through the federal CARES Act and Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), made available a total of $100 million in grant funds to eligible small businesses and nonprofits in Michigan through the Small Business Restart program, and The Right Place and Lakeshore Advantage were in charge of awarding a combined

1,488 grants totaling over $12.3 million across 13 counties in October 2020. The Business Journal recognizes Guillermo Cisneros, executive director of the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and Jamiel Robinson, founder and CEO of Grand Rapids Area Black Businesses, as co-chairs of the community review committee for Kent County, and Mike Ramirez, partner and president at Orka Automation, and Holly Johnson, president of the Frey Foundation, as co-chairs of the community review committees for Ottawa and Allegan counties, for assisting The Right Place and Lakeshore Advantage in reviewing and selecting re-

cipients to receive the funding. Kent, Ottawa and Allegan counties are part of the Business Journal’s core coverage area. The process and scoring system approved by the review committee allowed for 48% of applicants in Allegan and Ottawa counties to receive funding, with 43% going to women-owned businesses, 8% going to minority-owned businesses, 4% going to veteran-owned businesses and 13% going to businesses owned by women, minorities and veterans. In Kent County, 73% of the funding was awarded to women-, veteran- and minority-owned businesses.

PHOTOS COURTESY WEST MICHIGAN HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE + JOHNNY QUIRIN + ORKA AUTOMATION + FREY FOUNDATION

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CATEGORY: FINANCE WINNER: John Irwin BUSINESS: Huntington Bank

Huntington commits to merger, $5B Michigan investment

CATEGORY: EDUCATION WINNER: Leadriane Roby ORGANIZATION: Grand Rapids Public Schools

Roby directs learning transition, Promise Zone for GRPS BEFORE SHE TOOK OVER the role of superintendent for Grand Rapids Public Schools, Leadriane Roby hit the ground running as the COVID-19 pandemic began raging across the United States. Roby was unanimously elected on Feb. 24 by the Grand Rapids Board of Education to serve as the next superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools. Three weeks later, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered all schools to stop in-person classes. Then-superintendent-elect Roby scheduled weekly briefings with interim Superintendent Ronald Gorman and the district’s leadership team to get families and students adjusted to virtual classes by providing them with the necessary tools to be successful. During the summer, she helped to seek the input of parents and staff through two surveys about their preference for distance learning, hybrid programs or in-person classes. The majority of parents and staff preferred distance learning, so Roby had her marching orders. On July 1, Roby took the official title as superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools and immediately took the results and implemented them by launching a new virtual plan that increased synchronous direct instruction for the elementary and secondary levels. One-to-one devices also were given to GRPS students with support functions in place for internet access and also new digital literacy classes through Parent University. Along with coordinating efforts to seamlessly transfer in-person classes to virtual classes, 251 students from 22 Grand Rapids public, charter and private high schools received Grand Rapids Promise Zone Scholarships, which allow students to attend Grand Rapids Community College free of cost starting in fall 2020.

HUNTINGTON BANK announced it is merging with TCF Bank in a $22 billion deal and made a $5 billion commitment to Michigan in 2020, further cementing the bank’s West Michigan influence. Under the terms of the merger, which was unanimously approved in December by the boards of directors of both companies, TCF will merge into Huntington, and the combined holding company and bank will operate under the Huntington name and brand following the closing of the transaction in the second quarter of 2021. The merger will create a top 10 U.S. regional bank with dual headquarters in Detroit and Columbus, Ohio. The combined company will have about $168 billion in assets, $117 billion in loans and $134 billion in deposits. The merger with Huntington follows straight on the heels of TCF’s merger with Chemical Bank announced in 2019 and completed last year. Also in 2020, Huntington committed $20 billion over five years across its seven-state footprint, with about $5 billion going to Michigan, which has the largest number of Huntington branches compared to the other states. The commitment includes lending, investment and philanthropic commitments to help improve financial opportunities for businesses, consumers and communities. John Irwin, president of the bank’s West Michigan region, said the announcement builds on Huntington’s $16 billion, five-year Community Development Plan launched in 2017, which was completed nearly two years ahead of schedule. “We asked ourselves and our colleagues and our community partners, ‘What can we do to continue this momentum?’ And these were the areas that they asked us to focus on,” he said. “We really want to help build basic economic security to help people prosper in our communities.” PHOTO COURTESY HUNTINGTON BANK

PHOTO COURTESY GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOLS

We’re the bank that looks out for people. We’re Huntington. At Huntington, we know the business of banking is about moving money responsibly. But we also know that behind the numbers there are always people. Human lives. Our families, friends and neighbors. It’s an honor to be part of the lives that help our communities prosper. And for that privilege, we thank you.

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

CATEGORY: HEALTH CARE WINNER: Adam London ORGANIZATION: Kent County Health Department

London leads health department’s community response ADAM LONDON had to steer Kent County through rough waters as COVID-19 became a local crisis, but the director of the Kent County Health Department ensured a quick response to the pandemic. KCHD launched a web-based application for residents to help the county identify COVID-19 risks in April. The app comes with an anonymous survey that will provide health officials with valuable data that could potentially identify future “hot spots” in Kent County. “Our ability to respond to this pandemic depends upon timely, accurate and multisourced data,” London said. “The information gathered through this survey will provide us with an additional layer of data to make strategic decisions on how we use our resources.” In June, KCHD partnered with the Black Impact Collaborative and LINC UP to provide a free COVID-19 community testing day, particularly for the Latinx and African American communities. “Our data is showing that 17% of our COVID-19 positive cases are located in the 49507 ZIP code and yet only 6% of Kent County’s population resides in this area,” London said at the time. “This type of data continues to inform our response to COVID-19 and ensures our resources are accessible to the most impacted neighborhoods.” Kent County is not in the clear though, with more than 650 new cases per day as of November and positivity rates holding well above 15% — the highest local rates since the onset of the pandemic. London urged decisive, community-wide action to protect the health of residents and to alleviate the pressure on hospitals. The health department also worked with area hospitals to present a united front and share information and best practices regarding the pandemic, giving the community a clearer picture of what was a stake. PHOTO COURTESY KENT COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Hope and Healing From your home or office.

CATEGORY: LAW WINNER: Edward Perdue COMPANY: Perdue Law Group PLLC

Veteran opens boutique civil litigation ﬁrm in Grand Rapids DESPITE HIS DISABILITY, Edward Perdue is continuing his path of service to others. The military veteran opened his boutique civil litigation firm, Perdue Law Group PLLC, in February after spending more than 23 years as an attorney at Dickinson Wright in Grand Rapids. Perdue served in the Persian Gulf War. He also was deployed to France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Israel and Japan, among other countries, during his military service. Over time, he incurred different injuries that resulted in doctors rendering him partially disabled. “I have a 10% disability rating in both of my ankles,” he said. “I ended up twisting my ankles a lot in the Marine Corps when we were marching and doing different things like that in airborne school, and instead of falling out, I would just let the corpsman tape them up. So, they would twist, and I would tape them up. It worked out fine because I didn’t want to fall out, but I learned later that (my ankles) weren’t allowed to swell and heal. By taping them up pretty tight, I ended up grinding a lot of the bones in my ankles and the cartilage in there. So, there are constellations — in both ankles — of little bone chips in there, which causes a lot of discomfort and early arthritis.” Nevertheless, his disability has not derailed him. At Perdue Law Group, he helps clients with commercial, labor and employment, real estate, automotive and product liability litigation matters. He also has a public speaking and leadership practice and is the author of “The Little Green Book – A Leadership Manual for Professionals.” Perdue also is president of the Grand Rapids Veterans Bar Association and works closely with active duty military, veterans, first responders and their families. PHOTO COURTESY ED PERDUE

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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

CATEGORY: NONPROFITS/PHILANTHROPY WINNER: Erika VanDyke ORGANIZATION: Grand Rapids Community Foundation

Van Dyke, Latinx leaders establish foundationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s La Lucha Fund

CATEGORY: MANUFACTURING WINNER: Thomas Ross COMPANY: Grand River Aseptic Manufacutring

GRAM tapped to support development of COVID-19 vaccine AFTER OPENING ITS $60 million fill-and-finish facility in Grand Rapids in June, Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing this summer was tapped by the federal government to help with the process of developing and distributing a COVID-19 vaccine. GRAM is a parenteral contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) founded in 2010 that has seen phenomenal growth in the past decade and officially tripled its footprint and capacity by opening a 61,500-squarefoot injectable fill-and-finish facility at 524 Butterworth St. SW just west of the Grand River in June. The facility features a Grade C cleanroom; two formulation suites; $15 million worth of high-speed equipment, including a SKAN isolator and an IMA lyophilizer auto-loader, as well as a high-speed Bausch+StrĂśbel filling line that enables GRAM to produce commercial batches of all sizes; and plenty of room to grow on the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second floor. Opening the facility couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have been better timing, with a global pandemic in full swing. In August, GRAM was tapped by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Defense to support the expansion of domestic capacity for manufacturing and distributing vaccines or therapeutics related to the COVID-19 pandemic through Operation Warp Speed. By September, GRAM entered into an agreement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, to support the manufacture of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. The vaccine is currently in its phase three trial with 45,000 participants enrolled as of Dec. 17 and results expected by the end of this month. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Should their vaccine candidate be approved, the opportunity to serve the population with a vaccine to combat the COVID-19 pandemic alongside Johnson & Johnson is an extraordinary privilege,â&#x20AC;? said Thomas Ross, president and CEO of GRAM. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our team is enthusiastic, dedicated and focused on supporting Johnson & Johnson in the fight against COVID-19.â&#x20AC;?

AS PROGRAM OFFICER for the Grand Rapids Community Foundation, one of the things Erika VanDyke is most proud of is working with a network of Latinx leaders to help establish the foundationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s La Lucha Fund in April that had raised $735,000 as of mid-November and helped about 1,200 undocumented and mixed-status families in Kent County receive COVID-19 relief dollars as of Nov. 30. Undocumented community members do not qualify for federal assistance or state unemployment benefits, making them particularly vulnerable during the pandemic. Although VanDyke was the point person inside the foundation for creating the La Lucha Fund (which translates into English as â&#x20AC;&#x153;the struggleâ&#x20AC;? or â&#x20AC;&#x153;the fightâ&#x20AC;?), she stressed it was a highly collaborative effort. Eight community organizations were involved, including Movimiento Cosecha and the Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network, as well as the five organizations that make up LatinxGR â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Hispanic Center of Western Michigan, the Latino Community Coalition, Latina Network of West Michigan, West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and West Michigan Latino Network â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and the community foundation, which made an initial investment of $100,000 and accepted and processed over 500 individual donations on behalf of the fund partners. VanDyke said she is proud that the entire process of setting up the fund â&#x20AC;&#x201D; which garnered far more donations than expected and continued longer than it was designed to â&#x20AC;&#x201D; was guided by the Latinx community, and the community foundation followed the voice of the people in setting it up. She added La Lucha is a perfect example of leaders using their platform to make space for and amplify voices that often are intentionally silenced. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have to make space for communities that have been deliberately not supported. â&#x20AC;Ś The ones that are closest to the pain should be closest to the power.â&#x20AC;? PHOTO COURTESY DUANE BACCHUS PHOTOGRAPHY

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PHOTO COURTESY GRAND RIVER ASEPTIC MANUFACTURING

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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

CATEGORY: REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT WINNER: John Wheeler COMPANY: Wheeler Development Group

CATEGORY: RETAIL WINNER: Tom Benson COMPANY: Fluresh

Wheeler develops successful strategy in townhome market

First cannabis retailer networks with community allies

IN SPITE OF Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s mid-2020 halt on residential construction to stop the spread of COVID-19, Wheeler Development Group sprinted out of the gate once restrictions were lifted. The developer’s plans for a $55 million, 24-story, mixeduse building in downtown Grand Rapids were halted by the pandemic, but WDG touted success in the townhome market, as it closed out 2020 with $50 million worth of townhome projects in Grand Rapids, Caledonia and Spring Lake, equaling 197 new units. While it’s true the government shutdown cost WDG its momentum during the peak construction season, CEO John Wheeler credited the diligence of the company’s subcontractors to quickly return to work once the shutdown on construction was lifted in May. “We own everything we build, so it’s the long-term vision of taking these projects and not cutting corners,” he said. “These are long-term investment holds, even with the blip of COVID and short-term inflation with lumber.” Wheeler also attributed the company’s success during the pandemic to the continuous demand for housing that is affordable by market standards, or for a median household income of $65,000. “It’s a very cool market,” Wheeler said. “They are inexpensive to build versus an apartment, and the interest rates are very favorable. If we’re borrowing money at 4% versus 7%, we can pass that savings on to the customer.” WDG now is underway with planning its next townhome project in Grand Rapids and also is marching through the planning phase of a project in Ada Township.

FLURESH MADE HISTORY in 2020 by becoming Grand Rapids’ first licensed medical cannabis provision center at the beginning of the year, but the Adrian-based company didn’t stop there. Fluresh also became the first adult-use retailer for Grand Rapids in October, nearly two full years after voters legalized cannabis for recreational use in the state of Michigan. “This is a milestone moment not only for Grand Rapids but for all who have pioneered Michigan’s cannabis legalization movement,” said Tom Benson, CEO of Fluresh. “Fluresh is honored to be the first retailer to provide residents of this great community and surrounding area with access to high-quality cannabis products.” Fluresh also made its mark by being a company committed to diversity across West Michigan’s budding adult use industry. For example, the company and the Black and Brown Cannabis Guild (BBCG) sponsored the National Expungement Week Drive-Up Clinic in Grand Rapids to provide expungement resources for those who have been convicted of low-level crimes. Fluresh also collaborated with BBCG, LINC UP and Disability Advocates of Kent County in 2020 to actively recruit and retain a diverse pool of job applicants, especially those negatively impacted by the war on drugs within the 49507 ZIP code area. “We are building on community relationships while addressing gaps in the industry’s diversity,” Benson said. “Fluresh is grateful for our ongoing relationship with groups like LINC UP, Black & Brown Cannabis Guild and other community organizations who have assisted in driving qualified talent to our doors, and we will continue that progress to assure we represent an equitable and inclusive cannabis industry.”

PHOTO COURTESY WHEELER DEVELOPMENT GROUP

PHOTO COURTESY FLURESH

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

CATEGORY: STARTUPS WINNER: Francesca “Frankie” Volkema COMPANY: Joven Coﬀee

Young entrepreneur makes her mark in global world of coﬀee

CATEGORY: SPORTS WINNER: Joe Chamberlin ORGANIZATION: West Michigan Whitecaps

Whitecaps earn boost in Detroit Tigers’ farm system IN A YEAR that saw live sports become a distant memory, the West Michigan Whitecaps found a way to make headlines without even throwing a pitch. With the minor leagues on hold in 2020 and Major League Baseball restructuring its support for the lower levels, it was a summer of uncertainty for the Whitecaps. But when the smoke cleared late in the year, the Whitecaps were promoted to Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, leaving behind its Tigers’ Low A designee status it held for the last 24 seasons. “We’re thrilled for our fanbase,” said Joe Chamberlin, CEO of the West Michigan Whitecaps. “It means West Michigan will see a higher level of baseball talent, which translates to the opportunity to see more Detroit Tigers prospects, along with Midwest League rival prospects and more fun for the fans!” Tigers General Manager and Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Al Avila reportedly said Spencer Torkelson, the team’s No. 1 draft pick in 2020, should see some action in West Michigan this summer. The announcement is a result of Major League Baseball’s restructuring of the Minor League Baseball player development system. Class A-Advanced affiliate is below the Tigers’ Triple-A and Double-A development system. The Whitecaps team will be made up of young players, some of whom are promoted from the Tigers’ Single A team, the Lakeland Flying Tigers. The players will be honing their baseball skills by playing a full season each year from April through September in Minor League Baseball’s Midwest League. “The Whitecaps have been standout partners for us and do a great job ensuring our players are in the best position for growth and development to become impactful contributors to our organization,” Avila said. “I’d especially like to thank Lew Chamberlin, the club’s executives, state and local government officials, and the West Michigan community for their passion and commitment to this great sport.” PHOTO COURTESY WEST MICHIGAN WHITECAPS

AT 14 YEARS OLD, Francesca “Frankie” Volkema launched her own line of coffee, Joven Coffee. Although she is the daughter of Sparrows Coffee and Schuil Coffee owner Tim Volkema, she has carved out her purpose and mission for her own coffee line, which was influenced by two countries she visited. Her coffee line supports young people in Colombia in South America and Burundi in Africa. She was inspired by her visit to Colombia when she realized that the average age of a Colombian farmer is 57 and there is a lack of young coffee growers there. She decided to buy coffee from Cafinorte’s Young Coffee Producers Program, which supports 200 young people from Northern Cauca to become sustainable coffee producers. Volkema also visited Burundi where she learned about seven female entrepreneurs under the age of 35 who formed an investment group to purchase their coffee mill. Now, Volkema also sources and roasts coffee from those young female farmers. She showed her coffee intellect when she became the world’s youngest professional coffee grader at 13 years old. Volkema passed the “Q,” which is a series of tests from the Coffee Quality Institute that measure an individual’s coffee knowledge, sensory perception, olfactory skills, “cupping” or tasting and coffee grading. “These experiences — from passing the Q, to visiting Colombia and talking with young farmers, to creating my own coffee line — have been so much fun and an incredible learning experience for me,” Volkema said. “I’m excited to support these farmers in Cauca and Burundi and inspire more young people to become involved in the coffee industry.” PHOTO COURTESY COURTESY JOVEN COFFEE/BRIAN KELLEY

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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

CATEGORY: SUSTAINABILITY WINNER: James Hurt ORGANIZATION: City of Grand Rapids

City puts feet on the street to improve recycling program THE CITY OF GRAND RAPIDS in 2020 partnered with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and national nonprofit The Recycling Partnership to introduce a communitywide project aimed at improving the quality of materials residents recycle in their curbside carts. The city launched The Recycling Partnership’s Feet on the Street cart-tagging recycling campaign in mid-September with communitywide education and outreach initiatives continuing through mid-November. Over the past few years, the city saw a 12% to 15% increase in the number of contaminated recyclables in bins throughout Grand Rapids. Placing nonrecyclables in the recycling cart means haulers are forced to redirect loads containing too many nonrecyclables to the Kent County Waste to Energy Facility. The Feet on the Street program was designed to increase the number of items accepted for recycling that are clean, empty and dry. Achieving the quality standard in recycled materials ensures they can circulate back in the recycling system to become new products or packaging while also reducing the number of nonrecyclables in recycling bins. Feet on the Street also helps communities achieve economically efficient recycling programs, reduces the number of new resources used in packaging by providing more recycled content for new products and improves the cleanliness of communities. The effort by the city was aimed at improving the quality of recycling in single-stream curbside recycling bins by providing Grand Rapids’ roughly 55,000 households with personalized and real-time curbside recycling education and feedback. The city provided a $15,000 matching grant to support the campaign. “Recycling is not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do, and this program furthers our strategic priority of health and environment,” said James Hurt, Grand Rapids managing director of public services. “This helps us minimize waste generation and promote waste diversion practices by improving the quality and amount of recycling we collect.” PHOTO COURTESY JAMES HURT

Congratulations, Dr. Roby! From your colleagues at Grand Rapids Public Schools Foundation, congratulations on being named Educational Newsmaker of the Year. We applaud your implementation of the GR Promise Zone program and the pivot to virtual learning. Well done!

CATEGORY: TECHNOLOGY WINNER: Michael Finn COMPANY: Pro-Vision Video Systems

Pro-Vision rolls out tech for schools, law enforcement and logistics MICHAEL FINN is a newcomer to Pro-Vision Video Systems. The Grand Rapids native was only appointed to serve as the company’s CEO last year, but that year was marked with various innovations in video systems technology at Pro-Vision as well. “I am excited to join a growing business that serves a critical need for transportation and public safety,” Finn said at the time of his appointment. “We look forward to building upon Pro-Vision’s legacy of leadership and innovation.” Such innovations included Pro-Vision’s new 900 Series Hybrid HD DVR, which debuted early in 2020. The DVR combines 1080p HD recording and observation technology in one device for commercial vehicle operators. The 900 Series Hybrid HD DVR provides drivers with the high-quality video they need to prevent accidents and show details of what happened should an incident occur. Also relevant to a year marked by tragedies relating to police violence, Pro-Vision released the new Bodycam 4 bodyworn camera in October. The Bodycam 4 features an IP68 waterproof rating and a 14-hour full-shift replaceable battery. The camera also can be automatically activated by any vehicle within a 30-foot range to keep the focus where it should be. The company also partnered in November with Kajeet, an IoT connectivity, software and hardware solutions company, to provide internet connectivity and video recording solutions for school buses. Through the partnership, schools can connect Pro-Vision school bus video recording systems to the Kajeet SmartBus Wi-Fi solution to perform actions like live video review, hands-free remote video upload, automatic system updates and system health monitoring. PHOTO COURTESY PRO-VISION VIDEO SYSTEMS

Dr. Leadriane Roby, Superintendent of Grand Rapids Public Schools

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

CATEGORY: FOOD NAME: Jenna Arcidiacono BUSINESS: Amore Trattoria Italiana

PHOTOS COURTESY BRYAN ESLER + 616 MEDIA

Chef Jenna embodies a spirit of helping and generosity as Newsmaker of the Year AMID THE GARBAGE FIRE that was 2020, a plucky local celebrity chef used her platform to lead the way in helping others across West Michigan while also working to reinvent her own business during a year that required flexibility and creativity for restaurants to survive. For her generosity, leadership and advocacy for the restaurant industry in its worst year in living memory, Jenna Arcidiacono — chef and co-owner of Amore Trattoria Italiana in Comstock Park — is the Business Journal’s 2020 overall Newsmaker of the Year, as well as Newsmaker of the Year in the food category. There’s no denying Arcidiacono made the news in 2020. She was featured by nearly every major local television station, print and online media outlet during the pandemic of 2020, and she even made national news when she was nominated by a local fan to be featured on celebrity entertainer Mike Rowe’s Facebook show, “Returning the Favor,” through which she received $10,000 to continue feeding frontline workers free of charge, as the Business Journal reported May 1. The bubbly and extroverted chef — whose pink hair, sparkly attire and hot pink Nissan Infiniti SUV make her recognizable everywhere she goes in Grand Rapids — opened Amore a decade ago with her husband, Maurizio Arcidiacono. The pair met when she was fresh out of college in 1998 working at famed North Beach Italian restaurant L’Osteria del Forno in San Francisco, and the handsome Italian stranger came to town to visit friends. Falling fast in love, within months they were touring Italy together, soon got married and spent the next three years living and cooking in Northern Italy, learning family recipes from “mama Arcidiacono,” according to Amore’s website. Returning to Grand Rapids, they opened Amore in 2010, never thinking that they would mark their 10th year in business during a global pandemic. Along with restaurants everywhere, Chef Jenna and her team had to quickly reinvent their fine dining establishment to serve takeout when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order to close dine-in at restaurants came down in March.

They not only revamped their restau- so I’m thrilled that I can actually come to rant for takeout within 24 hours — and work every day. It’s been what’s keeping now run a parking lot drive-thru dinner me going through the quarantine — being pickup operation they practically have able to get up, go to work and hopefully down to a science — but Arcidiacono right put smiles on people’s faces, either by way away began a campaign of generosity in of donating to their place of work or by West Michigan that inspired other com- feeding them when they come through the munity members to pay it forward and do- drive-thru,” she said. On top of her work feeding paying cusnate funds to Amore to help feed frontlintomers and donating and delivering food ers and individuals in need. Over the past 10 months, Arcidiacono in person to frontliners and others in need, and a handful of volunteers have donated Arcidiacono showed leadership by using her platform to advocate meals, aka “food hugs,” for the safety and the good as she calls them, to Met“It’s been what’s of the entire restaurant ro, Mercy and Spectrum keeping me going community in Michigan Health hospitals; local police, fire and health through the quaran- in 2020. In July, she joined a departments; Rockford tine — being able to coalition of other Grand Ambulance; restaurants Rapids restaurants and including The Mitten get up, go to work breweries such as The Brewing Co. (which did a Mitten, Brewery Vivant meal swap with Amore); and hopefully put Long Road Distillers Kids’ Food Basket; senior smiles on people’s and in creating the Michigan citizens, veterans and families in need; and many faces, either by way Restaurant Promise, a pledge that eateries across more establishments and of donating to their the state took to promote nonprofits. The restaurant also place of work or by safe practices in their establishments to ensure partnered with other feeding them when the safety of customers, businesses and community organizations, includthey come through staff members and the general public. ing Meijer, i understand the drive-thru.” After a moratorium on love heals and Zach’s indoor dining due to the Sprinkles and Sweets, to surge in coronavirus casdonate food to the comJENNA es in November, Arcidimunity. ARCIDIACONO acono in December joined “It’s been so hard for a group Zoom call with everyone — us included, as restaurants — we’ve all been struggling,” Gov. Whitmer advocating for additionArcidiacono told the Business Journal’s al COVID-19 relief dollars from the state sister publication, Grand Rapids Maga- to help get restaurants and laid off workzine. “Whether you lost a job or a loved ers through the winter. The conversation one, we all have needed some pick-me-ups allowed food industry veterans to paint during this time. So, for me, I just knew I an honest picture of what life has been wanted to bring a smile, and food does that like for the hospitality sector during the for people — I like to call them ‘food hugs’ past year. “We chatted about what the timelines because sometimes just having an unexlook like for us to get vaccines, to reopen pected delivery can make your day.” Arcidiacono told the Business Journal (and) to get help,” Arcidiacono said in a that work and giving back anchored her Dec. 16 post on her Facebook page. “I perduring an extremely emotional and diffi- sonally asked for a potato peeler. I mentioned that this year feels like we have been cult year. “I think I would go crazy if I wasn’t able asked to peel potatoes with a screwdriver. to work, just because I’m a people person, It isn’t working. We need the proper tools

to get through this tough time. … We need to feel like someone is thinking about our well-being and working on funds for us. “It was nice to have a group of people chat who are all going through the same thing. The camaraderie felt heartwarming. Mostly, I am feeling proud to have a small voice in a big state.” On Dec. 29, the governor signed a $106 million bipartisan relief bill package that extended unemployment benefits to 26 weeks to provide support for Michigan families, frontline workers and small businesses, including Arcidiacono’s voice in the announcement. “After Zooming a few weeks ago with Gov. Whitmer, we are thrilled that she heard our cry for help,” Arcidiacono said in the press release. “Many restaurants will not survive without financial support. This gives us hope after the devastating year we have endured.” That month, amid the rush of planning for and filling holiday orders, Arcidiacono also joined with Chris Andrus, co-owner of The Mitten, Richard App, small business retention and attraction specialist with the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, and others to promote a fundraiser launched by Thomas Schuitema, manager of Broadway Bar on the West Side of Grand Rapids, to save the iconic local establishment, which traditionally has its biggest month of the year in December. As of Jan. 10, the GoFundMe page had raised nearly $33,000 toward a goal of $50,000. Encapsulating her attitude of helping throughout the whole of 2020, Arcidiacono told Business Journal content partner WZZM 13 that the effort was like when everyone brings money to George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” to help him out. “We’re all in a terrible boat, sinking, but if we can’t help each other during this time, it’s not worth it,” she said. Arcidiacono told Grand Rapids Magazine she hopes that when people see her hot pink car out and about, it will inspire them to spread love and joy. “Being kind to one another doesn’t cost any money,” she said. “You never know what anyone is going through, so let’s come together to spread an infectious movement of positivity and compassion.”

You never know what anyone is going through, so let’s come together to spread an infectious movement of positivity and compassion. JENNA ARCIDIACONO

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