Grand Rapids Business Journal 01.11.21

VEGAN cultivates ‘guilt-free’ sweets business.

PAGE 3

JAN 11, 2021 VOL. 39, NO. 1

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

Design firm launches furniture company for K-6 students NOORDELOOS Furniture APPLIES GLOBAL Freddy USA sells directto-consumer desks, EXPERIENCE wall mounts for THIS WEEK

Venture capital leader follows ‘natural leaning’ toward business to contribute in her sphere of influence. Page 11

home schooling during pandemic.

Rachel Watson

rwatson@grbj.com

Wage freeze Rising unemployment rate derails scheduled minimum wage hike for 2021.

A Grand Haven-based, family-owned concept development firm has launched a new company to fill the need for adjustable, ergonomic seating for young children who are now studying at home.

Fredricks Design Inc. in Grand Haven last month announced it formed Freddy LLC, dba Freddy Furniture USA, in October, and the new company is now offering direct-ship, ready-to-assemble study-at-home furniture solutions for kindergarten through sixth grade students.

Maury Fredricks — president and co-CEO with his brother, Bruce Fredricks — formed Fredricks Design Inc. in Grand Haven in 1984, and Bruce Fredricks

The new desk and whiteboard products were the result of brainstorming workshops within the company. Courtesy Freddy Furniture

bought into the business in 1985.

The firm works with clients in the transportation, entertainment (themed rides and animated props), furniture and health care industries on a portfolio of projects including advanced vehicle interiors and seating with global brands and suppliers.

Maury Fredricks’ oldest son, Ben Fredricks, has been with the firm over a decade and is now doing consulting work with them, and Conor Fredricks, Bruce Fredricks’ son, has been with the company four years and is the lead designer for Freddy Furniture.

Fredricks Design’s small but

scrappy team of designers, engineers and project managers works from its location at 201 Washington Ave. in downtown Grand Haven and partners with, among other businesses, a large, vertically integrated manufacturing company on the state’s east side for many of its core projects.

But when the pandemic hit, the Fredricks team knew they needed to look at new opportunities in order to weather the economic storm, which was already resulting in a stream of furloughs, layoffs and budget cuts within its client companies.

The team met virtually to discuss its options.

“We set up brainstorming workshops to explore different problems that we could help solve. The world did not need another mask company, at least at the time, and we did not know much about the design of protective equipment or ventilators,” Maury Fredricks said. “Our team quickly developed a portfolio of different ideas for a number of applications and environments.

Being designers and engineers, we launched into sketching and ideation before we caught ourselves and filtered our priorities down to a few products.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

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Virtual assistance NeedU allows those who need help to connect with larger community of supporters.

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SHINING BRIGHT Jeweler deepens customer relationships after loss, injuries and bout with cancer amid pandemic.

Page 9

THE LIST

The area’s top medical device manufacturers.

Page 6

Firm creates path to equity in finance Greenleaf Trust Scholarship Program gives students of color opportunities in the field of finance.

Rachel Watson

rwatson@grbj.com

Greenleaf Trust just recognized another class of diverse scholars last month that are heading out into the world to change the face of finance.

The independent Michigan-chartered, trust-only bank and wealth management firm based in Kalamazoo, with more than $14 billion in assets under advisement, in a virtual ceremony on Dec. 1 celebrated the

achievements of six recipients of the Greenleaf Trust Scholarship who graduated from their degree programs at Western Michigan University’s Haworth College of Business in 2020 — Eddie Warr, Marisol Quiros, Gerardo Ramos, Victor Perez, JaJuan Kemp and Christopher Bailey.

The Greenleaf Trust Scholarship Program awards 13 full scholarships annually to business students studying finance or personal financial planning at Western Michigan University.

Students receiving the scholarship must maintain a GPA of at least 2.5 and, in doing so, receive $12,400 annually for tuition until they graduate, or for up to four years.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

Greenleaf graduates, clockwise from top left, include Eddie Warr, Marisol Quiroz, JaJuan Kemp and Gerardo Ramos. Courtesy Greenleaf Trust

GRBJ.COM Vol. 39, No. 1 $2.00 a copy. $59 a year © Entire contents copyright 2021 by Gemini Media. All rights reserved.

Inside Track ...... 11 Guest Columns.. 16 Mental health upkeep

WORKERS providing direct care face emotionally challenging task.

Change-Ups ..... 20 Calendar .......... 20 Public Record .... 21 Street Talk ...... 22

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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 11, 2021

3

Vegan cultivates ‘guilt-free’ sweets business

Tastefull Vegan Frozen Desserts was founded to give those with plant-based diets access to tasty treats.

Rachel Watson

rwatson@grbj.com

It can be hard to find allergen-free, vegan options if you have a sweet tooth but are working with dietary limitations, said Kalene McElveen, founder of Tastefull Vegan Frozen Desserts.

McElveen, a Detroit native who now lives in West Michigan, was a lacto-vegetarian beginning in 1992 and has been a vegan for the past two years. Growing up, she couldn’t eat bakery cakes, cookies or ice cream because of the eggs, so her mom made homemade baked goods and taught her how to modify recipes to fit her diet.

As an adult, McElveen found herself becoming a go-to source of advice for friends with dietary limitations due to allergies or those who were either trying a “Daniel Fast” or permanently changing their diets, but still wanted to eat healthy and flavorful treats.

A Daniel Fast is a partial fast that cuts out meat, wine and rich foods in favor of fruits and veg-

etables and water, typically for about three weeks as an act of religious devotion.

McElveen in 2018 published “The Daniel Feast,” a cookbook that provides recipes and tips for sustaining the Daniel diet for more than just three weeks, for those who want to make a more long-term change.

After authoring her book, McElveen continued to get questions about vegan cooking, so she launched a Facebook group called Vegan on the Weekend that was geared toward people who didn’t want to fully commit to being vegan but who were interested in learning recipes for more healthful, occasional vegan eating.

During her own transition to a fully vegan diet, McElveen said she tried to find different dessert options that were naturally sweetened — “that’s one of the biggest things for me, is dumping the sugar” — but it was difficult, if not impossible.

That’s why she launched Tastefull Vegan Ice Cream — now called Tastefull Vegan Frozen Desserts — which uses coconut palm sugar, maple syrup and dates as the primary sweeteners, and does not use ingredients that people with allergies often can’t have, such as nuts and wheat.

“A lot of vegan ice creams typically have nuts in them. None of

Kalene McElveen said her business really started to take off this fall, when she participated in the Black Entrepreneurs Expo at Woodland Mall. She completely sold out of her Tastefull products at the event and further established her customer base. Courtesy Tastefull Vegan Frozen Desserts

my products contain nuts, and there is no wheat of any kind — even with one of my more popular desserts called a Better Butter Bar, which is like bananas and peanut butter, but it’s not made with peanuts; I make my own oat butter. I try to find really creative ways to make it still enjoyable but without the allergies and without the processed sugars,”

she said.

As McElveen wrote on her “about me” page on her website, “Whether the food restriction is by choice or not, I believe that no allergy, dietary lifestyle choice or anything should prevent you from being able to enjoy one of life’s greatest joys — ice cream!

That’s why I created Tastefull Vegan Frozen Desserts.”

Her startup won the November 2019 Start Garden 5x5 prize of $5,000, and she used the prize money to purchase equipment and a mobile cart, as well as to begin marketing her products.

“I brought my one prototype to 5x5 and I was very nervous — my background is elementaCONTINUED ON PAGE 15

Site gives helpers a helping hand Minimum wage hike must wait Unemployment rate keeps 2021 escalator from kicking in.

NeedU allows those who need assistance to connect with larger community of supporters.

Danielle Nelson

dnelson@grbj.com

Ehren Wynder

ewynder@grbj.com

A team of West Michigan entrepreneurs recently launched an online platform designed to empower people to give and receive help in all types of situations.

NeedU is a new website, founded by David Eggerichs, Jonathan Wicksall and Brandon Starr, that allows users to easily text or email particular needs, and others can sign up instantly to meet those needs.

Eggerichs said the project originated from difficulties in his own life, as well as his co-founder’s.

His wife had birthed two children within a year, which proved a happy, but difficult moment in their lives as they had to manage the outpouring of help from friends and family.

“We’d never had kids before.

We certainly didn’t know how to navigate having two children,” Eggerichs said. “We had a million people just texting and calling immediately asking, ‘what can we do?’ You don’t know how to coordinate receiving help, and those people don’t know how to coordinate it either. There were things we didn’t even know we needed, because we’d never had kids before. That’s when it kind of hit me

The NEEDU website’s simple navigation tools allow users to easily text or email particular needs and others can sign up to meet those needs. Courtesy NeedU

that this would have been useful.”

Wicksall lost his father at a young age to a form of leukemia.

For him personally, the stress of scheduling chemotherapy appointments and figuring out insurance left little time to think about what he and his mother needed and to communicate that

need with friends.

“Going back to the loss of my father, if I said to people, ‘Hey, give my mom a bottle of wine,’ she’d end up with 100 bottles,” Wicksall said.

Wicksall didn’t have the conveCONTINUED ON PAGE 14

Although no one really knows what the next 12 months may bring, there is one thing that Michiganders don’t have to speculate about: the increase in the minimum wage.

The minimum wage will remain the same as it was in 2020 — $9.65 — despite the state’s Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act that instituted a gradual increase in minimum wages until 2030, when it was poised to become $12.05. This year, the minimum wage was supposed to be $9.87.

However, the deadly COIVD-19 pandemic became a hinderance to the annual minimum-wage increase as the legislation “prohibits scheduled minimum wage increases when the state’s annual unemployment rate for the preceding calendar year is above 8.5%.”

From January through October, the state’s unemployment rate was at 10.2%. In the month of November, it was preliminarily reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics to be 6.95%.

The high mark for the year was 24% in April, according to the Labor Bureau. The lowest rate for 2020 was in October at 6.1%.

Although the unemployment rate has been on the decline, Clif-

ford Hammond, an employment and labor attorney at Foster Swift Collins & Smith PC, said there needs to be a consistent 12-month pattern showing significant unemployment rate decreases for the hike to kick in.

“Looking forward, based on what we’ve seen over the course of the year, 8.5% would just signal that we are not in a position financially to really pressure those low-wage jobs and those smaller businesses that had to weather that type of economy,” he said.

The pandemic forced many businesses to close permanently or file for bankruptcy and thousands of employees were laid off or furloughed.

With the minimum wage remaining the same at $9.65, wages will presumably increase to $9.87 in 2022, pushing back the expected $12.05 per hour minimum wage to 2031.

According to the Improved Workforce Opportunity Wage Act, the increases per calendar year are: 2022: $9.87 2023: $10.10 2024: $10:33 2025: $10.56 2026: $10.80 2027: $11.04 2028: $11.29 2029: $11.54 2030: $11.79 2031: $12.05 However, there is no way to know if that is the track the increase in wages will take.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

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JAN 11, 2021

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

Taquero incubates Tex-Mex startup at Downtown Market Steven MartinezThiel founded Basalt i n February as a mobile food business and is prepping to expand in 2021.

Rachel Watson

rwatson@grbj.com

Native Texan Steven Martinez-Thiel is looking to bring Tex-Mex culture to Grand Rapids through his specialty breakfast taco business after falling in love with the Mitten State over a decade ago.

MartinezMartinezThiel foundThiel ed Basalt in February as a modern Tex-Mex concept that brings “an elevated yet approachable culinary experience” to West Michigan, combining diverse flavor profiles with a focus on craft food, locally sourced ingredients whenever possible and “the unbeatable hospitality that Michiganders are known for.”

The business is currently in development mode in the Grand Rapids Downtown Market incubator kitchen, at 435 Ionia Ave. SW in downtown Grand Rapids.

The incubator kitchen program provides “customized business counseling to budding and existing food entrepreneurs in a supportive and flexible environment that fosters production and creativity in a licensed commercial kitchen.” Since its beginnings

in 2013, 1,000-plus startup food entrepreneurs have received individualized business counseling services through the program and 14 have graduated from the program. In 2020, 170 local entrepreneurs have been mentored, with 11 launching a new food startup and six graduating from the program to their own facilities.

“Though the pandemic has significantly impacted restaurants and food businesses, it has not hindered our community’s creative entrepreneurial spirit,” said Ryan Bolhuis, culinary operations manager at the Downtown Market. “Food entrepreneurs are resilient, and the businesses in the incubator kitchen program have creatively adapted to challenges they’ve faced this year so that they can continue providing quality food products to our community.”

Throughout 2020, Martinez-Thiel has brought his food to the Fulton Street Farmers Market and other local farmers markets and pop-up events in order to build a loyal customer base of breakfast-taco lovers.

During the summer, he transitioned Basalt’s menu from premade to made-to-order with the purchase of a mobile kitchen trailer. He did some ready-to-eat food sales through the Bridge Street Market until November, and has done some small-scale catering, but currently is focused on preparing for the 2021 season ramp-up with a consistent market schedule and an expanded menu.

Raised in Houston, Martinez-Thiel moved to Michigan about 10 years ago and has since gotten married and put down roots in Grand Rapids. He worked in the food industry in dining

Throughout 2020, Steven Martinez-Thiel brought his food to the Fulton Street Farmers Market and other local farmers markets and pop-up events to build a loyal customer base. Courtesy Basalt

room management and catering for a decade between Houston and Grand Rapids, including a two-and-a-half-year stint as the catering manager at Marie Catrib’s in East Hills before it closed in 2018.

“It was really that experience that started pushing me toward wanting to open my own place,” he said.

He grew up eating homemade Tex-Mex food at home, which he said is known for pulling inspiration from Mexican cuisine in a “playful” way, not being afraid to draw on multiple “outside flavor profiles, ingredients” and more.

In developing his Basalt concept,

he said he wanted to meld that genre of cooking with the farmto-table emphasis that is so prevalent in West Michigan.

“There are so many things about Texas that I love and couldn’t get here, and so it’s really just an excuse for me to make and eat a lot of tacos,” he said.

Martinez-Thiel said tries to source as many ingredients as possible locally but orders his spices and masa from the Southwest, as those items are not typically widely available here. “(I’m) doing what I can, in terms of buying local and seasonal, but also making sure that I’m not compromising the quality of

the food or the product,” he said.

The Downtown Market’s incubator kitchen has been a good place for Basalt to test, iterate and find its footing, Martinez-Thiel said.

“I’m really happy to be in a space where I have room to work and I have all the tools that I need, and the staff at the incubator kitchen, particularly Ryan (Bolhuis), the kitchen manager, has been really helpful and has done a lot to guide me and to help me figure out a lot of things. I’ve been working in restaurants for a long time, but I’ve never run my own business. It’s a much different animal, and having that support there has been great,” he said.

He added being able to “talk to and build relationships with other tenants” has been another huge plus.

“I would say that I’m probably much better off as a business owner because of those relationships that I’m building,” he said.

While growing Basalt into a brick-and-mortar shop “with limited dine-in and a nice patio” is his eventual goal, Martinez-Thiel said the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed that dream farther out, likely into 2022.

For now, he and his three employees are working on building up the business to ramp up full speed when the prime market season resumes at the Fulton Street Farmers Market in May. “The combination of being based out of the incubator kitchen and then being able to sell at the Fulton Street Farmers Market has just been a really solid situation,” he said. “It’s a really amazing community.”

More information about Basalt is at basaltgr.com and facebook. com/basaltgr.

Luxe Artisan Preserves grows and plans Food business started by nurse executive/ clinician is back in business after a COVID-19 pause.

Rachel Watson

rwatson@grbj.com

Customers have said they use Luxe preserves as a cooking ingredient in dishes, a marinade for meats and a “drizzle” on favorite desserts and dishes. Courtesy Steve Czerniak Photography

In addition to the many other hats she wears, a local self-described creative and foodie started making artisan preserves as an outlet for her passion for cooking and her love for entertaining friends with unique and great-tasting offerings. Now, her onetime hobby is a business that’s selling product in 22 states.

Kimberly Slaikeu, who holds a Ph.D. in nursing and urban studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is a published author, certified life coach, former Grand Valley State University assistant professor of nursing and award-winning nurse executive and clinician.

In August 2019, she added the title of founder and business owner to her list of accomplishments with the formation of Luxe Artisan Preserves.

Slaikeu said she has always

believed that food is “one of the highest expressions of love.”

Starting at age 6, she began helping her mother and grandmother harvest fruits and vegetables from their urban garden to be freshly cooked or preserved.

As a lover of entertaining, Slaikeu said she always strives to create experiences that are unique to her space and dishes that friends can’t find anywhere else. Luxe was unofficially born a while back when she was entertaining a group of guests and decided to whip up some preserves using blackberries, basil and port wine she had on hand. After the success of that endeavor, she continued to play with various flavor profiles.

After her official launch last August, she became a tenant in the Grand Rapids Downtown Market’s incubator kitchen. In September 2019, she was selected as one of the top 100 finalists of Start Garden’s 100 Ideas competition.

The Downtown Market incubator kitchen program provides “customized business counseling to budding and existing food entrepreneurs in a supportive and flexible environment that fosters production and creativity in a li-

censed commercial kitchen,” according to the market. Since its beginnings in 2013, 1,000-plus startup food entrepreneurs have received individualized business counseling services through the program, and 14 have graduated from it. In 2020, 170 local entrepreneurs were mentored, with 11 launching a new food startup and six graduating to their own facilities.

Ryan Bolhuis, culinary operations manager at the Downtown Market, said he has been impressed and encouraged by the food startups incubating in the kitchen in 2020, a year that has made everything difficult for small businesses.

“Food entrepreneurs are resilient, and the businesses in the incubator kitchen program have creatively adapted to challenges they’ve faced this year so that they can continue providing quality food products to our community,” he said.

Slaikeu said she has loved being in a clean and well-appointed space with a view of the city she can watch while she spends hours making her products. She added Bolhuis — a classically trained CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

5

JAN 11, 2021

Workers providing direct care face emotionally challenging task Samaritas recognizes the efforts of dedicated staff.

Ehren Wynder

ewynder@grbj.com

In the face of the pandemic and a historical staffing shortage, direct care workers have continued to answer the call and care for older adults and people with disabilities.

COVID-19 hasn’t stopped Samaritas’ direct care workers from going above and beyond the line of duty. Staffing shortages for direct care have been an issue since even before the pandemic.

Kevin Van Den Bosch, chief operations officer for Samaritas, said one of the biggest challenges for the organization always has been finding quality people who want to serve based on the mission and values of the organization.

“The job, although very rewarding emotionally, does not pay very well,” Van Den Bosch said. “The hours can be challenging, with weekends and overnight shifts. We’re working with a population that many see as not having a voice in terms of their needs, so it can become a bit thankless.”

Additionally, rates set by the state only allow organizations like Samaritas to pay their workers at a certain amount. At Samaritas, an entry-level disabled care worker starts at $11.05 an

hour, and the pay only goes up to $15.45 an hour for a seasoned care worker.

The low pay, coupled with long hours and emotional labor leads most people to see direct care as an entry-level job, but Van Den Bosch said it doesn’t have to be, and many direct care workers are in professional, upwardly mobile positions within the organization.

For COVID-19 procedures, Samaritas kept daily watch on OSHA and CDC guidelines and established its own procedures for staff regarding PPE, sanitization and social distancing. Managing the different populations Samaritas cares for came with its own unique difficulties depending on their needs.

For Samaritas’ disabled population, direct care workers had to deal with the heightened fear of COVID-19 for a high-risk population, as well as the heightened sense of alienation those at-risk people feel from not being able to see their family.

“Those people may feel emotionally separated from their family without technology and that heightened fear of COVID,” Van Den Bosch said. “We do work with medically fragile people in terms of that fear. But if we have three teenage boys living together, they have very little fear of contracting COVID and may be shunning any kind of governor’s orders. In that case, it’s working with those boys and telling them about the impact

COVID can have on others and their loved ones.”

The pandemic also was emotionally taxing for direct care workers, Van Den Bosch said.

Besides taking care of their physical safety with PPE and regular COVID-19 check-ins, Samaritas provided dedicated emotional support members for their staff to call at any time, even when they were on their shifts.

“We have many staff who are lonely, or scared or depressed,” he said. “We made sure they had

people available beyond their supervisors to talk to. It just simply is someone on our staff who is willing to listen … after we did that for a while, so many people said they appreciated being able to call on a shift. Trust is earned in the smallest of moments, and it’s doing those things for our staff that will keep them safe and healthy just like a facemask does.

“We’ve had a huge racial divide and a presidential election, which divided our country further,” Van Den Bosch said. “In

spite of some of the ugliness of 2020, there’s a beauty that came out of it, because people have had to come together and use their skills and bring more compassion and grace than what they thought they had to give.”

As part of its persons with disabilities program, Samaritas has staff who serve clients directly in their home, and Van Den Bosch said he was particularly inspired by their dedication to both cliCONTINUED ON PAGE 15

For Samaritas’ disabled population, direct care workers had to deal with the heightened fear of COVID-19 for a high-risk population. Courtesy Samaritas

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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 11, 2021

THE LIST

Top Area Medical Manufacturers (RANKED BY 2020 WEST MICHIGAN REVENUES) Top W. Mich. executive(s)

Total No. of staff In W. Mich.

2020 2019 W. Mich. revenue

Oral care Areas of focus/expertise

Products manufactured

1

Autocam Medical Devices LLC John C. Kennedy 4152 East Paris Ave. SE Kentwood 49512 p (877) 633-8080 autocam-medical.com

455

$116.91M $123.84M

Precision machining, grinding, assembly, finishing, CNC Precision-machined surgical drill bits, drivers, screws, plates, cutting tools and other complex, highly engineered surgical implants, instruments and handpieces, as well as other device components; clients are involved with instruments and devices used in the following anatomical areas: spine, foot and ankle, hand and wrist, hip and knee, shoulder and elbow

2

Ranir 4701 East Paris Ave. SE Grand Rapids 49512 p (616) 698-8880 ranir.com

Rich Sorota

490

$103.03M $103.03M

Oral health care

Power toothbrushes and replacement brush heads, manual toothbrushes, tooth whitening, floss, flossers, interdental, cold sore, nasal strips, trial and travel dental accessories, and Nite Protector by Bruxism

3

SunMed LLC 2710 Northridge Drive NW Grand Rapids 49544 p (616) 259-8400 sun-med.com

Mark Zyzelewski

DND

$44.86M DND

DND

Surgical and medical instruments

Salter Labs 2710 Northridge Drive NW, Suite A Grand Rapids 49544

Greg Pritchard

132

$44.42M DND

Surgical and medical instruments

DND

5

Art Optical Contact Lens 3175 3 Mile Road NW Grand Rapids 49534 p (616) 453 1888 artoptical.com

Thomas Anastor

110

$23.12M $25.69M

Ophthalmic goods

DND

6

Hart Enterprises, Inc. 400 Apple Jack Court Sparta 49345 p (616) 887-0400 hartneedles.com

Alan Taylor

78

$14.41M $15.03M

Prototyping, design and turnkey products; metal Guidewire introducers, biopsy needles, spinal needles fabrication; plastic fabrication and assembly; packaging and sterilization

Biotec Inc. 652 E Main Ave. Zeeland 49464 p (616) 772-2133 royaldentalgroup.com

DND

$9.19M $9.85M

Dental equipment and supplies

60

Lens system Art Optical now has a Myopia Management Orthokeratology lens system. It helps to manage and temporarily correct myopia (nearsightedness) and mild astigmatism.

4

7

Ranir LLC, a Perrigo Company plc subsidiary, acquired the oral care assets of California-based Steripod, a toothbrush accessory brand.

DND

8

Alliant Enterprises LLC 333 Bridge St. NW, Suite 1125 Grand Rapids 49504 p (269) 629-0300 allianthealthcare.com

Bob Taylor

57

$8M $9.03M

Surgical and medical instruments

DND

9

Rose Medical 1440 Front Ave. NW Grand Rapids 49504 p (616) 233-3000 rosemedical.com

Todd Grimm

24

$5.48M $6.09M

ISO 13485-certified and FDA-registered contract manufacturer of custom medical devices

Catheters; cannulae; tip forming, wire-reinforced silicone tubing and shafts; medical balloons; RCSP devices; full assembly

10

Artisan Medical Displays LLC 219 N Church St. Zeeland 49464 p (616) 748 8950 artisanmedicaldisplays.com

Jordan Vander Kolk

35

$4.58M $4.77M

Surgical and medical instruments

DND

Multimilliondollar contract Alliant Enterprises was awarded a Patient Monitoring & Capital Equipment contract by the Defense Logistics Agency that is valued at $450 million over 10 years.

Partnership

11

Micro Engineering Inc. 257 Sorrento Drive SE Byron Center 49315 p (616) 534-9681

DND

30

$4.3M $4.3M

Surgical appliance and supplies manufacturing

DND

12

Peerless Waste Solutions 510 E. 40th St. Holland 49423 p (616) 355-2800

DND

7

$3M $3M

Surgical and medical instrument manufacturing

DND

13

Skyline Window Cleaning 9790 Winans St. West Olive 49460 p (616) 813-0536 skylinefp.com

Matt Kraus Steven Kraus

22

$2.3M $2.3M

Surgical appliance and supplies manufacturing

DND

14

Rls Interventional Inc. 4375 Donkers Court SE Kentwood 49512 p (616) 301-7800 inradinc.com

DND

10

$1.88M $1.72M

Surgical and medical instruments manufacturing

DND

15

3DM Source Inc. 555 Plymouth Ave. NE Grand Rapids 49505 p (616) 647-9513 3dmsource.com

Brian Huff

13

$1.33M $1.33M

Surgical appliances and supplies manufacturing

DND

16

Centric Labs 1805 Plainfield Ave. NE Grand Rapids 49505 p (616) 363-1550 smilesbycentric.com

DND

16

$1.17M $1.19M

Dental laboratories

DND

17

Gipson Fabrications 2151 Chicago Drive SW Wyoming 49519 p (616) 245-7331 gipsonfabrication.com

DND

8

$1.16M $1.16M

Surgical appliance and supplies manufacturing

DND

18

Studio 2 Digital Dental Design 2405 32nd St. SE, Suite C Kentwood 49512 p (616) 957-2140 studio2dental.com

DND

11

$830,000 $830,000

Dental laboratories

DND

Colorado-based PrincipiaMed has partnered with Rose Medical to represent its manufacturing services for polymer components and medical devices on the West Coast.

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

THE LIST

JAN 11, 2021

7

Top Area Medical Manufacturers (RANKED BY 2020 WEST MICHIGAN REVENUES) CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

Top W. Mich. executive(s)

Total No. of staff In W. Mich.

2020 2019 W. Mich. revenue

Areas of focus/expertise

Products manufactured

19

Aluwax Dental Products 5260 Edgewater Drive Allendale 49401 p (616) 895-4385 aluwaxdental.com

DND

5

$681,750 $681,750

Dental equipment and supplies

DND

20

Mac Dental Laboratory 3510 14 Mile Road NE Cedar Springs 49319 p (616) 866-2387 macdentallab.com

DND

6

$558,038 $558,038

Dental laboratories

DND

21

Davis Dental Laboratory 5830 Crossroads Commerce Wyoming 49519 p (616) 261-9191 dentalservices.net

DND

5

$548,661 $548,661

Dental equipment

DND

22

Saturn Orthodontics Inc. 6617 Crossings Drive SE Grand Rapids 49508 p (616) 698-1816

DND

10

$537,824 $537,854

Dental laboratories

DND

23

Cnd Products LLC 1642 Broadway Ave. NW Grand Rapids 49504 p (616) 361-1000 point-o-care.com

DND

5

$500,000 $500,000

Surgical and medical instruments

DND

Roche Dental Laboratory Inc. 2865 Clyde Park Ave. SW Wyoming 49509 p (616) 261-0150

DND

5

$500,000 $500,000

Dental laboratories

DND

25

Davich Vision Center 2825 28th St. SE Grand Rapids 49512 p (616) 956-6096 davichus.com

DND

5

$473,450 $473,450

Ophthalmic goods manufacturing

DND

26

MediSurge LLC 2680 Walker Ave. NW, Suite C Grand Rapids 49544 p (888) 307-1144 medisurge.com

DND

10

$456,371 $377,166

Surgical and medical instrument manufacturing

DND

27

Michigan Medical Innovations, LLC 481 Pettis Ave. SE Ada 49301 p (616) 682-4848

DND

5

$389,435 $389,435

Surgical and medical instrument manufacturing

DND

28

A And J Industries 4066 Division St., Suite C Wayland 49348 p (616) 877-4845

DND

3

$350,000 $350,000

Surgical appliance and supplies manufacturing

DND

29

Dental Air Force 933 Butternut Drive Holland 49424 p (616) 399-8511 dentalairforce.com

DND

3

$306,958 $306,958

Dental equipment and supplies

DND

30

All Tech Lab 60 E. Lakewood Blvd., Suite 40 Holland 49424 p (616) 394-4825

DND

DND

$300,000 $300,000

DND

Dental equipment and supplies

Fairway Optical Inc. 4490 W. Giles Road Muskegon 49445 p (231) 744-6168 opticalproductsonline.com

DND

4

$300,000 $300,000

Ophthalmic goods manufacturing

DND

32

Genesis Innovation Group LLC 13827 Port Sheldon St. Holland 49424 p (616) 294-1026 genesisinnovationgroup.com

DND

3

$290,152 $290,152

Surgical and medical instruments

DND

33

Premier Dental Laboratory 1085 Leonard St. NE Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 454-8600

DND

3

$280,316 $280,316

Dental laboratories

DND

34

Shoulder Innovations LLC 13827 Port Sheldon St. Holland 49424 p (616) 294-1026 shoulderinnovations.com

DND

4

$264,419 DND

Surgical and medical instrument manufacturing

DND

35

Tiger Neuroscience LLC 200 Viridian Drive Muskegon 49440 p (872) 903-1904

DND

6

$260,657 $260,657

Surgical and medical instrument manufacturing

DND

36

Lakeshore Ceramic Dental Lab 400 136th Ave., Suite 414 Holland 49424 p (616) 396-2266

DND

6

$232,279 $232,279

Dental laboratories

DND

37

Obsolete LLC 11901 E. Fulton St., Suite 1 Lowell 49331 p (616) 843-0351

DND

3

$222,304 $222,304

DND

Surgical appliances and supplies

Government clearance Genesis Innovation Group’s cultivate(MD) Seed Fund announced that one of its portfolio companies, SafKan Health, a medical device company that developed the first automated ear cleaning device, the OtoSet Ear Cleaning System, received its 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Equity financing Shoulder Innovations, a company that develops shoulder replacement systems, closed an oversubscribed $21.6 million equity financing, allowing its board of directors to expand to six members.

Promotion AvaSure promoted Kyle Pett, Lisbeth Votruba and Toby Eadelman. Pett is now the company’s president and chief operating officer. Votruba was named the chief clinical innovation officer and Eadelman is the chief technology officer.

Acquisition Medbio LLC, a contract manufacturer specializing in clean room injection molding of plastic components for the medical and biotechnology industries, acquired Polymer Conversions Inc.

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CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

8

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 11, 2021

Company meets pandemic need with free monitoring licenses AvaSure’s devices allow staff to monitor several patients from one location.

Danielle Nelson

dnelson@grbj.com

As coronavirus cases continue to mount daily, a local company is recognizing the need to extend free services to health care facilities.

Belmont-based AvaSure, a provider of remote monitoring solutions in the health care sector, recently agreed to extend its free offering of monitor station software licenses to health care facilities.

At the beginning of the pandemic, AvaSure offered free software licenses for six months to hospitals so “tele-sitters” could watch over multiple COVID-19 patients at the same time while at their monitoring stations.

“We assumed that this would be over in six months,” said Lisbeth Votruba, chief clinal innovation officer for AvaSure. “We, just like everyone else, had to be flexible and react and respond to more surges. We extended it a couple of times and now we are offering the free licenses until the end of June of 2021. There have been 420 free licenses that we have given away.

“Hospitals put the software on their servers, and they have the

AvaSure is extending free licenses for its monitoring stations to health care facilities that are treating multiple COVID-19 patients.

Courtesy AvaSure

hardware, which is the monitoring device. Ninety percent of what we sell is the mobile device, but we also have a site-sealing device. The third thing is the license for the client application that goes on a PC. That client license is what we provided so that they can expand, repurpose and leverage what they already have for more caregivers to be able to use it.”

AvaSure serves more than 800 hospitals in 48 states, including more than 50 in Michigan.

The company also provides software licenses to other facilities in Canada.

Votruba said the AvaSure monitor software licenses allow for facilities to use a mobile cart inside hospital rooms. It has a video and two-way audio. Tele-sitters can see and talk to patients and also zoom in and out on patients while they are at one location.

Although AvaSure has been around for more than a decade and has provided the software license to many hospitals, acute rehabilitation centers and longterm care settings, among others, also monitor patients to help keep them safe.

“A certain number of patients

who are in hospital settings are confused because they may have Alzheimer’s or they might have had a stroke and they are at risk for falling or pulling out their IVs and things like that,” Votruba said. “Hospitals really don’t have the staffing and it really does not make sense to assign one-on-one staffing to those patients, so our devices are used with hardware and software that allow hospital employees, like an unlicensed, entry level, trained hospital employee to monitor up to 16 patients at once and keep them safe by talking to them and redirecting them and

building a relationship. This has been incredibly successful.”

Votruba said she realized there was a desperate need for AvaSure’s software at the beginning of the pandemic, in March, when so many patients with COVID-19 were in isolation.

“The devices were already there,” she said. “The infrastructure was already there in all these hospitals across the country, and all we had to do was to provide them additional licenses so they could put up more work stations right on the nursing units, closer to the patients.”

Top Area Medical Manufacturers (RANKED BY 2020 WEST MICHIGAN REVENUES) CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

Top W. Mich. executive(s)

Total No. of staff In W. Mich.

2020 2019 W. Mich. revenue

First and only Areas of focus/expertise

Products manufactured

38

Baldwin Lake Dental 322 S. Lafayette St. Greenville 49306 p (616) 301 0129

DND

2

$211,710 DND

Dental laboratories

DND

39

Shields Dental Laboratory 6476 Blank Road Whitehall 49461 p (231) 894-5200

DND

2

$210,000 $210,000

Dental laboratories

DND

40

Solus Innovations LLC 4275 Ford Road Muskegon 49445 p (231) 744 9832 solusinnovations.com

DND

3

$209,286 $209,286

DND

Surgical appliance and supplies

41

Dental Studio Breton 2405 32nd St. SE, Suite C Grand Rapids 49512 p (616) 957-2140 studio2dental.com

DND

4

$208,833 $208,833

Dental laboratories

DND

42

Creative Crowns Dental Lab Inc. 400 136th Ave., Suite 414 Holland 49424 p (616) 355-7304

DND

4

$200,000 $200,000

Dental laboratories

DND

Brad Playford

180

DND DND

Telehealth

A complete virtual solution addressing patient and staff safety, clinical surveillance, patient experience and resource imbalances across an entire health system

DND

DND

DND DND

X-ray apparatus and supplies, medical and dental x-ray DND labs, medical equipment and supplies

Chris Williams

200

DND DND

Contract manufacturer specializing in clean room Orthopedics, cardiovascular, ophthalmology, neurological injection molding, injection mold tooling, assembly and surgery, general surgery, wound care, oncology, biotech packaging (diagnostics and cell growth), dental products

AvaSure 5801 Safety Drive Belmont 49306 p (616) 301-0129 avasure.com Grand X-Ray Supplies Company 2291 Oak Industrial Drive NE Grand Rapids 49505 p (616) 459-0145 Medbio llc.

5346 36th St. SE Grand Rapids 49512 p (616) 245-0214 medbioinc.com

Stryker, a medical technology company, launched the industry’s first and only completely wireless hospital bed, Pro Cuity.

New division

The Grand Rapids Business Journal list of top area medical device manufacturers, ranked by 2020 West Michigan revenue, is the most comprehensive available. The list is based on research and information provided by Dow Jones Factiva and responses to Business Journal surveys. To be considered for future lists, email dnelson@grbj.com. DND = Did not disclose

Battle Creek-based STEWART Industries, a company that specializes in assembly and inspection for manufacturers, launched a medical division called STEWART Medical, which designs and manufacture medical supplies.

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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 11, 2021

9

Jeweler turns bad year into fuel for her fire Lisa Lehmann Designs deepens customer relationships after loss, injuries and bout with cancer amid pandemic.

Rachel Watson

rwatson@grbj.com

Although Lisa Lehmann’s life in the past year reads like the lyrics of a country song, she’s using the pain to forge a stronger business.

Lehmann founded her jewelry business, now called Lisa Lehmann Designs and based in Grand Haven, 19 years ago after she quit her career in graphic design to homeschool her four children.

Before that, she hadn’t done any metalworking, but she had earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Calvin University in 1991.

“I don’t want a do-over (of this year). … I’ve never felt this sort of confidence that I’m coming to the end of 2020 with. I feel like I accomplished so much and got through so much that I’m just better — and me being better will be better for others.”

Lisa Lehmann Once she started experimenting with making jewelry and realized how much she loved it, Lehmann took a couple of metals classes at Kendall College of Art and Design to expand and refine her skills from beaded jewelry to working with stones and metals.

“I love fire. It was really fun (to learn metalworking); it just totally clicked for me,” she said. “I found my passion when I first put a torch in my hand.”

The youngest of five children growing up in New Jersey, Lehmann said she always knew she wanted to be an artist.

“My grandpa was an artist, and he died when I was five months old, so I never met him, but art was very much in who I was, and my mom was super creative.”

Although she hoped to go to a dedicated art school, her parents offered to pay for her education if she went to Calvin. Jewelry-making classes were not available; her emphases within her BFA were photography and illustration. She said that foundation in taking photos and drawing has been helpful in everything she has done since starting her jewelry business, from sketching out all her designs to doing her own product photography.

After college, Lehmann did odd jobs until starting her own graphic design company, Studio Elements, in 1994.

“I think I’m kind of a natural-born entrepreneur, and I didn’t really want to work for anybody else,” she said. “I said to myself, ‘I can do this; I can totally do this.’”

She taught herself how to use a computer at a time when design was just going digital, and she was successful in business for many years — but something wasn’t right.

“It was a good job, and it was consistent, but I hated it. I just didn’t like working behind a computer. I’m more of a ‘get my hands dirty’ person — as I look at my hands right now and they look like I’m a mechanic,” she said, laughing.

In 2002, she closed her design firm and soon opened her jewelry business, and it’s been her life’s work ever since.

Lehmann works with metals, including silver, bronze and gold, incorporating beautiful and unique stones into the jewelry and often doing custom pieces.

She has a basic line — mostly all made of sterling silver — called the “essentials,” meant to be a starting point to build upon.

“I think that jewelry is a great expression of who you are and what you want to exude, and it’s all done well with layering,” she said. “So, my essentials line is your base pieces, like a bar necklace or a long layering piece or a simple

earring, and then I love working with unique stones … creating really unique pieces.”

The entire first floor of her house is her studio, with three workbench stations for design and layout, soldering, and stone setting, and a myriad of tools including rolling mills, ultrasonics and “a plethora of hammers and files.”

“You can never have too many tools,” she said, chuckling.

Lehmann currently has one employee and often has two or three interns at a time, usually students from Grand Valley’s metalworking program. She said she wants to keep sharing her knowledge with interns, who she can mentor and then send out into the world to follow their own dreams.

“I always expect them to leave because it’s the way it should go. They learn the ropes of owning a business and doing it, then go off and do their own thing.”

Lehmann said she feels confident and happy today, despite 2020 being one of her worst years on record. On top of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on business, she also tore her ACL, MCL and meniscus in a knee injury; her mom died; her dog died; and she got breast cancer. And that is on top of her divorce two years ago.

“2020 was bad for everybody; mine was really bad,” she said.

“But I’m standing, and I’m smiling, and I’m looking forward to a new year.”

She said despite everything that went wrong this year, there were little blessings, such as a new friendship with Jenna Arcidiacono, chef and co-owner of Amore Trattoria Italiana in Comstock Park, which helped bring the realization that everything Lehmann does is for a greater purpose.

“I don’t want a do-over (of this year). I have grown, and I feel like

I’m far more confident in who I am as a woman and a business owner and what I want to project and what I want to accomplish.

I’ve never felt this sort of confidence that I’m coming to the end of 2020 with. I feel like I accomplished so much and got through so much that I’m just better — and me being better will be better for others. Because the bottom line is, I want to make other people happy and I want to make an impact on their lives, which is why Jenna and I really connected. …

At the end of the day, it’s never been about the money for me. Obviously, I need to make a living at what I do, and I love that, but it’s really about the people.”

An aquamarine ring is one of the unique pieces designed by Lisa Lehmann. Courtesy Lisa Lehmann Designs

Lehmann has decided her business won’t be about living up to everyone else’s standards in 2021 — getting bigger and better, getting product into more stores, or having an exploding social media presence. She wants it to be about forging deeper connections with the customer base she has — which is already pretty large and spread across the world.

During the shutdown, as she wasn’t sure what would happen

to her business, she started doing custom painting and custom jewelry making, which led her to launch a Patreon page that allows fans to support her work.

“I want to connect more with the people on a deeper level, if that makes sense, like I would rather sell really specifically to my firm client base and build that client base so it’s solid, instead of just more and more and more (to customers I’ll never see again),” she said.

Lehmann also added a blog to her website, blog.lisalehmanndesigns.com, where she has been writing about her cancer journey and her struggles with depression in 2020.

“I feel like I’ve been given this platform and this voice, and I want to use that to give it to people who maybe don’t have that platform,” she said. “I just really love people, and I want to cultivate that.”

She has been doing more jewelry remakes lately — for example, if a loved one dies, their survivor might bring in a piece of jewelry that they want melted down and remade into something new that will live on as a tribute.

“This necklace I remade, they’d been married for 30 years and the husband passed away, and (she) gave me his (and her) rings, and I remade a necklace.

I had three rings, put the diamond in the center, their faith was a big part, so I made a cross and put that in the chain and then a little heart on the back.

When the woman got it, she had to go in her bedroom and didn’t come out for two hours — she was so overwhelmed. The daughter was telling me the story and that she was just so thankful for this piece.

“This is what I get to do. I love it. I love being a part of people’s stories.”

More information about Lisa Lehmann Designs is at lisaleh manndesigns.com.

Former marketing executive creates data science firm Emylla focuses on using AI to help companies with systems integration.

Ehren Wynder

ewynder@grbj.com

Despite a rocky start in early 2020, a new West Michigan data and technology firm is ready to deliver advanced data science to clients and help maximize the value of their data in the new year.

Emylla LLC gives mid- to large-size businesses a competitive edge by developing and implementing transformative data and analytics strategies, including AI, machine learning, robotic process automation, data pipeline engineering and systems

integration.

The firm was founded in April

by Jeff Norton, whose 25-year business career includes analytics and marketing at General Motors and most recently at Viking Group in Caledonia, where he served as vice president of marketing and digital solutions.

“Most companies use a tiny fraction of their data,” Norton said. “Emylla uncovers hidden insights to help optimize performance and create new revenue streams. Our solutions enable data-informed decision making at all levels of a business, which leads to better outcomes for the bottom line.

“What we’re founded on is knowing and understanding that companies can get so much value out of their data,” he continued.

“Whatever you can predict in

your business can help you move faster.”

On the sales and marketing side, for example, using data can help enterprises predict and understand what a customer might do, whether it be what kind of products they purchase or how strong their loyalty might be. Another value from understanding data is identifying weaknesses in the supply chain.

“Whatever you can predict in your business will help you move faster,” Norton said.

Norton’s business experience also is critical to understanding where value is generated from within the data, he said. If companies aren’t able to understand their own data, they could end up chasing a bad deal or falling down a rabbit hole of disparate information.

Emylla emphasizes integrating the organization’s existing data silos. Norton said companies already have so much data available to them, but they only use a portion of it because the data often is stored in separate systems, whether its ERP systems, data for product information or manufacturing management.

The main push for Emylla is integrating these disparate data sources into a single unified view by partnering with Neo4j, a graph database platform.

“It focuses on the relationship between entities, rather than looking at everything from a siloed perspective,” Norton said.

“That is absolutely key. It’s what’s going to drive the future of AI, and These patterns can be recognized more quickly by AI.” Emylla is focused on serving

mid- to large-sized enterprises.

Many of the larger Fortune 500 companies already have data science in-house, but Emylla also can serve as a kind of pressure valve by bringing its experience on board as well, Norton said.

Norton is the sole owner of the firm, but he is operating in partnership with his wife, Jennifer, who brings several years of retail experience to the operation. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent state shutdowns hurt their prospects of closing on an office location, but fortunately data scientists are used to working freelance, Norton said, and the two currently are operating out of their home in Ada. Norton added Emylla soon will be launching its first product for companies to integrate their data streams in 2021.

10

JAN 11, 2021

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

Street Chef Shaw blends Swahili, Mexican cooking Mobile food startup began through front yard cookouts with ‘giving back’ baked into the business.

Rachel Watson

rwatson@grbj.com

Kirel Shaw and Myke Worthem have been friends since middle school, and now they are having the time of their lives operating a food business together that focuses on giving back.

The Grand Rapids natives co-own Street Chef Shaw, a mobile food business started in May 2020 that serves Swahili-Mexican-inspired cuisine.

Shaw has been a cook in the restaurant industry for about 14 years, working at local mom-andpops such as Amore Trattoria Italiana, as well as franchises including Mongolian BBQ, Applebee’s, Outback and Logan’s.

He said most of his family is from eastern Africa, where Swahili is spoken, and his fiancée is Mexican, so those cultures are what inspired the theme for Street Chef Shaw, and he hopes the fusion approach is a legacy he can pass down to his children someday.

Shaw had the initial idea to start Street Chef Shaw when the pandemic was starting to take a toll on his colleagues in the food industry and his neighbors, who

were so worn out they didn’t have much energy to cook for their families anymore. He decided to start giving back by hosting cookouts in his front yard that offered free meals by the plate for curbside pickup.

The first event was a barbecue, and by word of mouth and Facebook posts, it was a hit. Momentum built, with Worthem joining Shaw to establish it into a business over the summer, bringing to the table his 10 years of experience in marketing, banking and business development.

Throughout the year, Street Chef Shaw participated in a plethora of farmers markets, food truck events and fundraisers, serving seafood boils, tacos, quesadillas, nachos and more, with Swahili spices flavoring goat meat, pork, chicken and beef, and Mexican chilis and other peppers bringing the heat.

As gathering limits and indoor dining restrictions increased, Shaw and Worthem have found success by offering online ordering for delivery, which is more practical in the cold-weather season than doing outdoor events.

Since July, Street Chef Shaw has been based out of the Downtown Market’s incubator kitchen, a program that provides “customized business counseling to budding and existing food entrepreneurs in a supportive and flexible environment that fosters production and creativity in a licensed commercial kitchen,” according to the market. Since its

Myke Worthem, left, and Kirel Shaw, friends since middle school, combine cooking knowledge with experience in marketing, banking and business development. Courtesy Street Chef Shaw

beginnings in 2013, 1,000-plus startup food entrepreneurs have received individualized business counseling services through the program, and 14 have graduated from it. In 2020, 170 local entrepreneurs were mentored, with 11 launching a new food startup and six graduating to their own facilities.

Ryan Bolhuis, culinary operations manager at the Downtown Market, said he is “encouraged by the way the West Michigan community has supported our local

businesses this year.”

“I am excited to see how the entrepreneurs in the incubator kitchen program continue to develop and prosper,” he said.

Worthem said it has been “wonderful” operating at the Downtown Market kitchen during the past six months.

“Ryan is great to work with; he’s got a lot of knowledge and insight, so he has helped us a lot as we’ve grown there … and it’s also been nice to talk to other businesses that are in that kitchen, to

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throw some ideas out there and hear their perspectives,” he said.

In 2021, the co-owners plan to continue building on their success and sharing their Swahili-Mexican dishes with Grand Rapids, while maintaining a focus on giving back to the community by continuing to offer free food at many events.

Shaw and Worthem said they are working toward getting a food truck for the 2021 season, and CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

INSIDE TRACK

Noordeloos applies multinational experience

rwatson@grbj.com

C

amila Noordeloos is a firm believer not only in the power of entrepreneurship to make the world better, but in the importance of fresh perspectives to make businesses stronger.

Born in Brazil as Camila Baldacci, and trilingual in French, English and Portuguese, Noordeloos has lived in four countries, three U.S. states and traveled across the world in her 33 years, and she is now harnessing her diverse experience as a principal at the investment firm Grand Ventures in downtown Grand Rapids.

She first lived in West Michigan as an exchange student at Rockford High School from 2002-03, which is where she met her now husband, Justin Noordeloos. She earned her undergraduate degree in business administration through The Federal University of Bahia in her hometown of Salvador, Brazil. While in college, she did a one-year study abroad program at Jean Moulin University Lyon III in France while also working to support herself. Her father, though born in Brazil, has French parents, and she holds French, Brazilian and U.S. citizenship.

Noordeloos said her parents, as entrepreneurs who owned a business together, set an example of hard work and were open about the highs and lows of business ownership in family conversations at the dinner table.

“That definitely shaped how I see things,” she said.

Although they encouraged her to be whatever she wanted to be, she said she has always had a “natural leaning” toward business and finance.

A decade ago, after college, she moved to the U.S. as her relationship became more serious and ultimately led to marriage. She got a job with GE about nine years ago and worked at the company’s cor-

porate headquarters — at the time located in Fairfield, Connecticut — where she stayed for two years.

Not long after they married, Noordeloos’s husband was offered a job as a senior account executive managing West Coast sales for Wolverine Worldwide in San Francisco. Noordeloos agreed it was an amazing opportunity, so the couple began preparing to relocate.

She told GE she was moving, and instead of saying, “So long,” the company offered her a job as a senior portfolio analyst at its new venture capital arm, GE Ventures, which was just being formed.

This kicked off her career in the venture capital sphere, which Noordeloos said she knew nothing about at the time. Her grounding in finance and business administration stood her in good stead, though. As part of a fledgling team, she had the opportunity to learn from senior management, including GE Ventures’ then CEO, Sue Siegel, who later went on to become chief innovation officer at GE and is now a lecturer at MIT. “She taught me that the best way to lead is by example and that a true leader focuses on one’s strengths and provides the right environment for those to shine,” Noordeloos said.

Over a half-decade period, Noordeloos played a crucial role in helping to establish the VC firm, which she said is now “one of the most active” in the country. She started there when it had only 20 people and around 30 investments, and when she left five years later, she was managing a portfolio of over 150 companies.

Noordeloos said it was exciting to be part of a young venture, investing in other young ventures, something she is still passionate about.

“It was learning that, ‘Hey, we have limited resources here. We have just a few people, but everyone is doing a little bit of everything, and we need to learn how to move fast; we need to get things

CAMILA NOORDELOOS Organization: Grand Ventures Position: Principal Age: 33 Birthplace: Salvador, Brazil Residence: Grand Rapids Family: Husband, Justin Noordeloos Community/Business Involvement: Wish granter for the local Make-AWish Foundation, member of the Latina Network of West Michigan, board observer for Sportsman Tracker in Grand Rapids, holds office hours for entrepreneurs through Start Garden and the Michigan Venture Capital Association Biggest Career Break: Having the opportunity to work for GE Ventures, the company’s corporate venture capital arm, when it was just getting off the ground. “That experience for me was extremely important, not only because I was learning venture capital and learning this new area of business and investments that I now have a career in, but I was also learning the other side of the spectrum, which is this startup mode that we invest in as venture capitalists.”

11

Camila Noordeloos helps entrepreneurs through Start Garden and the Michigan Venture Capital Association, lending advice on business strategy and fundraising. Courtesy Camila Noordeloos

Venture capital leader follows ‘natural leaning’ toward business to contribute in her sphere of influence.

Rachel Watson

JAN 11, 2021

done quickly.’ It was an incredible experience,” she said.

She learned not only about how venture capital works, but how startups operate, and how to best learn from the mentors and leaders she was being given incredible access to.

While working full time, Noordeloos earned an executive MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where her capstone project was co-founding with some classmates a media company called Imaginare Studios, geared toward helping parents raise confident girls using emotional development milestones as a guide. Although they eventually tabled the company, Noordeloos said it gave her firsthand experience in starting a business.

In 2018, Noordeloos and her husband began to feel that something was missing despite their stable income and professional success. They began to feel like they could be doing more with their lives, and so they took a nine-month sabbatical from work and traveled not only throughout the U.S., but to Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Chile, Zanzibar and Tanzania. In the latter country, they lived with a local family and worked as volunteer teachers for a month.

She said the trip didn’t necessarily lead to a particular “aha moment,” but it did create “headspace” so she could think about what truly inspires her and what really matters, versus merely checking the boxes that society presents.

“When you have that type of personal experience, you just see work with a different perspective forever, and I think that’s a little bit

what happened to me,” she said.

During the sabbatical, the couple came to the decision that it was time to return to the Midwest to be closer to the Noordeloos side of the family. After considering Chicago as an option, they instead decided on West Michigan, where they felt they could leverage their diverse experiences seeing the world to make a more “meaningful and direct” impact.

Noordeloos accepted her current position at Grand Ventures in April 2019 and has put down some roots in the community, although she said the COVID-19 pandemic derailed some of her intentions to do more. Still, she is doing what she can. She is a wish granter for the local Make-A-Wish Foundation, an active member of the Latina Network of West Michigan and a board observer for Sportsman Tracker in Grand Rapids, which she helped advise through the COVID-19 crisis as one of Grand Ventures’ portfolio investment companies.

She also holds office hours for entrepreneurs through Start Garden and the Michigan Venture Capital Association, lending advice on business strategy and fundraising, and she attends virtual panels, roundtables and webinars to bring diversity of thought to conversations in the region.

Noordeloos said the cross-cultural experiences she has had since high school help her keep an open mind, welcome people from different cultures and work to check her biases, which everyone has. Her experience also has convinced her that organizations are stronger if their teams come from diverse backgrounds, including

race, ethnicity, gender and even in smaller things, like having different hobbies.

Although she said she doesn’t believe multinational experience makes a person better than others who have lived in fewer places, she does think it can bring the ability to stay calm and open to possibilities when people come together in one space to solve problems. “(My cultural experiences) allow me to think of business in the same way — what are the alternatives? Let’s not freak out about something; let’s think about different ways to do things, because it is possible to do things in different ways,” she said.

After six years in the venture capital space, Noordeloos said she remains a believer in the power of entrepreneurship to grow people and improve the world.

“What I love about venture capital and what has kept me in this industry all these years is that there’s this constant questioning and challenging of the status quo.

There’s a can-do spirit of doing anything — like everything is possible. If it’s not working, let’s make it better,” she said.

“It’s been very refreshing to work with people in venture capital, one, because venture capital professionals are super smart a lot of times, and open-minded, and then two, they’re amazing, they’re courageous, they’re starting new companies, they’re dropping secure jobs somewhere to start from scratch and risk everything for something that they believe in — for the ability to do something better — and … you get motivated by their spirit.”

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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

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Downtowns struggle as former customers work from home But business districts are taking innovative measures to ensure retailers survive.

Zholdas Orisbayev Capital News Service

LANSING — Michigan downtowns are entering into long-term trouble, business experts say.

“It’s not visible yet, but it’s clearly coming,” said Rob Fowler, chief executive officer at the Small Business Association of Michigan.

A key challenge is that downtown businesses lost a significant portion of their profits as the pandemic meant thousands of white-collar workers have been working remotely since March, Fowler said.

“Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan said their employers can work remotely through 2021 and employees of DTE and Consumers Energy are staying remote at least through June 2021,” he said.

General Motors and Ford Motor Co. say their white-collar workers will not return to their

workplaces until the end of June.

Moves like those mean that thousands of employees — and potential customers — are no longer in Michigan downtowns, Fowler said.

“Many businesses are reconsidering their office spaces as a portion of their workforce can permanently be remote, which decreases the consumer base of downtowns,” he said.

Empty commercial real estate offices are skyrocketing, he said.

“It’s preventing the resurgence of downtowns, especially in Detroit and Grand Rapids.”

About 47% of Michigan’s small businesses have lost at least one employee since February, according to a recent survey by Fowler’s group. And 75% of them expect sales to be down. About 10% of small business owners think that they cannot make it.

“Our September survey showed that 42% believe that they cannot be profitable in the current environment,” Fowler said.

Local business groups are fighting back.

Commercial real estate is not in demand at the level of the pre-pandemic period, but it can

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adapt to the new business environment, said Lindsey Dotson, director of the Charlevoix Main Street Downtown Development Authority.

“Office spaces are obsolete, and we are thinking of how those spaces can be adapted to continue to generate profit,” Dotson said.

“Currently, we have two commercial real estate companies in Charlevoix downtown in the process of converting those empty spaces into housing units, as we have a huge shortage in affordable housing.”

The authority owns and operates a coworking space called The Vault in downtown Charlevoix that has been generating more profit than it did in 2019.

“If you live 6 miles away out of town, you can’t set up Wi-Fi at home,” Dotson said. “Coworking spaces in large urban areas are doing terrible due to the pandemic, but spaces in small towns are still in demand because of the internet access issue in rural Michigan.”

Avoiding social isolation attracts people to coworking spaces and many students use the space to attend online classes.

Other Charlevoix businesses have created e-commerce websites and delivery services to do business in different ways due to the pandemic, she said.

Many downtown retailers are taking creative approaches to sell their products.

“One of the creative initiatives done by Downtown Lansing Inc. is virtual window shopping, where customers can purchase their product through scanning QR codes,” said Meegan Holland, vice president of communications and marketing for the Michigan Retailers Association. “They are bringing out-of-town retailers to fill empty storefronts with their products’ pictures and scannable codes on the side.”

Partnered with Michigan Premier Events, Downtown Lansing Inc. launched the Lift Up Local campaign where they recruited ambassadors and armed them with gift cards to encourage people to shop small downtown businesses.

“Buying from your favorite Michigan store this year will help them make it through this tough time and be there for you next year,” Holland said. “Sure, it’s convenient to send shopping dollars to online stores that are not located in Michigan. But that is not helping our economy and market at all.”

The state order limiting customers to 30% capacity is difficult, she said. “If your capacity is 10, then you can only have three people in the store, including you and your salesperson.”

Holland also said that some retailers in urban areas of Michigan haven’t opened their doors since the shutdown as they feel it’s not safe for them to do so yet, but they are still in business.

“They are doing Facebook Live videos to keep their customers updated and they are serving them now to sell later,” she said.

“And northern Michigan tourist cities had a great tourism season this summer as Michiganders preferred to travel in-state due to the COVID-19 restrictions in other states.”

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

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13

Calvin University includes high school students in its Spanish program Students who complete the program can earn a language minor before attending college.

For Calvin University, it increases enrollment in their 300-level Spanish classes and provides a cohort of students each year who will have a connection to the university and may be more likely to choose Calvin for their post-secondary education.”

TenHuisen said students who are enrolled in the Spanish Immersion program at Calvin University can get up to 18 college credit hours, depending on their AP examination scores, which goes toward a minor. Starting in their junior year, students can begin taking classes and can complete four courses during the rest of their high school careers.

“With the (required) results from the AP exam, students start at Calvin their junior year and they take one class the fall of their junior year, one course in the spring of their junior year, one course in the fall of their senior year and one course in the spring of their senior year,” he said.

“Those four courses plus their AP results, in most cases, will give them an equivalent of 18 hours. If they got a (score of ) 5 on the AP exam, they will have 18 hours. If they got a 4 on the AP exam, they will have 15 hours.”

After completing the first semester of the inaugural program at Calvin University, Spanish professor Abraham Ceballos-Zapata said all the high school students came ready and well prepared in the way they talked, discussed and engaged in different topics.

Savoie Bryce, a junior at Calvin Christian High School, said she has been enrolled in the Spanish Immersion program since kindergarten and she continued throughout her elementary, middle school and high school years.

“In elementary school, it was all day in Spanish,” she said. “All of our classes were in Spanish up until about fifth grade where it switched a bit. We had most of our classes in English and just two classes in Spanish. We had language and culture classes, where

we would learn grammar things or read and write in Spanish. It went back and forth every other year. One class would either be history, or it would be science.

In sixth grade, we had science in Spanish and in seventh grade we had history in Spanish. In ninth grade we, again, had two classes in Spanish. One was a language and grammar class and the other was our Bible class. In 10th and 11th grade, we had a Spanish class and then a history class.”

Ceballos-Zapata said the college course, Introduction to College-Level Spanish Studies, focused on the reading levels of students. The students attended classes on the Calvin University campus three days per week.

Much of the course involved

Michigan universities lose $1.2B to pandemic

meet financial challenges brought by the pandemic,” Murphy said.

The state government kept flat funding to public universities of $1.47 billion in the fiscal year of 2021, according to the association. But enrollment declines represent new funding struggles.

The state universities in northern Michigan experienced a slide in enrollment due to closed borders with Canada as the majority of international students at those institutions are Canadians. And other major institutions, such as the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University, received fewer international students due to the difficulties associated with arriving in the U.S. Fourteen of Michigan’s 15 public universities report enrollment drops from 2% to 7%, according to data gathered by Capital News Service.

Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie has experienced a slight decline of 2.8%, which is 55 fewer students in overall enrollment when compared with fall 2019.

University President Rodney

Danielle Nelson

dnelson@grbj.com

Students at Grandville Calvin Christian Schools can earn a minor in Spanish at Calvin University.

The university last fall concluded the first semester of its inaugural Spanish Immersion program. The school welcomed the first cohort of high-schoolers who, according to Dwight TenHuisen, chair of the Spanish department at Calvin University, completed and passed their Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish Language and Culture course and examination their sophomore year.

Calvin’s Spanish Immersion program provides high school students the opportunity to further learn and understand the Spanish language and culture at the collegiate level after being immersed in the program since they were kindergarteners.

“We approached Calvin University because we knew that a partnership between the schools could be mutually beneficial,” said Katy Rozema, Spanish Immersion director for Grandville Calvin Christian Schools. “For us, it could minimize some of the challenges of implementing a high school Spanish Immersion program and add some additional benefits for our students that wouldn’t be available at the high school. Students can participate in advanced Spanish language courses, develop academic literacy skills, establish college readiness and earn college credit while in high school.

“Students even have the opportunity to earn a Spanish minor before graduating from high school.

Only one school, Wayne State, reported an enrollment increase Zholdas Orisbayev Capital News Service

LANSING — Enrollment is down at almost every public university in Michigan, causing senior administrators to cut payroll to hold the line on tuition increases and meet new costs caused by the pandemic.

“We expect $1.2 billion in financial hits to the budgets of (Michigan’s) 15 state universities for the fiscal year as a result of the pandemic,” said Bob Murphy, chief policy officer of the Michigan Association of State Universities.

On average, 22% of the univer-

sities’ budgets comes from state funding and the other 78% comes from student tuition, according to the group that represents the state’s public universities.

“This is a national trend,” Murphy said. “For several decades, states are providing less and less funding for public universities, and university budgets rely enormously on tuition payments.”

The unexpected pandemic has university administrators cutting pay, laying off employees and deferring construction to meet new budget limits.

“The state universities are taking measures like the elimination of nonessential expenditures, hiring and salary freezes, voluntary staff furloughs and reduced hours, postponement of construction projects, reserve funds freeze, and reallocation of a portion of college/unit budgets to

reading one or two long, in-depth Spanish articles per week that spanned multiple pages. Some of the articles focused on indigenous communities in Latin America and Afro-Latino communities in Latin America.

Although Melissa Scholten, a junior at Calvin Christian High School, will earn a minor in Spanish when she graduates from high school, if her academic career continues on its current trajectory, she said she is still undecided on what she wants to do in college.

But she knows her minor in Spanish will prove to be beneficial.

“I hope to use this at my job because I know it opens so many more doors to be able to communicate with different types of people and I know it will look great

on resumes,” she said. “People like having that extra skill set without having to use a translator.”

Even though this will be the first academic year for the Spanish Immersion program at Calvin University, TenHuisen said district officials already are looking to improve the program.

“We have agreed to organize summer trips, three-week trips for students, which will give them academic credit,” he said. “It would be a short-term semester abroad at a host institution either in Mexico, Peru, Spain or Honduras.”

TenHuisen said next year the plan is to add Grand Rapids Christian Schools and West Michigan Christian Schools to the progeram.

Only Calvin Christian High School students are involved this year, but the program could expand to other Christian schools in the fall. Courtesy Nora Koster

S. Hanley said his school’s enrollment increased in two areas: 5.6% for first-time, full-time students, and 30% for transfer students, despite an overall enrollment decline.

“We switched to online-only teaching for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester and the summer 2020 term and we, unfortunately, had to lay off 72 staff members,” Hanley said. “The overwhelming majority were called back to work by the end of summer as we began to transition to face-to-face teaching again for the fall 2020 semester.”

Saginaw Valley State University has 119 fewer international students this year, which accounted for more than half of the school’s total revenue decline.

“We project a deficit of $8.7 million in the general fund for the current fiscal year,” said J.J Boehm, interim executive director of university communications.

Housing, dining and other auxiliary operations are projected to see a $6 million revenue drop, he said. At the same time, costs increase for personal protective equipment, technology and other

items that are needed to respond to the pandemic.

The university froze tuition, recognizing the financial challenges facing many students and families, he said. And it postponed some construction projects and deferred some maintenance. About 36 faculty and staff positions were eliminated, most of which were vacant and senior administrators agreed to pay cuts of 5% to 10%.

Grand Valley State University expects to spend approximately $16 million in COVID-related costs despite the revenue lost from enrollment, and that figure doesn’t include federal CARES Act funding, according to Dottie Barnes, associate director of news at the university.

The university president donated 10% of her salary and all vice presidents and deans donated 5% of their salaries to the Student Support Fund to help students with tuition.

Eastern Michigan University froze salaries for all administrative employees and implemented CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

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Site gives Firm creates path to equity in finance helpers a helping hand CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

nience of a dedicated online help platform in his situation, but in March 2020, his neighbor passed away, leaving behind three daughters who had to manage his affairs.

Wicksall developed an offline model of what would eventually be the current NeedU platform, which helped other neighbors organize help for their late neighbor’s surviving family.

When Starr’s girlfriend at the time had to deal with her father’s passing, the two had an outpouring of friends and family asking if they could help, but Starr said he brushed them off and told them he had it taken care of.

“What you don’t realize is it’s not just the funeral. It’s not just the estate planning, and it’s not just the financial planning,” Starr said. “It was so much more than what I thought it would be.”

“When big events take place it becomes a real deterrent to seeking help,” Eggerichs said. “It’s a hurdle, and we want to basically make that hurdle as easy as possible to get over it. It is in our nature to help, but not so much as to ask for it.”

Users, whether they personally need help or are helping someone, can create a page on needu.org.

The link can be shared via email, text or social media, and the pages also have a feature where people who have access to the URL can edit the list of needs.

“You could build a page and think of what you need, but somebody else might have a better idea than you, so they can go to the page and add to it,” Eggerichs said.

NeedU also includes options to set requests for a specific date or repeating dates, like if someone needs their yard mowed every Tuesday.

Wicksall added NeedU was designed to address a gap in the competitive landscape of other help-oriented websites, combining the crowdsourcing of sites like GoFundMe and Facebook Fundraiser with the planning and service elements of sites like Angie’s List, and creating a personal NeedU page is completely free.

“We’re not just trying to start the next tech company,” Wicksall said. “We just want to help people, and we believe if we get it out there, people really want to help.”

NeedU is currently in the test phase, and the founders are bootstrapping the project with the hopes of getting as many eyes on it as possible.

“Our goal is to basically pressure test this,” Eggerichs said. “We don’t want to build something that isn’t going to help people.”

NeedU has gotten a positive reception in the two months it has been up, Wicksall said. With several personal sites already active, the team behind NeedU is pursuing partnerships with religious organizations, florists and funeral homes, and also is working to bring new talent on board through partnerships with local universities.

“We are so proud of this year’s graduating Greenleaf Trust Scholars,” said William Johnston, Greenleaf Trust founder and chair.

“While we would have loved to celebrate their hard work and tremendous accomplishments in person, we will not let our inability to do so stand in the way of giving them the recognition they deserve.

These students have faced 2020 with such resiliency, and we congratulate them on their successful college careers and brilliant futures.”

Johnston founded the Greenleaf Trust Scholarship a year after his firm opened its doors, with the long-term goal of changing the face of finance. He saw how the lack of representation of students of color pursuing and graduating college with a degree in finance was a detriment to building a diverse workforce and was hurting the wealth management industry as a whole.

In 1999, he founded the Greenleaf Trust Scholarship to increase diversity in these areas of higher education, as well as in the professional field of finance. In the 21 years since, 81 students have received scholarships totaling about $1.672 million in paid tuition.

The scholarship selection process is handled by the firm’s human resources department, led

by Karen Baldwin and assisted by coordinators including co-leader Kimberly Dudley, who said the department puts out a call for appli-

cations each year at Western and conducts interviews to make the selections.

Greenleaf Trust also provides opportunities for a couple students per semester to complete an internship at the company.

Scholars who are offered the internship have the opportunity to rotate through four divisions of the company: personal trust/wealth management, operations, research and retirement planning. During their internship, they are provided a mentor with whom they meet regularly to receive feedback and coaching.

Over 30 students have interned at Greenleaf since 1999, including Warr, a Greenleaf Trust Scholarship recipient and 2020 Western graduate who was recently hired into the firm’s wealth management division after falling in love with the practice during his internship there.

Warr said finance has always been a passion of his.

“I always wanted to gain the knowledge of finance and the workings of it, and not only that, but to be able to pass along that knowledge to clients and other individuals in my community who lack that knowledge,” he said.

“Many of the scholars, we come from backgrounds where not all of us have family members who have gone to college, so it is taking a risk to go to college and take on the bill of tuition — but then coming across a scholarship such as this relieves that pressure for you and

your family, and it’s just been quite the journey of self-growth.”

He said the scholarship from Greenleaf allowed him to experience the rigor of being a full-time student while still doing extracurricular activities, including teaching financial principles to middle school and high school students through the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, which he still does now.

“This program not only encompasses all of those things, but (also) helps you build a network of other professional individuals in the area, and that’s what my experience has been like,” he said. “I’m sure there are many other scholars who feel the same way, and we also try to stay connected, whether it be through LinkedIn or what have you. It creates a family, and we all try to help one another, no matter where we are or what we’re doing at that time.”

Warr earned from Western an associate degree in accounting and a bachelor’s in finance with a minor in economics. He started his internship in the retirement planning division at Greenleaf’s Kalamazoo office, followed by the research department, then wealth management, which is where he found his perfect fit and was offered a job.

“That’s where I found my home.

You’re a bit more client-facing, and there’s never a dull moment; there’s always something new that you’re faced with,” he said.

Warr said he is happy to be

where he is.

“I am honored to work for a company that has made it a pillar of their core beliefs to give opportunities to people of color in the finance industry, and, as mentioned earlier, were doing so much before it was in the mainstream media, so you know where the heart of the company lies and that they’re truly in your corner and they want to see you succeed,” he said. “And this is evident through the many different scholars that I come in contact with on a regular basis.”

Dudley said it’s impressive to realize that of the 81 scholars in the program’s history, more than 30 of them also have done internships at Greenleaf Trust.

“It is very satisfying to work with these students because you can see them grow, and when they come in for that one-year internship, and they go through the different divisions and they’re able to see what (different opportunities) a finance scholarship can look like, whether you’re working client-facing or if you’re working on Excel spreadsheets, the (variety), and so I think it’s very helpful.”

As of now, Johnson said the scholarship program is only for WMU students, but the firm is considering opening it up to colleges and universities in southeast Michigan, where it has an office in Birmingham.

More information on the Greenleaf Trust Scholarship program is at greenleaftrust.com/ careers/scholarships.

Design firm launches furniture company for K-6 students CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“We focused in pretty quickly on young kids, K-6, and the challenges encountered with young students and their parents, caregivers and educators while studying at home. We realized that there was a gap in the market and very little product out there that was done really well for kids, who are obviously smaller in size and scale than us adults, so we began in earnest in August investing in product development and product mockups.”

From the research phase through product in a box, the team compressed its usual process into about 90 days, moving quickly from research (including focus groups) to sketches, ideation, mockups and prototypes, to concept development and production launch, while simultaneously working on supply chain issues, a marketing plan, and Fredricks Design’s other existing, unrelated projects.

Minimum wage hike must wait CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

“We never know how long we’ll recover,” Hammond said.

“Some businesses never come back, or they’ll never be what they

Maury Fredricks said his team’s goal was to create sustainable, durable, affordable furniture that is adjustable as kids grow and that has a marker board separator between two facing desks — and they wanted to be able to have it manufactured locally and shipped from the factory to customers’ homes for quick and easy assembly.

“The (first) challenge was to pull our team back and ourselves back and breathe a little bit and let the problem statement gestate, if you will, to percolate a little bit,” he said.

“The second challenge was we wanted to keep the designs extremely efficient, or lean as we call it — smart and with minimal components using really high-end case goods, material and common fasteners. … It’s somewhat magical when you achieve that balance between form and function, material and color selections, and fit and finish and all of the above, while focusing on product that we want-

ed to ship to the consumer ready to assemble in less than 10 minutes.”

Freddy LLC was able to translate its vision into reality working with Nunica-based Versatile as its manufacturing partner.

The resulting furniture line includes the Freddy Desk System, a dual work surface, adjustable desk unit with a marker board, priced at $399, and the Freddy Wall Mount, a single-user work surface that is mounted to the wall with a marker board and costs $249.

The new furniture also provides storage space for organization of study tools.

“The Freddy desk and wall mount unit are engineered to ergonomic standards to fit young students from 5 to 12 years of age,” Maury Fredricks said. “We identified a market opportunity to deliver furniture that helps kids focus on studies and creative work in the home.”

The creation of Freddy Furniture resulted in “a huge lift in

morale,” Maury Fredricks said, because it’s the nature of creative and technical teams to always want to be solving a problem and adding value. It also was great for them to be able to see the end product, which he said is not usually the case with the other designs they do for tier one suppliers through Fredricks Design Inc. If all goes according to plan, the team at Freddy LLC will continue to work on additional children’s products for study, artwork and play.

The company hopes to expand to business-to-business sales in the near future, designing versions of its modular products that can be used in college dorms, libraries and classrooms in the education sphere, as well as products that will appeal to the hospitality industry for hotel rooms.

More information on Freddy Furniture and its online shop for the desk and wall mount products is at freddyfurnitureUSA.com.

were. It could take decades or one month. It all depends on who you are. The restaurant industry, how long will it take for the restaurant industry to come back? We don’t know. What will the long-term future of tourism, hotels, lodging, and the auto industries look like? There are a lot of variables.

They could just take off because of unknown factors that come up, or they could drop or stay

stagnant. We just don’t know.

We know in this state, in Michigan, there are some segments of the economy that have been able to weather the industrial decline.”

If there is hope for an improved unemployment rate and businesses reopening, it might be in a relief bill that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed in late December, which includes “$55 million

to help small businesses impacted by COVID-19. Grants of up to $20,000 will be made available to small businesses across the state that need support this winter. The relief bill also includes $3.5 million for grants of up to $40,000 each for live music and entertainment venues and $45 million in direct payments to workers who have been laid off or furloughed as a result of the virus.”

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15

Vegan cultivates ‘guilt-free’ sweets business CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3

ry education, so I don’t have a cooking background; I just like to cook with my family — and so I brought it to the pitch competition amongst the other businesses, and honestly, when they called my name, I kind of looked around like, ‘Oh, he’s talking to me!’ I had brought samples for the judges to try the ice cream, and when they tried it, they loved it. I got great feedback. The 5x5 award allowed me the opportunity to get some schooling under my belt and get some support through the (Michigan Small Business Development Center).”

“Whether the food restriction is by choice or not, I believe that no allergy, dietary lifestyle choice or anything should prevent you from being able to enjoy one of life’s greatest joys — ice cream.”

Kalene McElveen While she initially planned a full rollout of Tastefull in April 2020, McElveen paused to focus on her family at the start of the pandemic, then launched her business through the Grand Rapids Downtown Market’s incubator kitchen, at 435 Ionia Ave. SW, in July.

The incubator kitchen is a program that provides “customized business counseling to budding and existing food entrepreneurs in a supportive and flexible environment that fosters production and creativity in a licensed commercial kitchen,” according to the market. Since its beginnings in 2013, 1,000-plus startup food entrepreneurs have received individualized business counseling services through the program, and 14 have graduated

from it. In 2020, 170 local entrepreneurs were mentored, with 11 launching a new food startup and six graduating to their own facilities.

McElveen said her business really started to take off this fall, when she participated in the Black Entrepreneurs Expo at Woodland Mall. She completely sold out of her Tastefull products at the event and further established her customer base, which she said continues to support the business through online orders that she fulfills through home delivery and curbside service at the Downtown Market.

The incubator kitchen has given McElveen a great deal of flexibility in her fledgling business, she said, as she is still homeschooling her kids full time and working one day a week on the side. She also feels like she has been receiving a lot of support and mentorship from the kitchen managers and from the other business owners.

“I didn’t feel like I was just thrown out in the wild, like, ‘Go figure this out,’” she said. “Everyone is very knowledgeable, and they’re very humble and willing to share information.”

Best of all, McElveen said the support from the Downtown Market and Start Garden have allowed her to connect with the exact customers she has wanted to help all along.

“What made me the happiest was when I won 5x5, I was starting to get comments from people that were posting on the picture from 5x5, and they were saying, ‘Oh my gosh, I haven’t had ice cream in so long because it’s got eggs, or because it’s got nuts, so now I can eat ice cream again!’

That’s the purpose behind why I did Tastefull, to be able to help people that have been without be able to enjoy it … and to make it so delicious that you don’t recognize that there is no refined sugar, or there’s no nuts, there’s no eggs, there’s no milk, but it’s still

creamy, it’s still good, and it can still be your guilty pleasure, or (rather) your guilt-free pleasure,” McElveen said.

On the other side of COVID-19, when it is safe to do so, McElveen said she dreams of opening an old-school-style creamery or malt shop that will offer vegan

ice cream and other frozen treats in West Michigan.

“There’s such a support behind Michigan-made products and supporting local — when you have organizations like Bridge Street Market that really are funneling in product from local small businesses — the support

here, it already exists. I feel like I would not want to start anywhere else other than the place that supported me from the ground up.”

More information about Tastefull Vegan Frozen Desserts and online ordering is available at tastefullvegan.com.

Luxe Artisan Preserves grows and plans CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

chef — has offered a wealth of knowledge to Luxe and the other food businesses in the incubator.

Although Slaikeu had to pause her business for part of the year due to COVID-19, she said she is grateful for the time it provided for her to further develop her concept.

“The pandemic was an opportunity for me to evaluate what is most important to me and align myself with those things as consistently as possible,” she said. “It was a blessing in disguise for me.

I was able to spend a significant amount of time working on the business, instead of in the business; most entrepreneurs know how challenging that can be. I spent a lot of time in research and development, engaging with my customers on a more intimate level.”

Slaikeu noted the versatility of Luxe’s products, with her cus-

tomers posting photos on social media showing they use the preserves not primarily as a breakfast item, such as a spread on toast, but as a cooking ingredient in dishes, a marinade for meats, a pairing/accompaniment for hors d’oeuvres and an “accessory,” i.e., a slight drizzle on some of their favorite desserts and dishes.

“Luxe can be used to change the traditional construct of a dish,” she said. “That’s the part I think I’m most proud of and one of the reasons I continue to make it. Even though people might enjoy cooking, we just don’t have a lot of time to be in the kitchen … so why not take a product where you can have salmon three nights a week and just change the profile of the marinade you use, and it tastes totally different every single night? That’s one of the goals of Luxe is to provide ease to people in the kitchen and still have their food taste really, really good.”

Luxe sells products online and at Capital City Market in Lansing, and Slaikeu said she is looking to place her goods in a grocery store with locations across the U.S., if all goes well, with the eventual goal of doing international sales at retail stores, hotels, resorts and even restaurants someday, after the industry has had space to recover.

She said her expansions in 2021 will focus on adding more flavor profiles to her line of preserves, while also growing her brand to include new product lines, such as luxury self-care items.

Slaikeu is currently handling all her own production, sales, marketing and social media, but she said she hopes to eventually hire employees once it is safe to do so.

More information about Luxe Artisan Preserves and online ordering is available at luxepreserves.com.

Hope and Healing From your home or office.

Workers providing direct care face emotionally challenging task CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

ents and fellow workers.

In the early days of the pandemic, when most people thought the lockdown would only last a couple of weeks, several direct care workers got together and covered the shift of a fellow worker who was pregnant at the time.

“We had staff who told this woman, ‘we want you to be safe so we’ll go in and take care of your clients,’” Van Den Bosch said.

During the flooding crisis in the middle part of the state earlier this year, Samaritas had a blind patient at its Midland facility who could not be relocated without exposing that individual to severe trauma. Instead, one care worker volunteered to stay with the client and support them emotionally through the crisis.

“That person is making $12 an hour, and he just sacrificed that time,” Van Den Bosch said. “I will take no credit for this. I just think there are saints out there, and we are fortunate to have some of them working for us. I think these people stick around because they feel like they’re part of the team. They feel like they have a say and they’re making a difference in people’s lives.”

As the pandemic has left many Americans isolated at home, and even without the prospect of employment, Van Den Bosch encouraged people to get out and be part of a team.

“In joining a team like Samaritas and getting involved, you can do something so rewarding,” he said. “These are unprecedented times right now, but there are people who can help you use the skills you already have.”

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16

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 11, 2021

COMMENT & OPINION

GUEST COLUMN David Van Andel

As pandemic continues, mental health is key

T

he COVID-19 pandemic has forced seismic shifts in our daily lives. It has brutalized our economy and left many jobless. It has claimed too many of our loved ones and created many uncertainties in our lives personally and professionally.

These challenges are exacerbating an already serious problem in our country. In October, the American Psychological Association published its Stress in America 2020 report, which found that the many stressors caused by COVID-19 were intensifying a national mental health crisis. In the report, 78% of adults reported that the pandemic is a significant source of stress in their lives. The APA also found that 61% of adults reported that they had not sought or received help for their mental health struggles.

We will turn the tide against COVID-19, but just as it is important to safeguard our physical health against the effects of the virus, we must remember to give the same attention to our mental health.

Adults are not the only ones feeling this strain. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published in November found a staggering increase in mental health-related visits to emergency rooms for children between 2

and 17 years old.

In the face of these alarming trends, it is clear that we cannot ignore the mental health crisis that is unfolding. As a society, we have in recent years grown more willing to discuss mental health, an important shift that has helped destigmatize conditions such as depression. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has made mental health issues worse. We can help decrease its burden by remaining willing to discuss our struggles with our loved ones and mental health professionals.

At Van Andel Institute, our scientists have spent years studying depression. While we have not studied how COVID-19 may impact mental health, our work has identified many root causes of depression. Social and psychological stressors play a large role, and growing evidence also points to biological factors such as prolonged inflammation. Our scientists who work in this area collaborate with doctors and mental health professionals at institutions across the country, as well as local ones like Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services.

The pandemic has underscored the urgency of the work happening at VAI and other organizations to better understand the complex web of factors that give rise to depression. We have much work yet to do. But right now, there are many real consequences to the physical and mental health damage caused by COVID-19.

Please do not hesitate to seek help if you or a loved one need it. Whatever your circumstance,

there are mental health resources available at michigan.gov/staywell.

The psychological effects of the pandemic will continue to compound. We will turn the tide against COVID-19, but just as it is important to safeguard our physical health against the effects of the virus, we must remember to give the same attention to our

mental health.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is free and available 24/7 at (800) 273-8255. The Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services Psychiatric Urgent Care Center can be reached at (616) 557-7839 or toll-free at (877) 242-1879. David Van Andel is chairman and CEO of Van Andel Institute.

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GUEST COLUMN Betsy Freeman

Cybersecurity is everyone’s business

T

he recent news regarding the major cybersecurity breach impacting federal agencies and Fortune 500 companies is alarming. How can the U.S., with all of its security measures and countermeasures, still find itself a victim to what appears to be a foreign-led cyber hack?

While experts are investigating the complex circumstances around this breach, initial reports indicate a vulnerability identified in the third-party supply chain of a key commercial contractor.

That’s a wake-up call to big business and prime contractors that it’s time to quit giving lip service to your third-party risk management program and work with small business supply chain vendors to help them achieve a necessary level of security. It’s time to move beyond compliance-based programs alone.

While regulatory compliance is important, it does not equal security.

Only time will tell the full extent

of the damage from the federal agency infiltration. But there is an early lesson to be learned — if one of the most sophisticated cybersecurity systems in the world can be breached, then aren’t we as individuals, businesses and institutions just as vulnerable?

It might be easy to distance ourselves from the federal government’s cyber woes. After all, most of us don’t keep critical unclassified military information, federal budgets, or vaccine production schedules on our laptops. But take a moment to think about the information we do store. Credit card purchases.

Bank statements. Medical records.

Personal and professional network contacts. And the list goes on.

Often, cyber hacks make the headlines when federal agencies or global businesses are targeted. But this type of criminal activity is going on every day and is aimed at small business and individuals, meaning we are all at risk. We can’t stop the perpetrators from attempting to steal our information, but we can take the right steps to lower our risk by effectively managing our data and devices.

For local business owners, educational leaders and municipalities, the first step is to acknowledge that you are at risk. Don’t lull yourself into thinking that cyber criminals have no interest in your data. Practice cybersecurity basics: teach your employees and staff to avoid phishing emails, regularly change passwords

and ensure that your antivirus programs are up-to-date. Then, choose to invest in an assessment of your company’s current security status and create a roadmap to close identified security gaps. There are many firms that can help you with the assessment, road mapping and security planning. Do your homework and find a good one that you can afford and that aligns with your business goals. Finally, invest in an affordable “cyber insurance” policy, just in case anything does happen.

For the individual, many of the same rules apply. Change your passwords regularly. When your mobile phone says “please update your device,” do it immediately!

Avoid making purchases on unsecured networks, i.e., at places that don’t require a password to log onto the internet. And, after a busy holiday marked by above average online shopping, review your bank statements and other reports to spot any suspicious or mysterious entries and report them to your financial or credit card institution.

Cybersecurity is not a project with an end-date. It demands a vigilance-based mindset. Most of LETTERS POLICY: The Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and guest commentary. Letters and columns must include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the philosophy of the Business Journal.

all it requires action. Studies have documented that a preponderance of breaches occur in known areas of vulnerability that simply have not been addressed.

That’s a wake-up call to big business and prime contractors that it’s time to quit giving lip service to your third-party risk management program and work with small business supply chain vendors to help them achieve a necessary level of security.

Act now to deny cyber criminals the opportunity to access your sensitive personal data and information by implementing good cybersecurity basics.

Betsy Freeman is the founder and CEO of Radius Advisory Group LLC, a cyber security consultancy in Holland.

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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

Consider erosion control construction contracts for lakefront work L tract. The contract should include a reference to your detailed project plans and specifications. It also should define the term “work” to include all labor, materials, equipment, services and documentation necessary to construct the project so the contractor does not charge you for any “extra” work.

It is important you implement a qualified bid process to select the best contractors with the optimum solutions for your property.

The contract should provide the location for storage of materials and equipment, and set forth that the contractor will be responsible for providing all sources of utilities, barges, boats, cranes and other equipment required to construct this unique work. It also should establish realistic completion dates.

Since timing for completion of the work is critical, liquidated damages and/or success fees should be considered to ensure timely completion of the project.

In addition, your contract must contain the contract price and

address the following pricing concerns, including whether: • The contract price will be paid on a lump sum, unit price, cost of the work plus a fee or guaranteed maximum price basis • The contract price includes the contractor paying for all general condition costs, taxes, bonds, insurance, permits and other fees, or if the contractor will be reimbursed for such expenses • The process for reviewing and approving the work before payment is required, which should include the contractor delivering sworn statements and lien waivers as a condition of payment • The contract price will be paid based on the contractor submitting monthly payment applications with the percentage of work being paid based on a schedule of values or completion of milestones • A 10% holdback or retention will be required on all monthly progress or milestone payments Construction projects almost always involve changes, which should be addressed by the parties executing written change orders. If a change order process is not included in your contract, it is highly likely you may end up in a dispute over how to complete the additional work. Such dispute will likely

result in costly delays, shutdowns and/or litigation. On the other hand, a detailed change order process will help avoid disputes and will keep your project on schedule for timely completion.

Your erosion control construction contract also should include provisions for insurance coverages, payment and performance bonds, warranties, indemnification and dispute resolution clauses.

The bid process that leads to preparing a request for proposal, or RFP, can be as complicated as the contract itself. Retaining an experienced construction law attorney to help you prepare the RFP and other bid documents will give you more confidence in selecting the best qualified contractor for your project — and then negotiating an erosion control construction contract that protects both you and your property. While this is an upfront investment, professional legal help will undoubtedly save money, time and frustration down the road — and, potentially, your lakefront home.

Tamara M. Reeves is a litigator at Warner Norcross + Judd LLP who concentrates her practice on commercial real estate and general commercial disputes. She can be reached at treeves@wnj.com.

GUEST COLUMN Scott Patchin

5 indications you need a plan, and 4 questions to get started I

spend a lot of time with leaders and leadership teams as an EOS Implementer. While these partnerships are initiated for many different reasons, a majority of them result from a frustration the leader is experiencing.

Five very common such frustrations I hear are: 1. “I’m tired of working late to deal with issues while my team leaves on time. How do I fix that?”

2. “Our sales have been flat for years, even though our market is growing. How do I fix that?”

3. “When I’m gone, my leadership team fails to meet and delays decisions until I return. How do I fix that?”

4.

“Most of our sales come from one or two customers, and I’m getting nervous because sales are slowing. How do I fix that?”

5. “I keep trying to spend more time away from work to test what retirement will look like, and I always have to come back to fix things. How do I fix that?”

All of these situations share two common realities: • The root cause of each of these problems lies in an unclear plan and an inability of the team to work as a true leadership team to

17

GUEST COLUMN

GUEST COLUMN Tamara M. Reeves

ake Michigan flooding and erosion caused tremendous property damage and severe financial loss to lakefront property owners in 2020. To prevent a repeat in 2021, it is critical to take steps this winter to protect your property — before water levels begin their seasonal springtime increase.

For most, this means installing or making improvements to their existing breakwall, seawall or stone barrier walls. Be sure to hire reputable design professionals and contractors who will provide you with the most cost-efficient solutions for protecting your property. Not all contractors are created equal, though, and it’s true that “you get what you pay for.” It is important you implement a qualified bid process to select the best contractors with the optimum solutions for your property.

After selecting your contractor, you will want to make sure your contract sets forth who has the responsibility to obtain the requisite building permits and governmental approvals. Your contract also must contain a clear description of the scope of work for the project. While you may have discussed your goals with your design professional, you will want to ensure the work is accurately reflected in the con-

JAN 11, 2021

give traction to the plan. The fix is tackling these issues is to pick a that simple, but not that easy. target, go into a room and have a • You will never fix it alone. discussion around a plan. At the The big shift that’s needed is to core of any plan is grappling with change your question to “How do these four questions: we fix that?”

1.

What are we trying to The reason I start the Hon- achieve? est Culture Journey with setting 2. What is our current state clear targets is because your team with regard to accomplishing that needs to get used to working to- achievement? gether on plans, and you need to 3. What are the key steps we become skilled need to take at leading a disto achieve that cussion, versus target?

You’ll burn yourself just telling 4. out trying to hold people what What are the to do. You’ll questions everyone accountable. key burn yourself that we must out trying to answer to inYour job as a leader is hold everyone crease our certo create conditions accountable. tainty to 90% Your job as that we will where accountability a leader is to successfully create condiachieve this can happen. tions where goal? (Brainaccountability storm a list of can happen. Creating an atmo- questions, including whether you sphere that promotes accountabil- have the right people in the right ity creates momentum, whereas seats to do this work; pick the top merely trying to enforce account- 3 to 5 questions; and make sure ability maintains a culture cen- the actions to answer them are intered around you and your energy cluded in the plan.) to direct all of the work.

The final step in executing a A highly effective solution to plan is the hard part of doing all of

this work. Ownership of different pieces of the plan needs to shift to other leaders, who must accept complete accountability for getting the work done. Your role as the leader is to become a coach by checking in, removing barriers, breaking ties when the team cannot reach a consensus and keeping ownership of the process in the hands of the team. If you want 2021 to look different than 2020 in terms of the results of your business, now is the time to start building and executing a plan.

Scott Patchin is a Certified EOS Implementer and author of the newly released book, “Truth at the Heart: How honesty, trust, and teamwork can transform your business.” A special feature of the book is insights to leadership from a diverse group of six experienced leaders. The book is available at Amazon.com.

Steven A. Palazzolo

Employers can mandate vaccines — to a point

L

ong before the first COVID-19 vaccine made its big debut, questions flew about whether employers could require workers to get one as a condition of employment.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, which enforces laws against workplace discrimination, recently gave us guidance on this — sort of.

On one hand, the guidance makes clear getting vaccinated is not considered a medical examination, so employers don’t have to show that the vaccine itself meets the “job-related and consistent with business necessity” standard of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, for employee medical examinations for current employees.

However, because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, recommends pre-screening questions to ensure there are no medical reasons that would prevent an individual from receiving the vaccine, the updated guidance puts employers on notice that these questions are likely subject to the ADA. For these disability-related inquiries, employers must establish whether the questions are “job-related and consistent with business necessity” unless the vaccination is either voluntary or administered by a third party who does not have a contract with the employer.

So, if employers are going to require employees to get the vaccine on their own, can the employer ask for proof the employee was vaccinated? Yes, they can — and that is not a problem under the ADA. Without actually ever saying a mandatory vaccination policy is acceptable, the updated guidance specifically states employers are permitted to implement a “qualification standard” that an individual “shall not pose a direct threat to the health or safety of individuals in the workplace.”

But the guidance goes on to state if such a “safety-based qualification standard, such as a vaccination requirement” screens out or tends to screen out individuals with disability, the employer must show an unvaccinated employee would pose a “direct threat” as defined by the ADA. The EEOC notes: “If an employer determines that an individual who cannot be vaccinated due to disability poses a direct threat at the worksite, the employer cannot exclude the employee from the workplace — or take any other action — unless there is no way to provide a reasonable accommodation, absent undue hardship, as that is defined by the ADA, that would eliminate or reduce this risk so the unvaccinated employee does not pose a direct threat.”

Employers must do individualized assessments of employees CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

18

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 11, 2021

GUEST COLUMN Brooks Crankshaw

GUEST COLUMN Brad Gramlin

Ownership transition for HVAC The future companies: look back, think forward of business already here T N

he market for transitioning ownership of HVAC companies has long been active, and 2020 was no exception. With the entrance of new players, I interviewed several owners and investors to gather some common themes in the industry.

Sellers should take note of what investors deem to be valuable, and investors should take advantage of successful strategies.

Market activity In past years, our conversations with business services investors typically have been focused on commercial HVAC businesses rather than residential. More recently, there has been increased investor interest in residential HVAC businesses due to recurring revenue opportunities and a highly fragmented market.

Investors believe that relative valuations of residential HVAC companies (based on multiples of EBITDA) have risen faster than those of commercial. In addition to increased demand driving up valuations, residential HVAC companies have a different work and payment profile than commercial HVAC companies. As in every sector of the market, multiples are lower for smaller companies.

However, attractive acquisitions of HVAC companies at any size can command a premium valuation.

Desirability of a seller depends on several factors including the

geographical location, the service mix provided, the workforce affiliation to unions and the reputation in the market.

Consolidation In our interviews, investors were forthcoming with their views on how to successfully consolidate acquisitions. While instituting new financial metrics and system integration are important, there is a qualitative element centered around culture and people that drives effectiveness.

Culture starts at the top. It is crucial that management maintains transparency with all employees by emphasizing the company’s strategy and setting clear expectations. This also includes providing an incentive structure for the sales team and technicians who are successful in expanding customer relationships. Although it is difficult to find skilled labor, hiring the right people makes a difference for the company culture. This should be done in the recruiting process by providing clarity on job purpose as well as offering upward mobility and job expansion for interested team members. All of these factors lead to quality service, which is crucial for maintaining a successful HVAC business.

When pursuing a buy-andbuild strategy, two distinct platforms emerged from our discussions. The typical method includes

investors who are interested in expanding their geographical service area through acquisition into adjacent counties or states. A more nuanced strategy involves investors who are focusing on a package of “home services” that combines HVAC with plumbing, electrical and other maintenance offerings.

The goal with this method is to create a one-stop-shop. Not only can this provide a broader customer base, but there also are operational efficiencies from cross-selling.

Factors for success With active consolidation underway, new and progressive strategies are deemed essential for growth. Brand equity is especially important in the residential and commercial HVAC industry, and tuck-in acquisitions require a focus on strengthening the image.

Expansion requires an emphasis on timeliness and quality of service to maintain a competitive advantage. It is equally important to develop a strong customer base through routine maintenance contracts that preserve the quality of the equipment while providing recurring revenue.

While many investors view HVAC companies as an opportunity to double down on the service component, there also is a consumer marketing aspect necessary to drive revenue growth

with new customers. This is especially true for residential HVAC businesses where marketing has shifted from radio and mailers to a growing emphasis on social media. Because some of the success for the residential side is dependent on consistent marketing, the brand feeds the valuation as the company grows to new geographies.

Finally, expanding geographically creates an opportunity for servicing and scheduling efficiencies. By focusing on new business around clusters of existing customers, technicians will have organized routes that save on travel time. This hub-and-spoke model not only creates operational fluency, but also improves profitability.

Whether viewed as a platform acquisition, add-on investment or strategic tuck-in, residential and commercial HVAC sellers have an opportunity to take advantage of the highly active market. My expectation is that HVAC merger and acquisition activity will continue its fast pace into 2021, considering the continued opportunities for consolidation coupled with investors’ urgency to invest their plentiful capital.

Brooks Crankshaw is managing director of Balmoral Advisors, specializing in working with business services companies to sell their business, grow through acquisition, or raise capital.

Lillie Ross contributed to this article.

GUEST COLUMN Lyndsay Volpe-Bertram

9 ways to help you stick with your New Year’s resolution “T

his year is going to be different” is a statement that comes to mind for many of us as we begin the start of a new year. This holds even more importance as 2020 was loaded with the heaviness of the pandemic and the loss of so much that we took for granted and considered normal.

As we enter 2021, there is an increasing sense of hopefulness as action is being taken to contain the COVID-19 virus and many are anticipating re-gaining some of what has been lost.

As we move into 2021, many will continue the yearly tradition of creating a New Year’s resolution. Common resolutions may revolve around exercise, weight loss, or changing bad habits. Others may be thinking about what types of behaviors they want to resume once it is safer to move and socialize freely. For example, spending time with family and friends or traveling. We may consider lessons learned during

2020 and find new value placed on spending time at home with our immediate family. Regardless of the goal, it is important to keep a few things in mind if you want it to be successful.

Do a little research on SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound).

These are detailed below and are key to a successful resolution.

Be specific! If you want to “be healthy” in 2021, identify what that means. Is it eating healthier foods?

Break that down further; for example, eating a specific number of plant-based meals per week, or a certain number of servings of fruits and veggies per day.

Track it. Choose a goal that allows you to track your progress and monitor this in some way. For example, use an app to log what you eat or write down on your calendar the number of minutes you exercise each day. Start small and slowly build your way up.

Be realistic. If you are trying to start a new behavior, be reasonable

about what you can accomplish.

For example, if you don’t exercise now, aiming to exercise most days of the week would be a big jump.

It is better to start small (exercise one day a week), and then increase this once you have been consistent. Starting small also allows you to build your confidence along the way, rather than feeling like a failure if you could not do it.

Identify something meaningful.

Again with exercise, if you hate running, telling yourself that you will run every day is not likely to be successful. If your goal is exercise, find a method that you enjoy, as this will ultimately be more sustainable and motivating.

Create a deadline. When do you want this goal to be achieved?

When will you know that you have met it? Be specific about what this looks like.

Keep your thoughts in check as you work on your resolution. It is easy to feel frustrated and want to give up if you are not immediately successful. However, rather than

tell yourself, “I’ll start over next week or next month,” remind yourself that doing something is better than nothing. Work in 5 minutes of exercise if you cannot fit in 20 or recommit to starting again tomorrow if you could not make it happen today.

Be patient with yourself. It takes time to create a new habit or drop an old one. It is better to remain supportive and give yourself a little grace if you make a mistake or do not follow through.

Consider rewarding yourself when you have met your goal and celebrate your successes. Also consider if you would benefit from having someone hold you accountable. There are many groups out there to help support people in changing their habits, or you may consider sharing your goal and progress with one close friend who can help encourage you.

Dr. Lyndsay Volpe-Bertram is a psychologist at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids.

early a year since the pandemic began, companies throughout Michigan and beyond have evolved to become more virtual. From major health and education systems to restaurants, retailers and B2B, virtually every industry has had to invest in technology, tools and services to support new levels of digital transformation.

The sudden shift to remote work gave us the rare chance to rethink how we run our organizations — evolving to fit the best of traditional business into a more modern, digitally based framework. Out of necessity, we adopted new standards of work via collaboration software, cashless payments, contactless services, video conferencing and more.

While short-term adoption was key, it is increasingly clear that the crisis has permanently impacted the future of doing business.

According to Stanford University, working from home now accounts for more than 60% of U.S. economic activity, and more than half of U.S. workers prefer a hybrid remote/office approach even after the pandemic subsides.

In order to support and sustain such a massive move to the virtual environment, companies will increasingly look to technology partners to provide a strong and secure network, seamlessly shepherd important infrastructure changes and reliably deliver the internet-based software they need to stay open.

Amplified digital Virtually overnight, entire businesses moved their workforces to home, prompting employees to rely on VPN and residential connections to access vital information. To prevent capacity overload back at HQ, this transition required doubling, tripling and, in some cases, quadrupling of bandwidth from pre-COVID-19 levels. As IT teams gear up for 2021, they’re continuing to boost bandwidth as they support a lasting hybrid or fully remote workforce.

One major benefit to the investment in bandwidth is the increase in upload speed, the demand of which has grown exponentially in an era where cloud-based applications like video streaming put larger strains on the network. As a result, organizations that may have had a typical cable internet connection are making the switch to service level agreement backed fiber-based options to support higher and symmetrical upload/download speeds across the board.

With the rise of remote work, it’s only natural that security plays a larger role within organizations, as the number of entry points for bad actors to access sensitive information has considerably multiplied.

Beyond internal training to avoid phishing and other trojan horsestyle attacks, leading technology partners are offering security products that strengthen firewalls and CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 11, 2021

19

State assesses COVID-19 threat to school air

Districts being asked to report status of HVAC systems.

Judy Putnam

Capital News Service

LANSING — A new statewide program aims to block COVID-19 from spreading through the air of Michigan’s school classrooms.

To address the pandemic, the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy and the Department of Education want districts to report the status of their heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems to the state.

The survey could lead to dollars to further assess what it will take to improve the air that students, teachers and other workers breathe.

What help there is to upgrade the systems is still to be determined.

“The whole purpose of the project, really, is to look at what is the state readiness for Michigan public schools to open, and what can be done to keep them open and keep students in those classrooms safe,” said Robert Jackson, state energy ombudsman and an assistant division director in the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

A follow-up to the survey involves volunteer contractors affiliated with the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers and some state grants for licensed contractors to assess what it will take to improve air quality.

Jackson said his department is

using an initial $150,000 in federal dollars originally designated for other projects but approved to be redirected for the Michigan K-12 Public School HVAC Assistance Program.

The grants will range from $1,500 to $15,000 to assess the district needs with priority given to schools in struggling communities. Those districts haven’t been determined, Jackson said, but will be among those affected by high poverty and environmental hazards.

The project is on a fast track, he said, with some quick fixes expected over the winter break and still others by the end of the school year. A survey was sent out at the end of September with the hope that public school districts across the state will report back as soon as possible.

Some districts may need simple improvements such as new air filters while others might take extensive overhauls of their air systems. Michigan has 537 traditional school districts, but the number grows to nearly 900 when charter schools and intermediate school districts are included.

Jackson said officials are searching for additional funding that will allow demonstration projects to use technology such as portable air filters and hand sanitizers that use ultraviolet light.

Ron Koehler, a retired assistant superintendent for Kent Intermediate School District now working as an education consultant, said he welcomes state dollars to address capital needs as Michigan’s system relies on local taxes to build and improve school buildings, leading to deep disparities between

Employers can mandate vaccines — to a point CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

who say they can’t get the vaccination because of a disability. Employers have to use a four-factor test to determine whether a direct threat would exist due to an unvaccinated employee in the workplace: • Duration of the risk • Nature and severity of the potential harm • Likelihood that the potential harm will occur • Eminence of the potential harm Also under the ADA, the employer must make a reasonable accommodation for an employee who cannot take a vaccine due to a disability, such as teleworking, unpaid leave and other similar entitlements under federal, state and local laws. In other words, the same type of accommodations employers have made for employees who report being COVID-19 positive, experiencing symptoms or being exposed to someone with the virus must be made.

The updated guidance further notes a vaccination requirement may implicate an employee’s rights under Title VII. If employees indicate they cannot take the

vaccine due to a sincerely held religious belief, the employer must provide a reasonable accommodation unless it would pose an undue hardship on the employer. And the thing to remember here is that undue hardship under Title VII does not mean the same thing as it does under the ADA. If there is no reasonable accommodation available for an employee who cannot get vaccinated for COVID-19 due to a disability or sincerely held religious belief, the guidance provides it would be lawful for the employer to exclude the individual from the workplace. Importantly, this does not mean that an employer may automatically terminate the employee.

Bottom line: there’s no onesize-fits-all playbook for exceptions to employer vaccine requirements. Individualized determinations are a must — and require an appropriate legal lens.

Steven A. Palazzolo is senior counsel in the law firm Warner Norcross + Judd LLP who concentrates his practice in labor and employment issues for employers. He can be reached at spalazzolo@wnj.com.

wealthy and poor districts.

Some Michigan districts have opened for in-class learning, others use remote learning and still others offer a hybrid of the two.

Koehler, who took over as interim Kent ISD superintendent this month, said schools that didn’t open this fall because of the pandemic often cited inadequate ventilation and inflexible spaces in older buildings that wouldn’t

allow social distancing.

“The inequities are great. Anything that would help level the playing field and provide additional assistance for students who are in districts that have a majority of at-risk students, that would be a great benefit,” he said.

Scott Little, associate executive director of the Michigan School Business Officials, a Lansing-based association for school

business management professionals, said his group has spread the word about the air quality survey.

“We would encourage schools to take advantage of anything like this,” he said.

At the same time, Little said, the scope of the project is limited.

“This is not fixing things.

This is assessing things,” he said.

“That’s my understanding of what this is.”

Street Chef Shaw blends Swahili, Mexican cooking CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

their dream is to eventually own and operate several food trucks.

The pair said they are fully self-funded at this point, because businesses that opened in 2020 were not eligible for many of the grants that provided COVID-19 relief. Although that has been a challenge, they said the mobile model has allowed them to be nimble and go straight to the customer instead of having building overhead and a

staff to pay.

“We’ve got to the point where this business model works very well without having an actual brick and mortar establishment,” Worthem said.

Shaw added: “It shows how creative we can actually get.”

The duo said they want to thank their friends and family for supporting them and volunteering in the business, as well as the community for the enthusiastic response

they’ve gotten about their food.

“Being able to know that we get mentioned by a lot of people in the community and recognized as having good food means a lot to us.

The feedback and the love we get from the community is really appreciated,” Worthem said.

Online ordering is available at streetchefshaw.com, and people can follow the business at facebook.com/StreetChefShaw to learn about their future events.

Michigan universities lose $1.2B to pandemic CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

a voluntary employee retirement incentive program.

The University of Michigan made early estimates of financial impacts of COVID-19 and losses of up to $100 million, and the impact varied across different parts of the institution, according to the office of the Vice President for Communications.

In April, Mark S. Schlissel, president of the university, predicted that it might face losses of $400 million to $1 billion through the end of the calendar year.

Michigan Medicine, the academic medical center at U-M, lost around $230 million in the past fiscal year due to the pandemic, according to Rick Fitzgerald, director of public affairs and internal communications.

Only a few universities decid-

ed to avoid wage reductions, including U-M. “Wage freezes for this year were implemented across the board, except for bargained-for employees who have contractual pay increases,” Fitzgerald said.

Michigan State University experienced close to a 900-student enrollment decline, which impacted the university’s budget and contributed to a $54 million decline compared to last year’s revenue.

Samuel L. Stanley, MSU president, wrote in a letter to the university community in mid-October that the first-year student enrollment decreased to 8,228, down 342 students from the previous year.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Wayne State University admitted more students than in

fall 2019.

Fall undergraduate enrollment increased 2.3% compared with fall 2019, and Black undergraduate enrollment for first-time college students went up for 58.7%, according to an Aug. 19 statement by the university administration.

Matthew Lockwood, associate vice president of university communications at Wayne State, said that the university hasn’t approved its budget and couldn’t share any details on it yet.

Murphy said, “All state universities are doing their best to encourage students to continue their study and attract more prospective students to keep enrollment high in winter 2021 and, at the same time, they have prepared for the worst-case scenario of revenue decline from enrollment.”

The future of business already here CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18

safeguard against growing threats like DDoS and other digital threats.

These infrastructure adoptions are true not just for companies, but people working remotely in their homes, too. With families streaming, schooling and Zooming, there are more IoT-connected devices than ever in a typical house, causing professionals to seek out higher-bandwidth internet options — and sometimes even an entirely separate business modem to segregate work traffic from the home network.

In order to support this rapid digital transformation — which includes a shift to cloud-based applications — top organizations know they need to first have a healthy infrastructure-encompassing band-

width, security, service protection and workforce training in order to successfully shift, thrive and survive.

Lessons learned When the pandemic hit the business world, nobody saw it coming but several were prepared. Many of the technological trends that will outlast the pandemic already were underway but accelerated by as much as 5-10 years in a matter of months.

Digital transformation at this scale, speed and intensity was not — and could not be — decided by a major CIO or tech writer. Rather, it was decided by necessity. Organizations that already had the pieces in place to support the move are now leading their respective

industries.

Events like this present a major lesson for companies in Grand Rapids — those that look forward, think creatively, plan for the inevitable and invest in the right technology can beat the competition and weather any storm that comes their way.

Brad Gramlin, who resides in and works out of the Grand Rapids area, is director of enterprise sales for Comcast Business’ Heartland Region, which includes Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky. Gramlin is responsible for inspiring and coaching a team of technology experts who help bandwidth-hungry businesses, schools and governments find and implement the right technology solutions.

20

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 11, 2021

ARTS

Christine Mwangi joined the Kent District Library as development manager.

BANKING

Mwangi

Arbor Financial Credit Union promoted Jeff Potter to director of mortgage sales.

Kent County with 10% of his firm’s annual budget by 2023. Gardenier’s team intends to start contributing to ASK in 2021 by providing $5,000 of its $90,000 budget.

LOGISTICS

Sun Title hired Lawrence Duthler as chief operations officer. Groundbreaking recently occurred for a new Sun Title office located on the southeast side of Grand Rapids.

Roxanne Buhl joined Bata Plastics Inc. as human resource and safety generalist.

FOUNDATIONS

Independent Bank Corp., the holding company of Independent Bank, announced its board of directors appointed Dennis W. Archer Jr. to the boards of the corporation and the bank.

The Kalamazoo Community Foundation announced the additions of Erycka Hunter as human resources director and Frances Vicioso as community engagement and communications intern for truth, racial healing and transformation.

CONSTRUCTION

HEALTH

Ada-based Erhardt Construction hired Leanna Schmaltz as marketing coordinator.

Emily Quellet has been promoted to chief operating officer at Hudsonville-based DeHaan Homes.

Hudsonville-based MFP Automation Engineering recently worked closely with the city of Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works to redesign and upgrade its major downtown thoroughfare. The lift bridge was upgraded in structural, hydraulic, and mechanical features and much of the lattice and steel decking with concrete decks were replaced.

Schmaltz

Wolverine Building Group announced the additions of Michael Van Schelven as senior project manager, Alan Bussey as a superintendent, Matthew Moilanen as a carpenter, Travis Wierenga as an iron worker and Donald Norton and Kristopher Bostic as laborers.

ENVIRONMENTAL

Craig S. Mulica joined Rockford-based Triterra as a regional director.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Kevin Gardenier, founder of Purposeful Wealth Strategies, announced his intent to provide Autism Support of

JAN 11-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.muskegon artmuseum.org.

JAN 11-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 12 Economic Club of Grand Rapids Joint Meeting With Detroit Economic Club Zoom Webinar. Topic: 2021 Michigan Economic Outlook. 11-11:45 a.m.

Information/registration: bit.ly/Michigan EconomicOutlook2021.

JAN 12 Family Business Alliance Virtual Workshop. Topic: Bouncing Back and Bouncing Forward: Resilience Characteristics and Practices for Those Who Grow Through Hardship, by Bob VandePol, executive director, Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services’ Employee Assistance and Church Assistance programs. 10-11 a.m. Cost: free. Information/registration: bit.ly/ BouncingBackForward.

Catherine’s Health Center announced it will open additional clinics thanks to a $1.7 million federal grant. New clinics are located in downtown Grand Rapids, Madison Square, the Clyde Park area, Roosevelt Park neighborhood and Sparta.

Mercy Health Saint Mary’s has earned the 2020 CHIME Digital Health Most Wired recognition from The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives for effectively applying core and advanced technologies into its clinical and business programs to improve health and care.

Metro Health–University of Michigan Health in Wyoming is performing spine surgery using the Augmedics xvision Spine System, a groundbreaking augmented reality guidance system that allows surgeons to “see through” a patient’s anatomy as if they have “x-ray vision.”

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives has for the ninth consecutive year named Metro Health–University of Michigan Health as one of its Most Wired hospitals in the country.

LEISURE & RECREATION

The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi and FireKeepers Casino Hotel were honored by the National Indian Gaming Association with its prestigious Chairman’s Leadership Award.

JAN 12 Grand Rapids Young Professionals Adulting 101. Learn your insurance options by Patrick Coffey, Farm Bureau Insurance. 6 p.m. Cost: free. Information/ registration: facebook.com/patrickcoffey agency.

JAN 13 Builders Exchange of Michigan Virtual Winter Series. Topic: 2021 Regulatory Updates. 3-5 p.m. Information/registration: (616) 949-8640, courtney@grbx. com, or home.grbx.com/event/wintersafety-series-january.

JAN 13 Talent Innovation Network of West Michigan Virtual Conference. Topic: Include All and Advancing Together.

9-10 a.m. Information/registration: bit.ly/ IncludeAll2021.

JAN 13 W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary Online Birds and Coffee Chats. Featuring W.K. Kellogg Biological Station educators Lisa Duke, Kara Haas and Misty Klotz, focusing on year-round waterfowl: Trumpeter, Tundra and Mute swans, Canada geese and Mallard ducks. 10 a.m. Cost: free, registration required. Information/registration: (269) 671-2510 or birdsanctuary@ kbs.msu.edu.

JAN 14 Division Avenue Business Association Meeting. 8-9 a.m., Brann’s Steakhouse & Grille, 4157 S. Division Ave., Wyoming.

Information/registration: tombrann@ branns.com.

JAN 16 Holland Farmers Market Annual Winter Market. Held the first and third

Venture Connect relocated to 665 Seward Ave. NW, Suite 500, in Grand Rapids.

MANUFACTURING

Walker-based Tubelite Inc. named Dean Seger vice president of integrated supply chain.

NONPROFITS

Dégagé Ministries welcomed the following to its board of directors: Alex Fernandez, Cornerstone Church; Michael Lunt, RDV Corp.; Barbara Moore, Varnum; Renee Powers, Cannonsburg Wood Products; and Luann Vanharen, community activist.

Kentwood-based Refugee Education Center hired Trudy Ender as executive director.

Inner City Christian Federation announced the appointment Eunice Lopez-Martin, ChoiceOne Bank; Lexi M. Woods, Warner Norcross & Judd; and Tom Prince, Hungerford Nichols, to its board of directors.

Lorri Dean joined The Salvation Army of Muskegon as development director.

Wayland-based Paws With A Cause added board of directors members Adam Russo, Com 616; Val Lego, WZZM; and Toyia Turner, Autism Support and Resource Center.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Grand Valley State University Advertising & Public Relations program alumnae Emily Gagnon and Delaney MacKenzie were recognized with the National Gold Key Award from the Public Relations Society of America Foundation.

REAL ESTATE

Core Property Management opened a location in downtown Muskegon.

RELIGION

Grand Rapids Dominican Sister Barbara Reid was elected the first woman president of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, effective Jan. 1.

Saturdays through April. 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Eighth Street Market Place, 150 W. 8th St. Information/registration: (616) 355-1138 or hollandfarmersmarket.com.

JAN 19 Hire for Hope Webinar. Topic: 2021 HR Optimization: The No. 1 Tool to Enhance Employee Engagement, Reduce Turnover and Regain Momentum. Noon1 p.m. Cost: free. Information/registration: bit.ly/HireForHope2021.

JAN 19, 20, 21 Van Andel Global Trade Center Live Virtual Training. Topic: Basics of Importing. 9-11 a.m. each day. Cost: $235/members, $395/nonmembers Registration: (616) 331 6811, vagtc@gvsu. edu, or bit.ly/BasicsOfImporting.

JAN 22 Association for Corporate Growth Western Michigan Virtual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Dialogue.

Conversations that reinforce the importance of sharing and connecting on attributes and ideals that shape who we are and what we believe. 8:30-9:30 a.m.

Information/registration: acgwm.wildapri cot.org.

JAN 25 Economic Club of Grand Rapids Meeting. Topic: Reflecting on Legacy, Reflecting on Community, by Birgit Klohs, president and CEO of The Right Place Inc. 12:30-1:30 p.m. Information/ registration: econclub.net/events.

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/

CHANGE-UPS & CALENDAR

Erhardt Construction hires its 5th female project manager Melissa Hruska was recently hired as Erhardt Construction’s 5th female project manager. Hruska joins director Aaron Mead in the Facilities Solutions Group division of Erhardt Construction, managing multiple projects throughout West Michigan. Hruska has worked in the construction industry for 22 years. Seeing clients’ reactions to a finished project is Hruska’s favorite aspect of her job. Some of Hruska’s previous project experience includes Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Michigan Real Estate’s 12,100square-foot corporate office in Grand Rapids and Mitten Kids Dentistry in Caledonia.

RETAIL

Michigan Retailers Association announced Grand Rapids native Jennifer Rook joined the organization as vice president of communications and marketing. Rook succeeds Meegan Holland, who retired.

TECHNOLOGY

Ada-based Michigan Software Labs has been named one of the 100 Best Small and Medium Workplaces based on an independent survey by consulting firm Great Place to Work and Fortune Magazine.

Byron Center-based Pro-Vision Video Systems announced the release of its new Bodycam 4 body-worn camera, a fully integrated body-worn device that captures video evidence.

Feyen Zylstra hired Maureen Walsh as vice president of people and culture.

Infinite Technologies LLC, with a West Michigan office based in Grand Rapids, announced the company has joined Beaumont, Texas-based Infrared Cameras Inc.’s new Solution Partner Program to help mitigate the current biorisk threat caused by the SARSCoV-2 virus, with ICI infrared cameras and advanced temperature screening technology.

IT Resource Inc. hired Michelle Shashaguay as senior account executive.

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: grandraipds.org.

JAN 26 Wyoming Business Leaders Meeting.

8-9 a.m., Marge’s Donut Dent, 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. 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

X-Rite Inc. and its subsidiary Pantone LLC announced its in-person Fundamentals of Color and Appearance training seminar is now available in an interactive, online learning format. The two companies also announced new subscription-based pricing for color formulation software Color iMatch and quality control software Color iQC. The new subscription model provides manufacturers and material suppliers greater flexibility and predictability for their operational budgets.

TRANSPORTATION

The Rapid joined the American Public Transportation Association’s Health and Safety Commitments Program, the public transportation industry’s overarching pledge to passengers that it is taking all the necessary measures to operate safely amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

or keegan@westcoastchamber.org.

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: mus kegon.org.

JAN 29 St. Cecilia Music Center Live Streamed Concert. Featuring Portuguese vocalist Mariza paying tribute to Fado singer Amalia Rodrigues. 8 p.m. Cost: $40/person, proceeds support SCMC. Information/ registration: bit.ly/2021MarizaConcert.

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 KONIECZKA, Harry et al, Quicken Loans, Cannon Twp., $298,640 KARL, Paul J. et al, Old National Bank, Parcel: 411425220011, $388,000 ANDERSON, Bryan et al, Old National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $350,000 OBENAUF, Laura L. et al, Primelending, Courtland Twp., $350,000 IGNATOWSKI, Leigh et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Oakfield Twp., $297,400 MALONE, Geoff et al, Old National Bank, Ada Twp., $307,000 FOX, Norma G. et al, AAC Credit Union, Walker, 275,500 BORTIGNON, Peter, United Bank, Parcel: 412116402017, $504,000 BOUMA, Kurt et al, United Bank, Parcel: 412319210002, $315,000 HAGLUND, Charles et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Algoma Twp., $370,465 VARGAS, Steven et al, Allen Edwin Home Builders, Byron Twp., $365,797 POPIEL, Jordan M. et al, Neighborhood Loans, Cascade Twp., $427,000 LONE, Autumn C., Home Point Financial Corp., Cascade Twp., $352,000 LAUSON, Robert G. et al, United Wholesale Mortgage, Ada Twp., $330,000 OSBORNE, Colin et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $469,000 RAMIREZ, Nicole et al, Success Mortgage Partners, East Grand Rapids, $434,320 LIS, Anthony et al, Consumers Credit Union, Parcel: 411411477046, $688,500 LEJA, Nicholas et al, Independent Bank, Plainfield Twp., $308,750 SERBA, Joshua L. et al, Mercantile Bank, Sparta, $299,250 LANFORD, Billy D. et al, BNC National Bank, Cascade Twp., $354,800 SCHOAR, Debra et al, Neighborhood Loans, Ada Twp., $304,000 ZYROWSKI, Eric et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Vergennes Twp., $354,000 ROBBINS, Robert et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Byron Twp., $425,000 PENA, Alexandry et al, Cason Home Loans, Caledonia, $316,000 LUKE, Ronald et al, Heartland Home Mortgage, Wyoming, $335,600 KURTZ, Frances et al, Independent Bank, Parcel: 411801202044, $525,000 YANKTO, Stephen et al, Clearpath Lending, Grand Rapids City, $386,100 KLUITER, Shane et al, GVC Mortgage, Plainfield Twp., $312,300 SCHAEFFER, Tyler et al, Independent Bank, Ada Twp., $389,500 LANGELLIER PROPERTIES LLC, Huntington National Bank, Wyoming, $957,589 GARZA, Jesus A. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411428228019, $351,000 CUSTER, Mark T. et al, Huntington National Bank, Ada Twp., $1,840,000 KIMURA, Justin A. et al, Benchmark Mortgage, Ada Twp., $363,600 MALEWITZ, Bernard et al, Neighborhood Loans, Parcel: 411809276014, $310,000 LEWANDOWSKI, Russell, Keller Mortgage, Parcel: 411404229003, $510,400 HILL, Steven A. II et al, USAA Federal Savings Bank, Caledonia, $393,680 KING, Jeremy et al, Dart Bank, Algoma Twp., $315,000 COX, Sean P. et al, Mercantile Bank, East Grand Rapids, $501,000 CAMBRIDGE SQUARE OF G.R. ASSOCIATES II, Merchants Bank of Indiana, Parcel: 411421195004, $3,850,000 VALCQ, Michael et al, McGlone Mortgage Group, Ada Twp., $491,500 FUNK, Jason S., Lake View Loan Servicing, Parcel: 411430430002, $363,191 CAHILL, Benjamin, First National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $1,075,000 DELOSRIOS, Sergio D. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cannon Twp., $408,045 ABRAHAM, Anthony et al, Quicken Loans, Bowne Twp., $302,075 JUDY, Benjamin et al, TCF National Bank, Byron Twp., $294,000 HARVEY, Kenneth S. et al, Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, Algoma Twp., $407,000 VASQUEZ, Jonathan A. et al, United Wholesale Mortgage, Parcel: 411432428003, $378,100 CORTESE, Brittany A., Lake Michigan Credit Union, Caledonia, $308,750 MCMANUS, Timothy et al, Neighborhood Loans, Cannon Twp., $441,750 MARTOWSKI, Andrew F. et al, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Parcel: 411425127028, $544,000 JTB HOMES LLC, Macatawa Bank, Cascade Twp., $360,973 PINKHAM, Daniel T. et al, Gold Coast Bank, Cascade Twp., $275,000 RIEFEPETERS, Brian D. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cascade Twp., $372,000 NGUYEN, Hanh et al, Comerica Bank, Parcel: 411808177013, $5,000,000 BODENSCHATZ, James J. Jr. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Plainfield Twp., $357,600 WOLCOTT, Jeffrey et al, Level One Bank, Ada Twp., $300,000 BISSETT, Thomas et al, Level One Bank,

GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL Parcel: 411425127015, $365,000 ARMBRUSTER, Frederick et al, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Ada Twp., $749,000 DOHERTY, Michael et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Lowell, $276,000 KOOKER, Daryl J. et al, Quicken Loans, Caledonia, $510,400 GROSKURTH, Jordan et al, Mercantile Bank, Byron Twp., $369,900 VANWORMER, Dennis S. et al, PNC Bank, Parcel: 411915476015, $339,205 POSTMA, Derek et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Byron Twp., $309,000 PLASMAN, Douglas et al, Fifth Third Bank, Byron Twp., $292,000 BROOKS, Melissa L. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411410151014, $418,000 LANNI, Kathryne R. et al, Benchmark Mortgage, Courtland Twp., $276,450 NOWAK, Shayne et al, Independent Bank, Cascade Twp., $510,400 HASHLEY, Jennifer et al, Neighborhood Loans, Parcel: 411409177020, $303,450 BRYANT, Troy et al, Consumers Credit Union, Grattan Twp., $323,000 POPIEL, Jordan M. et al, Neighborhood Loans, Ada Twp., $340,000 HULST, Brandon T. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Caledonia, $297,600 WICKSTROM, Jennifer L. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Walker, $450,000 SIERRA WHISKEY VENTURES LLC, First National Bank, Parcel: 411420304021, $1,065,000 GRAY, Benjamin S. et al, Isabella Bank, Oakfield Twp., $320,000 SHUKLA, Ankit et al, Independent Bank, East Grand Rapids, $349,200 STEWART, Donald J. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $1,250,000 JACKSON, Ryan A. et al, Bank of America, Parcel: 411906125003, $369,000 DYKEMA, Patrick et al, Heartland Home Mortgage, East Grand Raids, $351,000 VANGELDEREN, Peter A. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $340,000 WATSON, Thomas et al, MMS Mortgage Services, Parcel: 41143018402, $420,000 VANDERAM, Mitchell et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Algoma Twp., $348,733 JONES, Reginald et al, Quicken Loans, Wyoming, $331,520 LIVINGSTON, Nicholas et al, Inlanta Mortgage, Algoma Twp., $485,000 EGGLESTON, Benjamin R. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cascade Twp., $290,000 HYDE, Travis et al, Fifth Third Bank, Parcel: 411810252020, $290,000 DEJONG, Andrew S. et al, Old National Bank, Parcel: 411807407024, $304,000 BURDICK, Ryan et al, Navy Federal Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $843,000 WANG, Timothy et al, Bank of America, East Grand Rapids, $873,000 SHEPHERD, James J. et al, Home Point Financial Corp., Caledonia, $360,463 HEFFERAN, David J. et al, American Financial Resources, Ada Twp., $320,000 DAVIS, Brad et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cannon Twp., $275,800 PUGLIESE, Vitalliano T., MMS Mortgage Services, Cascade Twp., $277,000 LOCASTO, Gerald S. Sr. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 114082790023, $282,000 ZEILBECK, Mark X. et al, Macatawa Bank, Cannon Twp., $425,000 LANG, Samuel J. et al, Huntington National Bank, Grattan Twp., $350,000 STODDARD, Aaron et al, Wyndham Capital Mortgage, Courtland Twp., $428,000 111 HALO LLC, Arbor Financial Credit Union, Parcel: 411407457010, $1,850,000 SLOOP, Sean, Union Home Mortgage Group, Parcel: 411431183008, $392,656 DAVIS, Jeffrey A. et al, Synergy One Lending, Algoma Twp., $449,349 VANMETER, Christopher et al, USAA Federal Savings Bank, Caledonia, $306,000 BAILEY, Morgan, Inlanta Mortgage, Parcel: 411430452037, $322,650 BOTSFORD PERFORMANCE HORSES LLC, Mercantile Bank, Sparta, $330,000 DRAKE, Jennifer et al, Independent Bank, Sparta Twp., $472,150 BIEHL, Kevin, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Sparta, $284,000 KOETSIER, Michael G. et al, Heartland Home Mortgage LLC, Caledonia, $275,000 SMITH, Kari et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cannon Twp., $394,000 BOLTON, Tammy K., Lake Michigan Credit Union, Byron Twp., $279,924 FELDMAN, Michael et al, Neighborhood Loans, Parcel: 411425227005, $317,100 ROTH, Brianne M., Lake Michigan Credit Union, Walker, $280,000 YARCH, Brian et al, Fifth Third Bank, Parcel: 411425480024, $341,000 SULLIVAN, Thomas et al, Fifth Third Bank, East Grand Rapids, $331,200 ICE, Calvin J. et al, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Algoma Twp., $300,500 BOERSMA, Julie A. Trust, Mercantile Bank, Ada Twp., $6,000,000 THOMPSON, Jerry et al, Benchmark

Mortgage, Walker, $275,000 NARDUCCI, Justin et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411412326019, $510,400 LEVITT, David J. et al, Mercantile Bank, East Grand Rapids, $500,000 FOLCIK, Rick A. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Algoma Twp., $496,500 KONDA, Abhishek et al, Sovereign Lending Group, Parcel: 411425251012, $277,000 COOK, Troy et al, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Parcel: 411309326034, $275,000 CHEN, Bin et al, United Wholesale Mortgage, Ada Twp., $310,000 BRUCKNER, Mark et al, United Wholesale Mortgage, Oakfield Twp., $374,000 CHUN, Joohwan et al, Inlanta Mortgage, Parcel: 411410456073, $282,000 CARDEN, Steven et al, Quicken Loans, Parcel: 411433459012, $455,905 WRIGHT, Benjamin et al, Finance of America, Plainfield Twp., $320,000 CARDOSA, Jill et al, Independent Bank, Caledonia, $292,700 LAMOREAUX, Jeffrey et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Algoma Twp., $508,000 MARION, Kyle J. et al, Mercantile Bank, Cannon Twp., $305,600 WIERENGA, Katherine, Inlanta Mortgage, Vergennes Twp., $388,000 MASSIE, Benjamin et al, Independent Bank, East Grand Rapids, $661,500 GRILLIOT, Stephen et al, Independent Bank, Plainfield Twp., $287,000 GRATTAN, Sarah et al, Ruoff Mortgage Co., East Grand Rapids, $353,200 GASSER, Brendan W. et al, Member First, Walker, $290,900 JACOBSON, Randall D. et al, Benchmark Mortgage, Solon Twp., $323,000 DFC OF CEDAR SPRINGS LLC, Mercantile Bank, Solon Twp., $5,787,663 GUSTAFSON, Craig et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Plainfield Twp., $287,000 BRIGHT, Timothy C. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Byron Twp., $399,000 SHAGER PROPERTIES LLC, Macatawa Bank, Parcel: 411820300041, $680,000 SHAGER PROPERTIES LLC, Macatawa Bank, Parcel: 411820300041, $850,000 CLARKIN, Greg B. et al, Arbor Financial Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $460,800 REED, Jerry A. et al, Extra Credit Union, Parcel: 411413303008, $727,855 STRATTON, Michael et al, Oak Mortgage LLC, Parcel: 411426252019, $294,424 COX, Aaron A., Northpointe Bank, Courtland Twp., $360,000 ACEVEDO, Benjamin et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Kentwood, $366,700 HAMILTON, Colin et al, Neighborhood Loans, Parcel: 411426252020, $498,400 STARTING 5 LLC, Horizon Bank, Wyoming, $499,999 WHITE, David S. et al, Fifth Third Bank, East Grand Rapids, $624,000 KLINE, Melissa J. et al, Mercantile Bank, Plainfield Twp., $641,500 BELL, Benjamin et al, Neighborhood Loans, Plainfield Twp., $280,000 TRUMBLE TRUST, Huntington National Bank, Cascade Twp., $416,000 BC REAL ESTATE LLC, Huntington National Bank, Byron Twp., $2,000,000 BOERMA, Joel A., Primelending, Cascade Twp., $294,566 TURNWALD, Kevin M. et al, American Internet Mortgage Inc., Byron Twp., $315,000 SINGH, Gurpartap et al, Independent Bank, Caledonia, $450,000 HOPPE Mari, Neighborhood Loans, Parcel: 411427429007, $435,000 KUIPER, Thomas A. et al, Ruoff Mortgage Co., Cascade Twp., $510,000 MAHEER, Damian, Citizens Bank, Parcel: 411431204022, $299,400 EHMANN, Jacqueline et al, Mercantile Bank, Parcel: 411428279002, $356,000 DUFLO, Timothy D. et al, Keybank, Parcel: 411412476022, $585,200 MEHNEY, Kelly M. et al, Comerica Bank, East Grand Rapids, $289,330 SNYDER, William D. Jr. et al, Old National Bank, Cascade Twp., $288,000 GORNEK, Mark E. et al, Lakeview Loan Servicing, Cascade Twp., $555,765 THOMAS, Daniel et al, Neighborhood Loans, Cascade Twp., $331,200 JACKSON, Bruce et al, Finance of America Mortgage, Bowne Twp., $308,750 JONES, John T. et al, Isabella Bank, Ada Twp., $320,000 ELLYSON, Logan et al, Loandepot.com, Caledonia, $432,200 CALVERLEY, Steven A. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Plainfield Twp., $459,500 SOLOMON, Eric J. et al, Independent Bank, Solon Twp., $403,750 ANDERTON, Jonah et al, Neighborhood Loans, Parcel: 411407329005, $277,400 MRZLACK, Anthony et al, Northern Mortgage Services, Cascade Twp., $278,000 PIEPER, Nate E. et al, ChoiceOne Bank, Parcel: 410114300005, $291,000 ORIANS, Shane et al, Independent Bank, Cascade Twp., $510,400 PAREEK, Rajat P. et al, Old National Bank,

Cascade Twp., $406,775 ROGALS, James E. et al, Isabella Bank, Byron Twp., $300,000 SPISAK, Daniel L. et al, VanDyk Mortgage Corp., Byron Twp., $300,000 SANBORN, Kenneth L. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Bowne Twp., $328,800 ROBINSON, Lewis et al, Arbor Financial Credit Union, Byron Twp., $325,510 HANNA, Justin W. et al, Quicken Loans, Tyrone Twp., $360,000 DENHOF, Steven R. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Plainfield Twp., $345,000 COKE, Edward D. et al, Independent Bank, Ada Twp., $510,400 SUCHOWOLEC, Michael V. et al, Dart Bank, Cannon Twp., $382,500 FERRER, Vladimer et al, TCF National Bank, Parcel: 411416228063, $305,550 WOLTJER, Joel S. et al, Quicken Loans, Caledonia $312,550 PLOETZ, Ryan et al, Independent Bank, Ada Twp., $503,500 WARECK, Robert E. et al, First United Credit Union, Cascade Twp., $326,400 DURHAM, James E. et al, First United Credit Union, Parcel: 411411226019, $343,600 DEWARD, Darrell R. et al, Finance of America Mortgage, Cascade Twp., $337,600 VEGA, Isaac J. et al, Finance of America Mortgage, Parcel: 411810226043, $300,457 SLEIGHT, Jon, TCF National Bank, Cannon Twp., $400,000 TORRES, Calum et al, Benchmark Mortgage, Wyoming, $292,000 WADE, Amy M. et al, Old National Bank, Lowell, $342,000 ROURK, Jason et al, Quicken Loans, Rockford, $279,703 KEHDI, Julie et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411419316004, $414,000 SPRAY, Christopher et al, Neighborhood Loans, Courtland Twp., $420,850 KAUFFMAN, Brian et al, Northern Mortgage Services, Cascade Twp., $324,000 WEINBERG, Martin L. et al, Mercantile Bank, Parcel: 411403375117, $284,000 SCHNEIDER, Stephen A. et al, First United Credit Union, Caledonia, $480,100 MILLER, Emily R. et al, ChoiceOne Bank, Rockford, $293,500 ROSE, Matthew J. et al, Independent Bank, Cascade Twp., $290,600 WILSON, Jamie L. et al, Huntington National Bank, Cascade Twp., $350,000 KLASEN, Stephen et al, Oak Mortgage, Caledonia, $308,000 BALLOU, Curtis et al, Inlanta Mortgage, Cascade Twp., $305,000 STANARD, Rodney C. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Ada Twp., $300,000 BOWMAN, Angela G. et al, MMS Mortgage Services, Plainfield Twp., $382,000 WUEST, Stephanie et al, Independent Bank, Cascade Twp., $510,400 MURDOCK, Victor et al, Independent Bank, Lowell, $399,000 BAZUIN, Michael J. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cannon Twp., $350,000 LOUISELL, Kara S., Northern Mortgage Services, Cascade Twp., $350,000 STAWISKI, Lenin D. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411528200029, $313,700 EHRHARDT, Randy M., Quicken Loans, Byron Twp., $287,300 EMPIE, Jennifer C. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Walker, $285,000 VANSOLKEMA, Derek et al, Adventure Credit Union, $510,000 HAZEL, Steven M. et al, United Bank, Vergennes Twp., $337,834 DYKEMA, Eric R. et al, Guaranteed Rate, Sparta, $295,000 HENSLEY, Micah R. et al, Independent Bank, Algoma Twp., $536,000 MILLARD, Bradford P. et al, Quicken Loans, East Grand Rapids, $393,150 445 32ND STREET LLC, ChoiceOne Bank, Wyoming, $328,000 KARNATZ, Jeffrey W. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Algoma Twp., $360,800 KEITH, Erik et al, United Bank, Parcel: 411115129038, $311,500 FAIRMOUNT SQUARE PROPERTIES LLC, Lendingstone LLC, Parcel: 411430482040, $711,700 BLUE BRIDGE PROPERTIES LLC, Arbor Financial Credit Union, Parcel: 411313379015, $461,500 PIETRYGA TRUST, Huntington National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $562,000 ALBEIRTIEIYASS, UIF Corp., Cascade Twp., $510,000 KINOOKS LLC, ChoiceOne Bank, Wyoming, $1,000,000 BREW, Scott et al, Consumers Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $382,500 JOHNSON TRUST, VanDyk Mortgage Corp., Oakfield Twp., $296,000 EVANS, Timothy L. et al, Finance of America Mortgage, Caledonia, $383,500 LARKIN, Garry et al, Northern Mortgage Services, Cascade Twp., $291,000 LEINSTER, William L. et al, Old National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $279,700 TIMMER, Anna et al, Mercantile Bank, Parcel: 411721101012, $279,900 ELMOUCHI, Darryl et al, Amerisave

JAN 11, 2021

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Mortgage Corp., Parcel: 411411402041, $419,350 BAILLIE, Scott A. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Gaines Twp., $409,000 INTERRA HOMES LLC, Chemical Bank, Plainfield Twp., $7,000,000 ELLIOTT, Brian et al, Mercantile Bank, Cascade Twp., $448,000 O’NEILL, Kyle et al, Guaranteed Rate, Gaines Twp., $671,000 CLOUSE, Joshua A. et al, Success Mortgage Partners, Plainfield Twp., $311,370 DRIESENGA, Michael et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Byron Twp., $325,000 GOTTSCHALK, Nolan J. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, $340,000 MAYER, Lisa A. et al, United Wholesale Mortgage, Parcel: 411414127039, $312,000 ANDERSON, Kelly, Grand River Bank, Courtland Twp., $372,550 BLASZAK TRUST, Northpointe Bank, East Grand Rapids, $341,000 GARTRELL, Michael et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, East Grand Rapids, $418,186 REWA TRUST, Mercantile Bank, Cascade Twp., $320,000 BUCHACH, Amy L. et al, Mercantile Bank, Parcel: 411413101030, $1,000,000 TRIPLETT, Brandon et al, Neighborhood Loans, Ada Twp., $468,000 EDSENGA, Emily E. et al, TCF National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $940,000 SHORT, Diane L. et al, Huntington National Bank, Byron Twp., $352,000 BENNETT, Lori D. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411324453054, $372,500 ANAOKAR, Sandeep S. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Ada Twp., $537,329 LOOMANS, Jacob S. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Caledonia, $386,000 GALLAGHER, Neal W. et al, Asset Mutual Mortgage Inc., Cannon Twp., $484,500 LOSS, Brandon C. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Cannon Twp., $294,000 DYKE, Julie A. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Nelson Twp., $342,000 DYER, Mickey J. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Plainfield Twp., $297,332 UNDERHILL, Jason E. et al, Macatawa Bank, Byron Twp., $344,694 MACKEN, Alexander M. et al, Primelending, Courtland Twp., $318,000 ANDERSON, Nathan et al, Quicken Loans, Cascade Twp., $405,000 GATCHALIAN, Eric et al, Quicken Loans, Cascade Twp., $275,000 MANDERS, Jeffrey et al, Benchmark Mortgage, Cascade Twp., $495,400 LARIRI, Tamara W. et al, Grand River Bank, Cascade Twp., $353,000 KANE, Owen J., Neighborhood Loans, Parcel: 411809427013, $297,500 ARNSON, Jeffrey P. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411321201054, $337,560 NORAGON, Cheryl D., AmeriFirst Financial Corp., Byron Twp., $357,797 SZUMLAS, Jobi et al, Independent Bank, Cannon Twp., $398,400 YAGER, Tanner I. et al, Meijer Credit Union, Parcel: 411436484003, $276,969 HAGGERY, Shannon L., Huntington National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $315,000 JACKSON, Ryan et al, Quicken Loans, Cascade Twp., $276,100 WILLMORE, Roger L. et al, Independent Bank, Grattan Twp., $510,400 MADDEN, Dennis W. et al, PNC Bank, Ada Twp., $910,000 HANSEN, Karla R., Old National Bank, East Grand Rapids, $417,500 LUCAS, David et al, VanDyk Mortgage Corp., Cascade Twp., $350,000 BRAMELL, Kenneth L., HUD, Bowne Twp., $772,500 PEARSON, David, AFI Financial, Cascade Twp., $437,000 BLEICH, Jeffrey A. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Byron Twp., $465,000 BROOKS, Melissa L. et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Parcel: 411410151014, $418,000 MCGONIGAL, Michael et al, United Wholesale Mortgage, Ada Twp., $317,000 MCDOUGALL, Robert M., JPMorgan Chase Bank, Parcel: 411414127032, $389,500 DOUGLASS, Robert E. Jr. et al, Primelending, Vergennes Twp., $327,920 TOBAR, Benjamin et al, Mr. Cooper, Grand Rapids City, $354,000 DOREY, Ambra et al, Lake Michigan Credit Union, Algoma Twp., $304,000 BARKEL, John S. et al, JTB Homes, Byron Twp., $302,146 PRA LIMITED DIVIDEND HOUSING ASSN. LP, Prudential Huntoon Paige Associates LLC, Kentwood, $9,960,000 ARKESTEYN, Alyn et al, Independent Bank, Cannon Twp., $280,000 HOLLOW, Logan et al, JTB Homes, Byron Twp., $282,822

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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GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS JOURNAL

JAN 11, 2021

Gold attendance stars Rate reduction.

M

ichigan’s 38 senators and 110 representatives missed 3,791 roll call votes in 2020, according to the Missed Votes Report.

The information was compiled

by Jack McHugh, editor of MichiganVotes.org, a project of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Three senators and three representatives each missed 50 or more votes in 2020. But 12 senators and 60 representatives missed no votes this year.

Among those with a gold star for attendance in West Michigan were Democrat Winnie Brinks and Republicans Jon Bumstead and Peter MacGregor on the Senate side. In the House, Democrat Terry Sabo and Republicans Thomas Albert, Tommy Brann, Mark Huizenga, Steven Johnson and Bradley Slagh earned perfect scores. Only Democrat Rep. David LaGrand showed up on the more-than-50 list.

The 3,791 missed votes in 2020 is understandably up from recent years, as a number of lawmakers either spent time in quarantine or contracted the COVID-19 virus during the ongoing worldwide pandemic. Michigan lawmakers missed just 768 roll call votes in 2019.

Excluding purely procedural votes, the Senate held 1,002 roll call votes in 2020 and the House

BUSINESS JOURNAL STAFF

757, for a total of 1,759 roll call votes by the entire Legislature.

In 2019, there were 1,614 roll call votes taken by both legislative bodies.

The number of missed votes has fallen dramatically since 200102, the first legislative session covered by MichiganVotes.org. Over that two-year period, individual Michigan lawmakers failed to cast a roll call vote 21,162 times.

“The number of missed votes could have been a lot higher given the epidemic,” said McHugh.

“Legislative leaders and members had to overcome many obstacles to schedule and show up for daily sessions.”

Typically missed votes occur when family, health or personal issues require a lawmaker’s absence for an entire day or longer.

Missed vote tallies are just one piece of the information MichiganVotes.org provides the public.

The searchable database has every bill and all the votes for every Michigan state legislator. It contains plain-English descriptions of more than 38,000 bills introduced since 2001 and more than 35,000 record roll call votes.

The service was started to help citizens make more informed voting decisions, and its main benefit has been increased transparency and accountability. The site’s database now contains 20 years’ worth

of legislators’ votes — complete records of the full legislative careers of many lawmakers.

View the complete Missed Votes Report at www.michiganvotes.org/MissedVotes.aspx TOASTED Need to drink away 2020? Employees at Imperial Beverage were putting in extra hours to ensure retailers were well stocked ahead of small family gatherings.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to more people drinking in the comfort and safety of their homes.

According to IRI, a data analytics and market research company, alcohol sales are up 21% at grocery stores 17% at liquor stores compared to this time last year.

Traditionally, the stretch between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve is the busiest stretch of the year for wine sales.

“We are proud to provide a safe working environment for all of our employees so they can ensure retailers’ shelves are stocked with reds, whites and rosé, and Michiganders can celebrate safely at small family gatherings this holiday season,” said Joe Cekola, president of Imperial Beverage.

“From the front office and the warehouse, to our sales team and delivery drivers, our entire team is committed to ensuring consumers’ favorite wines and cham-

pagnes are on store shelves.”

As Michigan’s COVID-19 cases continued to surge, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services extended its epidemic order to Jan. 15. One of the recommendations made by the governor and public health officials was to keep holiday gatherings small, if they happened at all.

“Michigan’s wine distributors work hard to ensure retailers across the state have a wide variety of wines produced right here in Michigan, across the country and around the world,” Cekola said. “As Michiganders raise a glass to their loved ones virtually this holiday season, chances are they can all be drinking the same wine no matter how far apart they are thanks to a three-tier system that promotes fairness and a level playing field.”

The Michigan wine industry and its nearly 150 wineries generate more than $5 billion for the state’s economy annually. Michigan currently ranks in the top 10 for wine production and is the fourth-largest grape growing state in the country.

Imperial Beverage was established in 1933 after the repeal of prohibition and purchased by Kalamazoo’s Cekola family in 1984.

The distributor has 300 employees and four locations in Kalamazoo, Livonia, Traverse City and Ishpeming.

UNDERRATED Mortgage rates were at a near-record-low on the cusp of the new year, according to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.

Freddie Mac (OTCQB: FMCC)

STREET TALK on Dec. 31 released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey, showing the 30-year fixedrate mortgage (FRM) averaged 2.67%.

“All eyes have been on mortgage rates this year, especially the 30-year fixed-rate, which has dropped more than one percentage point over the last 12 months, driving housing market activity in 2020,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “(In) 2021, we expect rates to remain flat, potentially rising modestly off their record low, but solid purchase demand and tight inventory will continue to put pressure on housing markets as well as house price growth.”

The PMMS included the following details: ♦ The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.67% with an average 0.7 point for the week ending Dec. 31, 2020, up slightly from the previous week, when it averaged 2.66%. On Dec. 31, 2019, the 30year FRM averaged 3.72%. ♦ The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 2.17% with an average 0.7 point on Dec. 31, 2020, down from the prior week, when it averaged 2.19%. On Dec. 31, 2019, the 15year FRM averaged 3.16%. ♦ The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 2.71% with an average 0.4 point on Dec. 31, 2020, down from the prior week, when it averaged 2.79%. On Dec. 31, 2019, the five-year ARM averaged 3.46%.

The PMMS is focused on conventional, conforming, fully amortizing home purchase loans for borrowers who put 20% down and have excellent credit.

Get social

Social media is a critical component of your digital strategy. But to get the best results, you need a full-time digital marketing person to implement, optimize and manage campaigns. That’s where the Grand Rapids Business Journal’s Digital Studio comes in. We can build awareness and engagement for your business on social media channels to generate leads, sales and customer conversions. We will target your ideal prospects based on demographic and geographic criteria. When we serve your ads to the audience, they will be engaged with their preferred social media channels and receptive to new products/services and ideas. We can also manage your current social media accounts including creating and posting content and interacting with your followers. Everything a full time trained social media manager would do.

Adding digital marketing to your campaigns will increase your touch points and ROI. For more information go to https://grbj.com/ digital-studio so we can better understand your marketing needs.

WE STRONGLY SUPPORT LINE 5 AND ITS CONTINUED OPERATION. We back Line 5, because Line 5 heats our homes, powers our worksites, and keeps energy affordable across Michigan.

Line 5 means jobs. Tens-of-thousands of them.

During Michigan’s recovery from COVID-19, those jobs are more important than ever.

Union jobs. Manufacturing jobs. Chemistry jobs.

Service industry jobs. Small business jobs.

Make no mistake – shutting down Line 5 means shutting down Michigan businesses, higher energy prices and lower tax revenues that pay for our schools and roads.

Instead, let’s build the Great Lakes Tunnel – a job-creating project that gets Line 5 out of the water and buries it safely, deep below the lakebed where the risk of a spill into the Straits is virtually zero.

We’re standing together to protect Michigan’s energy supply.

To protect Michigan’s environment. To protect Michigan jobs.

Join us.

greatlakesmichiganjobs.com/line5

Consumer Energy Alliance Detroit Regional Chamber Jay Dee Contractors Lake Superior Community Partnership Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce LMS Liquid Meter Services, Inc Michigan Aggregates Association Michigan Association of Convenience Stores Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council Michigan Chamber of Commerce Michigan Chemistry Council Michigan Laborers District Council

GLMJ full page ad 10X13*62 GR Business.indd 1

Michigan Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust Michigan Manufacturers Association Michigan Oil and Gas Association Michigan Petroleum Association Michigan Pipe Trades Association Michigan Propane Gas Association Midland Business Alliance National Federation of Independent Business Operating Engineers 324 Pipeliners Union 798 – United Association Small Business Association of Michigan

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