MiBiz April 26, 2021 print edition by MiBiz

Sen. Peters relaunches effort for National Institute of Manufacturing

Retiring Steelcase CEO optimistic about company’s future

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APRIL 26, 2021 • VOL. 33/NO. 14 • $3.00

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New program to address burnout among health care workers

‘UNPRECEDENTED DISRUPTION’ Herman Miller’s blockbuster acquisition of Knoll comes amid short-term upheaval, long-term optimism in the furniture design industry

By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com

urnout was already significant and growing in the medical profession when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and worsened the problem, pushing health systems and care providers to their limits for more than a year. “Physician burnout and physician wellness has been a topic for the past several years, and adding a pandemic on top of ‘normal times,’ it’s only going to be exacerbated,” said Kevin McFatridge, chief operating officer at the Michigan State Medical Society. “When your hospitals are at capacity and people’s lives are on the line in a pandemic when you are basically learning the symptoms as you go and treatment as you go, the stakes have been higher in the health care community,” McFatridge added. McFatridge “I would absolutely argue that burnout has reached an all-time high.” To provide some relief, the Medical Society recently introduced an effort to address burnout and professional fatigue felt by doctors, physician assistants, nurses and other medical professionals. Conceived and developed by the Medical Society of Virginia, SafeHaven is essentially an employee assistance program geared specifically toward medical professionals. SafeHaven offers physicians and others a confidential well-being program to help them manage professional and personal stress that can lead to burnout. The 15,000-member Michigan State Medical Society reached out to its Virginia See DOCTOR BURNOUT on page 10

By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com

ilbert Rhode’s vision from nearly a century ago fits today’s changing furniture design landscape as Herman Miller Inc. proposes to buy competitor Knoll Inc. In the 1930s, Rhode — the father of modern furniture design — urged Herman Miller founder D.J. De Pree to pursue a new furniture design style that would take off in the post-World War II era. The company would go on to deliver some of the most iconic furniture designs of the 20th century for the home and office. Rhode said at the time: “You’re not making furniture anymore; you’re making a way of living.” In touting the proposed $1.8 billion cashand-stock deal to acquire Knoll, Herman Miller President and CEO Andi Owen said Rhode’s vision See OFFICE FURNITURE on page 6

Herman Miller’s iconic Eames armchair and Knoll’s Tulip table. ILLUSTRATION BY KAYLEE VAN TUINEN

GR autonomous vehicle pilot could be extended, shift to on-demand service By KATE CARLSON | MiBiz kcarlson@mibiz.com GRAND RAPIDS — The autonomous shuttle that runs through downtown could transition to an on-demand format with new vehicles under a proposal before city officials to renew the pilot program that’s set to expire on April 30. The Autonomous Vehicle Initiative led by Mobile GR, Ann Arbor-based May Mobility

Inc. and various private sponsors started in July 2019. The program consists of four autonomous shuttles that loop in a 3.2-mile route around downtown from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, giving riders free trips around town. A fifth, wheelchair accessible shuttle is also available upon request. City commissioners this week will consider extending the program, which would cost the city $50,000 plus in-kind services toward the project. May Mobility is working to secure private sponsors

GR, nonprofits seek to bolster housing fund

INSIDE: Culture and Generational Change

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to cover the rest of what is expected to be a roughly $1 million, one-year extension. If extended, the scheduled route would be replaced with on-demand service that riders can request by calling a phone number or through a smartphone app, said Mobile GR Assistant Director Justin Kimura. Riders might have to walk a block or so to get to the vehicle, he said. “We’ve learned there is a public appetite for an innovative project like this,” Kimura said. See AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES on page 3

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Grand Haven-Spring Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant Improvements Grand Haven $1,967,000 Prein & Newhof May 2020 Project Manager: Jeff Huizinga Superintendent: Curtis Leep

Allied Mechanical Services worked throughout the entire Grand Haven wastewater plant. This consisted of work in three separate buildings: the new construction headworks building, the existing primary sludge building, and the existing activated sludge building. The new headworks building including a triplex pump station, screening system, and grit removal equipment.

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

n principle and in practice, the Grand Rapids Chamber believes in the value and power of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Various reports released in 2020 amidst a global pandemic, mounting racial tension and a divisive political atmosphere prove there is much work to be done. McKinsey & Company, a United Statesbased management consulting firm that advises on strategic management to corporations, governments, and other organizations, released the following research findings in 2020. • At the beginning of the year, women in

THE SERVICES

entry-level management held only 38 percent of manager-level positions. Due to the challenges created by COVID-19, as many as two million women are considering leaving the workforce -- a phenomena that could set women back half a decade.

The Assessment: To develop an effective DEI strategy, it’s important to understand the perceptions of all stakeholders regarding the current state of DEI in the organization. The DEI Assessment will help you establish a baseline for your company and outline recommendations for the next steps.

• In the case of ethnic and cultural diversity,

Implicit Bias Training: Biases start early, and

businesses with culturally diverse teams outperformed those with minimal diversity by 36 percent in profitability.

just about everyone is prone to biases. Learn more about what implicit bias is, how to combat it, and how to tackle it moving forward.

• As it relates to sexual orientation, aca-

Institute for Healing Racism: The Chamber

demic estimates have found that 5.1% of U.S. women and 3.9% of U.S. men identify as LGBTQ+. Creation of psychologically safe workplaces for LGBTQ+ employees result in happier employees who view their workplaces more favorably and have more supportive managers, all of which positively impacts attraction and retention of talent.

believes the most effective way to combat racism is to educate individuals by use of honest and open dialogue. This program is an opportunity to start this dialogue by bringing racism to the forefront of discussions and examining it as both a personal and societal problem.

Despite consistent findings promoting the benefits of DEI, progress remains slow in closing gender and cultural representation gaps and, because of the pandemic, some companies

have even regressed. Without diversity, equity, and inclusion, we limit our talent, resources, and the business opportunities necessary to thrive in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. This is why we’ve assembled a team of subject matter experts who can provide DEI training for your organization. Dedicating strategy, time, and resources to both recruiting diverse talent and retaining and developing employees supports our common goal of building an inclusive culture where all people in West Michigan can thrive.

APRIL 26, 2021 / MiBiz

Organizational Culture & Communication Training: Poor communication lies at the root of many problems. How do your team members communicate with one another? This eight-hour training will focus on improving and understanding communication across teams and your organization’s culture.

THE SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS Ken James, Director of Inclusion With nearly three decades of experience spanning a multitude of industries including non-profit, health care, and higher education, Ken is driven by his passion to initiate cross-cultural dialogue and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. As Director of Inclusion for the Grand Rapids Chamber, he combines his knowledge and lived experiences to deliver creative, intentional programs to employers and their stakeholders. Ken is an alumnus of Kentucky State University and Grand Valley State University, from which he holds a master’s in public administration. Most recently, he earned Executive Certification in Diversity Coaching through the CoachDiversity Institute in partnership with Howard University School of Business and is recognized as an Associate Diversity Coach (ADC). Emily Smith, Inclusion Program Manager A native of New Mexico, language, culture, and diversity have influenced Emily from an early age. She is an Advanced Certified Cultural Intelligence (CQ) Professional and Unconscious Bias (UB) Certified Professional, and utilizes these skill sets to further the work of equity and understanding through a culturally intelligent, global, human-centered lens. In her role as Inclusion Program Manager with the Grand Rapids Chamber, Emily supports DEI training and affinity programs designed to create a greater sense of belonging for business professionals in the West Michigan community. She is an alumna of Colorado State University and Aquinas College. If you are interested in engaging in a DEI training program or assessment, please contact Omar Cuevas, Vice President of Sales and

Marketing for the Grand Rapids Chamber (omar@grandrapids.org). ABOUT THE GRAND RAPIDS AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

foster an inclusive and welcoming community, and advance a vibrant business environment that nurtures economic prosperity for all. Learn more at www.grandrapids.org.

The Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce leads the business community in creating a dynamic, top-of-mind West Michigan region. Together with over 2,500 member businesses, we work to expand the influence, access, and information required to actively encourage entrepreneurial growth and community leadership. We offer the connections, resources, and insights needed to develop strong leaders, engage a diverse workforce,

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AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES Continued from page 1

Ridership trends, learning opportunity Ridership steadily grew since the pilot launched in July 2019 and peaked in January and February 2020 with about 11,000 riders per month, Kimura said. The shuttle had 7,422 riders in December 2019, according to a ridership survey. The shuttle shut down in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and restarted in August with new safety protocols. The December 2019 ridership survey showed respondents were primarily “frequent, experienced public transit users” who mostly used the autonomous shuttle for work or errands. Seventy percent of the autonomous shuttle riders reported using the service at least once a week. Nearly 90 percent of respondents said the shuttle “positively impacted” Grand Rapids, though respondents’ concerns included a lack of understanding about the program and a lack of trust in the technology. Seamless Accelerator, a proof of concept platform for startups that was originally part of Start Garden, helped facilitate the pilot program by connecting May Mobility to private sponsors. Autonomous vehicles are “cool technology,” but the project is really meant to collect data to solve mobility needs in Grand Rapids, said Seamless Program Manager Kaylee Page. “The private sector also can’t learn how to make autonomous vehicles without deploying them in public,” Page said. Grand Rapids’ pilot program is “one of the most complex” autonomous vehicle initiatives of its kind, said Seamless Director Matt Benson. “I’d love to see it continue and expand,” Benson said. “It is an opportunity to continue to show that (Grand Rapids) is both innovative but also focused on stuff that actually matters.” Ridership has been down since the pandemic hit because of capacity constraints limiting trips to single riders or multiple riders who are from the same household, Kimura said.

Kimura said the pilot program serves multiple purposes, including replacing short car trips with the fully electric shuttle, reducing congestion downtown and providing free transportation. The pilot is also providing a case study on how city infrastructure supports or could improve to support autonomous vehicles. “We’re in the very early stages of gathering that data, but we’re starting to build that for what may be needed in the future,” Kimura said. May Mobility is also using the program to learn how to better adapt its autonomous vehicle technology. Currently the shuttles have attendants to override the autonomous vehicle if needed, which has been used to identify red traffic lights, Kimura said.

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New models Proposed program changes also call for transitioning from Polaris GEM shuttles to Lexus RX450H hybrid vehicles. If approved, the Lexus models would be equipped with sensors and new, improved hardware compared to the first phase of the pilot, Kimura said. He expects the same operating hours to be offered if the program is extended. The Lexus models are not wheelchair accessible, so the existing Polaris GEM wheelchair shuttle would continue to offer that service for riders by request, Kimura said. Adding the Lexus to May Mobility’s shuttle fleets is the company’s first autonomous vehicle technology integration into an original equipment manufacturer’s platform, May Mobility said earlier this year. “Adding the Lexus RX450H to our fleet allows May Mobility to elevate the shuttle experience and expand the services and capabilities we can offer municipalities and riders,” May Mobility co-founder and CEO Edwin Olson said in January. “With this vehicle platform, we advance May Mobility’s mission to transform cities with safe, clean, and accessible autonomous shuttles.”

On-demand mobility If extended, the autonomous shuttle program would be the city’s first on-demand transportation service and could potentially provide additional data about where people are seeking transit and how they use the service, Kimura said.

Officials seeking to extend Grand Rapids’ autonomous vehicle pilot program want to move to Lexus RX450H hybrid vehicles (top) and away from the Polaris GEM shuttles (below). COURTESY PHOTOS

The fixed route currently has 20 stops and navigates through 30 traffic intersections. “Transit is generally on predicted routes with schedules,” Kimura said. “We’re trying to find the middle ground and provide a shared service that’s a little more tailored to the customer. I don’t know if we’ll ever put a completely driverless shuttle out there, but the technology we’re developing will help us to get pretty close to that if we don’t get there.” The program’s biggest challenges so far have been navigating heavy precipitation and traffic as well as construction. People have used it similarly to how they use The Rapid’s Downtown Area Shuttle, or DASH, routes. Ridership surveys have reported a positive overall experience, Kimura said. “For some of our riders, this was their first experience with public transit, and after their experience with this they were more inclined to try other forms of public transit,” Kimura said.

Editor Joe Boomgaard / jboomgaard@mibiz.com Managing Editor Andy Balaskovitz / abalaskovitz@mibiz.com (energy, policy) Senior Editor Jayson Bussa / jbussa@mibiz.com (manufacturing, tech, sports) Senior Writer Mark Sanchez / msanchez@mibiz.com (finance, health care, life sciences) Staff Writer Kate Carlson / kcarlson@mibiz.com (real estate & development, small biz) Contributing Reporter Josh Spanninga VP of Production & Audience Development Kristi Kortman / kkortman@mibiz.com Digital Specialist Danielle Affholter / daffholter@mibiz.com Graphic Designer Kaylee Van Tuinen / kvantuinen@mibiz.com Senior Advertising Consultant Shelly Keel / skeel@mibiz.com Sales & Marketing Associate Lauren Frailey / lfrailey@mibiz.com Director, Finance & Administration Tarah Buchan / tbuchan@mibiz.com

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BIZ BRIEFS A recap of recent stories from MiBiz.com.

Travel Michigan opts for in-state, regional tourism campaign The Pure Michigan campaign will focus on in-state and regional travelers this summer as opposed to a nationwide tourism campaign. Travel Michigan, an arm of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., is spending $7.5 million on a warm weather advertising campaign that started this month across the Midwest. Another $1.6 million from 20 industry partners adds to the promotion and includes $400,000 contributions each from Traverse City Tourism, Experience Grand Rapids and the Great Lakes Bay Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau. In mounting only in-state and regional campaigns this Visit www.mibiz.com

year, and encouraging people to “travel safely” amid COVID-19, Travel Michigan decided to forgo national ads that have helped to draw vacationers to the state from across the country. “This is not the year to be doing that anyway” as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on into a second year, Travel Michigan Vice President Dave Lorenz told state lawmakers last week.

Analysis estimates economic impact of MSU’s medical campus

Developments on Michigan State University’s medical school campus in downtown Grand Rapids will drive $339 million in annual economic impact on the city when fully completed next year.

The estimate for a “significant economic effect on the surrounding community” comes from an analysis conducted by Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business. The analysis estimates that the MSU facilities along Michigan Street — plus Perrigo Co. plc’s planned North American headquarters that will rise on the medical school’s research and innovation campus — will directly support 1,100 jobs, plus another 900 indirectly, that pay $142 million annually.

GR Chamber launches 3 minority business councils

The Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce has launched Black, Asian and Latinx business councils within its organization to better serve businesses owned by people of color. The move comes after the Grand Rapids Chamber partnered with Kent County

to ad m i n i ster t he Kent C ou nt y Sm a l l Bu s i ne s s Recovery Program in June 2020, which awarded $33.1 million in federal CARES Act funding to nearly 4,000 businesses. Leading t he prog ra m gave t he Gra nd R apid s Chamber a chance to “look behind the scenes” and get a better understanding of the additional obstacles minority-owned businesses face, which were amplified by the pandemic, said Dante Villarreal, vice president of business and talent development at the Grand Rapids Chamber.

West Mich. CRE market showing signs of recovery

West Michigan’s commercial real estate sector is showing signs of recovery and creating optimism among experts. “Retailers are beginning to feel cautiously optimistic about the coming months

as we’re seeing signs of a rebound,” said Earl Clements, senior vice president at Colliers International’s West Michigan office. “Retailers and restaurants worked hard to adapt during COVID-19, and they continue to do so leading to processes and practices that will likely stick around post-pandemic.” The first quarter of 2021 showed a 5.1 percent vacancy rate for Grand Rapids retail space, a slight decrease from the previous quarter, according to a recent Colliers market trend report. The vacancy rate could start “creeping back up” slightly as landlords try to recoup rent they had previously abated, according to the report. Colliers advisers saw tenants active in many segments, including grocery, home goods, furniture and home improvement. More activity is linked to medical-related tenants, fitness and restaurants with and without drivethrus.

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MiBiz / APRIL 26, 2021

MANUFACTURING

Peters’ legislation attempts to create unified federal strategy, advocacy for manufacturing By JAYSON BUSSA | MiBiz jbussa@mibiz.com

.S. Sen. Gary Peters foresaw the pain points the country’s manufacturers would encounter during the COVID19 pandemic and he’s actively pushing legislation he thinks could make the industry more resilient. In Peters’ role with the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs — a committee in which he was formerly a ranking member, but now chairs — the Michigan Democrat and his fellow committee members launched an investigation into high drug prices. This deep dive, which was released in a 2019 report, revealed an overreliance on an offshore supply chain for key medical equipment. “In that report, I concluded, when there is a pandemic in this country, the United States is going to be in a very serious predicament,” Peters told MiBiz. “A few months later, here we are; here we found ourselves in it. My report moved from being theoretical to real world, and it shows the vulnerabilities.” As the industry is demonstrating as the pandemic marches on, the U.S. supply chain is efficient

Burdette

but not resilient, especially when it comes to pharmaceuticals, according to Peters. The country’s shortage of microchips is another example of American manufacturers’ supply chain woes, one that has caused major disruptions to the automotive industry in recent weeks. “We’re over-reliant on foreign sources for key elements of the supply chain,” Peters said. “We have to change that. We have to bolster our domestic supply chain and that means bolstering domestic manufacturing as a part of the supply chain.”

Walsh

One voice Peters has taken steps to encourage U.S. manufacturers to streamline and provide them with a singular voice in Washington, D.C. through a legislative package that he introduced on April 12.

WEST MICHIGAN’S LEADING COMMERCIAL ROOFING CONTRACTOR

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APRIL 26, 2021 / MiBiz

U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (second from left) tours an Engineered Manufactured Products (EMP) plant in Escanaba in 2019. COURTESY PHOTO The National Institute of Manufacturing Act is among the three bills included in the package. Peters originally introduced the legislation in 2019, but it died in the previous Congress. The bill proposes the formation of a National Institute of Manufacturing within the Department of Commerce. Peters said that the idea for the National Institute of Manufacturing came from consulting with experts at the University of Michigan and that he wants to use the existing National Institutes of Health as a blueprint for how the federal agency would approach public-private partnerships. Peters pointed to the fragmented nature of manufacturing and the absence of a unified strategy at the federal level as limitations. Currently, the United States is home to 58 federal manufacturing programs that are spread across 11 different departments and agencies. “We need to streamline that,” Peters said. “And that’s what the National Institute of Manufacturing would do. We would have a chief manufacturing officer in the federal government that would oversee that and can speak with one voice to the needs of manufacturers to the executive branch and Congress, as well.” Despite not gaining traction in the last Congress, Peters said that he hopes his legislative package may be included in the Endless Frontier Act, a bipartisan Senate bill to boost U.S. global leadership and competitiveness. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, which has caused many disruptions for manufacturers, Peters said he thinks it’s an idea worth revisiting. “I believe (the legislative package) will have momentum and I talked at length with members of the Biden Administration about this idea,” Peters said. “They are certainly committed to strengthening manufacturing. It’s a priority for President Biden to do that.” Peters also introduced The Manufacturing.gov Act, along with fellow senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). The bill would create an online hub to connect manufacturers with federal programs. Peters worked with Rubio to introduce another bill, the The National Manufacturing Advisory Council for the 21st Century Act. The legislation would revive the National Manufacturing Advisory Council, which has only met intermittently in recent years. The council would advise the federal government on manufacturing programs while providing private-sector guidance and insight to the federal government. The end game to the entire package is to keep up with other countries vying for manufacturing leadership — many of which have a unified federal strategy. “We have to compete with other nation states that understand manufacturing is absolutely vital to their economy,” Peters said. “They put together a comprehensive strategy that strengthens their

manufacturing businesses. … Two clear examples are Germany and South Korea. Those countries understand the importance of manufacturing and support it aggressively. I’m in that camp. I believe you cannot be a great country if you don’t actually make things.”

State groups on board John Walsh, president and CEO of the Michigan Manufacturers Association, said that Peters has been a consistent voice for the industry and attributes his stance to the fact that he is from a manufacturing-rich state. The MMA maintains open communication with Peters, Walsh said, noting that he fully supports the three bills, calling them advantageous for both small and large manufacturers. “Our members, and the industry itself, spends a great deal of time trying to decipher federal law, and then state law on top of that, to determine how they can best operate, whether there are incentives available and how to connect with foreign markets,” Walsh said. “They have to go to a different department for an answer for each of those things. Having a National Institute of Manufacturing and a specific website and kind of this uber agency is a really good idea and long overdue.” With the industry’s weaknesses in full focus, Walsh said the timing is also optimal. While the legislation might change, as it often does, he expects to see movement on it. “(The pandemic) will produce some opportunities and this is one of them,” he said. “We’ve had the opportunity to look at our weaknesses and reassess where we want to go forward. Having a National Institute of Manufacturing to be responsible for that … will help us get to the other side even more successfully.” Justine Burdette, regional director for the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center-West in Grand Rapids, echoed Walsh’s sentiments on timing, saying that unprecedented measures can often address unprecedented problems or events. “It is a new day,” Burdette said. “We had this pandemic and hopefully we are coming out of it now. Asking what can be done differently is a really healthy conversation to have.” Peters also is a long-time proponent of the federal Manufacturing Extension Partnership, of which MMTC acts as a state representative. As such, Peters not only has his finger on the pulse of manufacturing, but specifically Michigan manufacturing, Burdette said. “I think he recognizes our manufacturing strength, knowledge, knowhow and the importance to our Michigan economy,” she said. “I also think that he is really in tune and listens to our manufacturing sector and is aware of the vulnerabilities that COVID exposed.” Visit www.mibiz.com

2021 Webinar Series People, Process, Product: 3P Approach to Total Manufacturing Management

PROCESS:

LEAN 3P May 11, 2021 In this first of two webinars on process, we’ll address Lean 3P (Production, Preparation and Process), an event-driven process for developing new products concurrently with the operation that will produce it.

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MiBiz / APRIL 26, 2021

MANUFACTURING OFFICE FURNITURE

Creating a powerhouse

from generations ago applies to today’s rapidly changing times for the office furniture industry. Owen and Knoll Chairman and CEO Andrew Cogan positioned the proposed acquisition as combining two design-driven furniture makers with rich legacies that are working to navigate profound changes that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated. Specifically, they referenced offering furnishings that accommodate far more people working from home, and a greater reliance on e-commerce. “With all of the trends that have been re-shaping our lives — distributed work, a greater focus on the home, digital disruption — this really seemed like the perMcCrackin fect fit at the right time, and in a time when the world is changing so much,” Owen told brokerage analysts last week in a conference call to discuss the deal. “The changes we’ve faced over the past year have set in motion powerful trends that are shaping our world and our lives. The rise of distributed work models, a greater focus on the home, digital acceleration, the rise of direct-to-consumer business models, and a focus on sustainability and social good. Bringing Herman Miller and Knoll together, we will catalyze the home and office sectors at a time unprecedented disruption.”

The need for furniture makers to steer more toward accommodating home offices is reflected in recent polling. In a Harris Poll this month conducted for Oklahoma-based Express Employment Professionals, 35 percent of respondents said remote work “will become the new normal.” As the entire industry adjusts to that dynamic, uniting two players with deep design legacies and product portfolios creates a design powerhouse that can appeal even more to architects and designers planning a renovation or new spaces, said Tara McCrackin, president of Ferris State University’s Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids. Architects and designers and their clients who use different manufacturers on large-scale projects for seating, storage and workstations could source a wider breadth of products from a single manufacturer, she said. “I think it makes them a powerhouse. Not that either company was not a major player, but coming together just makes that impact stronger,” said McCrackin, a workplace designer and a past president of the International Interior Design Association’s Michigan chapter. “We were already seeing a shift toward very blurred edges on residential, commercial and hospitality, and all of these classic pieces fit all of those markets,” she said. “It’s bringing all of the iconic lineup under one umbrella, and I think it’s kind of amazing.” Zeeland-based Herman Miller (Nasdaq: MLHR) and East Greenville, Pa.-based Knoll (NYSE: KNL)

Continued from page 1

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Herman Miller President and CEO Andi Owen. COURTESY PHOTO

together have 19 brands, a presence across more than 100 countries, a global dealer network with 64 showrooms, more than 50 physical retail locations, and global multi-channel e-commerce networks. The two companies combined would have $3.6 billion in revenue and $552 million in adjusted proforma earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), based on their most recent fiscal year results. The acquisition would create a new industry sales leader. By comparison, Grand Rapids-based office furniture industry leader Steelcase Inc. (NYSE: SCS) last month reported $2.59 billion in revenue for the 2021 fiscal year that ended Feb. 28. The revenue was a 30-percent reduction from the prior fiscal year that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on the industry.

“It’s bringing all of the iconic lineup under one umbrella, and I think it’s kind of amazing.” — TARA MCCRACKIN President, Kendall College of Art and Design

Pandemic driving change The changes accelerated by the pandemic present both immediate challenges and long-term opportunities for the industry, Steelcase CEO James Keane told MiBiz. “I think there is a new era taking shape in our industry around work, workers and workplaces. Everything is changing and it creates terrific opportunities for Steelcase and for our industry,” said Keane, who this month announced plans to retire in October. “I think Herman Miller’s investment in Knoll wouldn’t happen if they didn’t also have an optimistic viewpoint about the future of work and all the places where people work — offices, homes and everywhere else. I think of it as reaffirming my confidence that this is a really exciting time in the industry.” (See page 22 for a full interview with Keane.) The deal comes as the office furniture industry has been mired in falling sales in the wake of the pandemic. Knoll’s 2020 sales declined 13.4 percent to $1.23 billion. Herman Miller in March reported an 11.3-percent decline in sales for the third quarter of its 2021 fiscal year, to $590.5 million. Sales for the North American contract furniture market dove 35 percent while orders declined 38 percent. On the upside, retail sales that Herman Miller has placed a strategic focus on the last two years grew 63 percent compared to the prior year, while orders accelerated 81 percent. By coming together, Herman Miller and Knoll can better adjust to the new reality, Owen said.

“We believe this union will shape the future of our industry as a whole, and we’re excited to explore all the ways in which Herman Miller, together with Knoll, will be well-positioned to drive long-term growth and excellence across the business,” Owen said. The deal should close by the end of the third quarter, pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. Owen will serve as president and CEO of the merged company. Cogan will depart Knoll after 30 years with the company. Under terms of the merger, Knoll shareholders would get $11 in cash and 0.32 shares of Herman Miller common stock for each of their shares. Herman Miller also will buy outstanding shares of Knoll’s preferred stock from investor Investindustrial VII L.P. for $253 million in cash, or $25.06 per share. Investindustrial VII L.P. agreed to vote its shares in favor of the deal. Herman Miller intends to finance the deal with cash on hand and new debt. The company has secured a $1.75 billion commitment for senior debt from Goldman Sachs. Executives expect the acquisition to generate $100 million in cost savings within two years. MiBiz Senior Editor Jayson Bussa contributed reporting to this story. Visit www.mibiz.com

Industry 4.0 Opportunity Assessment aims to jumpstart small manufacturers advanced manufacturing journey As advancements in Industry 4.0 surge ahead, the pace of development and sheer scope of technology often leaves small- and medium-size manufactures without the expertise and resources to forge a clear path forward. Industry 4.0 is normally discussed in terms of large operations, with budgets and staff dedicated to implementing advanced manufacturing technology. By comparison, many smalland medium-size manufacturers lack the dedicated staff to even begin their Industry 4.0 journey and come away from their research with far more questions than answers. To aide small- and medium-size manufacturers in beginning their Industry 4.0 Journey, the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center – West (The Center - West) has partnered with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and Automation Alley to offer a free Industry 4.0 Opportunity Assessment. The assessment – the costs of which are underwritten by the MEDC – identifies key bottle necks in a manufacturer’s operation and provides tailored advanced manufacturing solutions that make business sense for each company’s specific needs. “This is literally a brass-tacks conversation,” said Justine Burdette, regional director of The Center-West and vice president of technical services at The Right Place, Inc. “This is not all about robots and automation. We are bringing a more holistic approach to this.” For Copemish-base M R Products Inc., the assessment allowed the manufacturer of plastic chains, plastic stanchions and other products, to explore technology it otherwise would not have had the time or capacity to access. “For us, Industry 4.0 and all of the new technology is a little beyond our capabilities,” said Ryan Schultz, COO of M R

Products, who until a year ago also served as the company’s sole IT person. “We never had the capabilities in-house to really go after the next step. What this assessment did was identify the weaknesses that are most important to us and how we can attack those weaknesses.” The Industry 4.0 Opportunity Assessment consists of two parts. First, manufacturers answer a set of questions pertaining to their business and manufacturing process, such as cost of goods sold, run time, number of employees and other similar questions. The second portion of the assessment includes an on-site walkthrough by two experienced members of The Center-West staff who tour the facility and analyze each company’s processes and procedures. “They’re really getting a feel for not only your processes as a manufacturer and where you’re at in your manufacturing journey, but also where you are at in your Industry 4.0 journey,” Burdette said. Following the assessment, The Center-West issues a comprehensive report, customized to the individual manufacturer, which identifies specific pinch-points in the manufacturer’s operation. The report then offers recommendations for which specific Industry 4.0 and advanced manufacturing technology are best suited to address those issues. Most importantly, the assessment also provides cost breakdowns and estimated ROI figures for the manufacturer depending on what solution they choose.

the following week. This led to data that was out of date and lagged current production conditions. The Center identified several solutions to this bottleneck through the assessment and followed through with connecting M R Products to the appropriate vendors. Now, M R Products uses tablets and software to collect and review production data. Instead of week-old data, the company has easy access to daily reports which they can then use to immediately address issues as they occur. “I’m thrilled with the assessment,” Schultz said. “It was a little scary going through it. No one wants their faults picked out... We knew we were low in some areas and they definitely told us where we needed help. They really put it into perspective what it was costing us by not moving forward.”

SCHEDULING AN ASSESSMENT Please contact The Center-West to schedule a free Industry 4.0 Opportunity Assessment with the information below. Phone: 616.301.6247 Email: thecenter@rightplace.org www.thecenterwest.org

For M R Products, the assessment identified solutions for inefficiencies in production data tracking. Previously, the company created large, complex spreadsheets which would go through several rounds of data entry and review with different employees before a report was issued – often

Coming Soon!

FOOD SYSTEMS MAY 24, 2021 From farms to processors to restaurants, the food business is dealing with a broad range of issues brought on by the pandemic, climate change, the changing workforce and social issues related to the workplace. In this focus section, we’ll take a look at how food-related companies throughout the region are meeting these challenges and pushing forward. Don’t wait to be in this issue! Contact us by Wednesday, May 12 to advertise.

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MiBiz / APRIL 26, 2021

REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT

Multifamily developments reflect trend of younger generations renting longer By KATE CARLSON | MiBiz kcarlson@mibiz.com

hile Millennials are the largest generation by population and the largest group of homebuyers, the 25-to 40-year-old demographic also faces some of the steepest challenges to buying a home. The net result: Many Millennials are opting to rent longer than previous generations, leading to new trends in multifamily housing developments. COVID-19 and remote work has attracted a growing number of coastal and big city residents to relocate to West Michigan, tightening an already short regional housing supply. Renting has also become more common among age groups that are traditionally more likely to own their home, according to a 2020 report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. West Michigan real estate experts say the multifamily real estate market is adapting to the changing lifestyles and amenities favored by Millennials and younger renters. Stoneleigh Companies President R ick Cavenaugh, who is working to turn the former Lincoln Country Club golf course in Walker into a mixed-use development, told the Walker City Planning Commission recently that families with children are increasingly living in apartments. Meanwhile, multifamily developments need to have amenities to accommodate that, he said. Med ia n home pr ices nat ionw ide have increased 15 percent since the end of 2020, according to the National Association of Realtors. “It’s great if you own a house and you want to sell it, but it’s expensive if you want to buy a house,” Cavenaugh said. “As housing prices continue to go up, renting demand goes up because it becomes an alternative.”

Tight market, challenges West Michigan’s rental market has high occupancy and is not adding enough supply because of the high costs of construction, said Matt Jones, associate v ice president at Colliers International’s West Michigan office. The pandemic has also caused an influx of people relocating to the region from out of town, he said. “Grand Rapids was the beneficiary in some ways of COVID-19 as people realized they can work from anywhere,” Jones said. There’s also widespread evidence of large numbers of bids coming in for houses when they hit the market. “I think there are a lot of people who say we’ll just rent because of that,” Jones said, adding that younger generations are also trending toward

APRIL 26, 2021 / MiBiz

The Brix at Midtown Apartments in Grand Rapids, which recently sold to a New York City real estate and development firm, features amenities including a heated swimming pool, two-story fitness center, lounge and golf simulator. PHOTO BY KATE CARLSON

“The multifamily industry is very data driven, so they are very tapped into what the changing demands are.” — SCOTT NURSKI Senior Multifamily Investment Specialist, NAI Wisinski of West Michigan

more f lexibility and away from homeowner responsibilities or being tied to one location. Younger generations are also confronting challenges related to job security and student debt limiting the ability to qualify for a home loan, said Scott Nurski, senior multifamily investment specialist at NAI Wisinski of West Michigan.

In 2020, the nationwide total student loan debt balance increased 8.28 percent — the largest increase in the student loan debt balance since 2013.

Meeting needs Rental properties are increasingly catering to Millennials and Baby Boomers with specific amenities, Nurski said. While the generations have divergent needs, some commonalities include connectivity and social interaction, he said. Multifamily developments are offering more common space inside and outdoors, while some developments are equipped with elaborate clubhouses, business centers, coffee lounges and dog parks, Nurski said. In the next few years, multifamily developments are expected to take dog-friendly amenities to “the next level,” Jones said. “Especially as we’re seeing Millennials waiting longer to have kids or get married, you’re not always going to need a two-car garage or big back yard,” said Ryan Kilpatrick, executive director of Housing Next, which works with local governments, nonprofits and developers on housing strategies. “Unit size and maintenance

obligations are going to be very different going forward and as we see what options home ownership still provides.” Many younger households prioritize proximity to public transportation, restaurants and the ability to walk somewhere to meet up with friends, Kilpatrick said. HOM Flats is a West Michigan multifamily housing developer that has leaned into and built a brand around catering to younger households, Kilpatrick said. “When you become a resident at one property, you get amenities at all properties in the region,” Kilpatrick said. “I think it’s an interesting approach for both that generation and that income segment, offering a sense of community with a lifestyle brand.” Homeownership is key to building generational wealth, which could pose a long-term problem for families that opt to rent instead of buy a home. Kilpatrick said converting multifamily rentals to a condominium style of ownership is a housing option that hasn’t yet been fully tapped in West Michigan. “The multifamily industry is very data driven, so they are very tapped into what the changing demands are,” Nurski said. Visit www.mibiz.com

SMALL BIZ

Blacklist Bagels looks to transition from ghost kitchen to storefront By KATE CARLSON | MiBiz kcarlson@mibiz.com GRAND RAPIDS — When the COVID19 pandemic first took hold of the country last year, Kevin Chaperon took the at-home bread baking trend to the next level and opened a ghost kitchen concept called Blacklist Bagels LLC. Chaperon has worked in Grand Rapids’ restaurant industry for years, and previously worked at a bagel shop in East Lansing. He’s also the former head chef at The Commons in Grand Rapids’ Heritage Hill neighborhood, where the owner allowed Chaperon to make and eventually sell bagels during the pandemic. The Commons became Blacklist’s home base. “I had worked at a bagel shop previously and had a weird obsession with bagels that I didn’t realize before the pandemic,” Chaperon said. “It was a little hard at the start for people to understand what Blacklist was, and we would get orders of people calling and thinking it was an actual bakery.” Chaperon recognizes familiar names on orders, but he rarely sees any of his customers’ faces, he said. “People just come to the front door and their order is just sitting there,” Chaperon said. “I just know their names. It would be nice to have a storefront and actually meet these people.” With indoor dining allowed again and business pick ing up for The Commons, Chaperon only spends limited time baking in the kitchen on weekend mornings before the restaurant opens.

He is now looking for space to open his own storefront in Grand Rapids, but his biggest barriers are finding the right location and capital to open a physical space. Chaperon launched a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of raising $15,000 that will go toward a small business loan to purchase equipment, a kitchen buildout and initial leasing and rental costs. “I’ve been kind of limited by my space and I don’t have any employees, it’s just me and my girlfriend,” Chaperon said. “Once I have employees and time to get back in the kitchen and do some recipe development, there are so many things I want to try that you can put on a bagel.” Blacklist is part of the growing trend of so-called ghost kitchens, or temporary restaurant facilities that only offer pick-up or delivery. Once seen as a natural response to the pandemic, ghost kitchens have become part of the global food industry fabric that are likely to outlast COVID-19 restrictions. Still, Chaperon is pursuing a more traditional brick and mortar future where he can take a lead role. Chaperon left his head chef duties at The Commons just before the pandemic because he wanted to step back from a management role. He temporarily worked as a baker for the nearby Royals restaurant, a position he’d likely still be doing if not for COVID19, he said. “I absolutely wouldn’t have done this if it weren’t for the pandemic,” Chaperon said. “In a lot of ways the

“I’ve just worked in this industry for so long and been overworked and underappreciated, and I just don’t want to do that with any of my employees.” — KEVIN CHAPERON Owner, Blacklist Bagels

pandemic obviously sucked and tested a lot of our mental capacity to stay home and do nothing, but I’m glad a little that it happened. I’ve been in this industry for so long, and how long can I just be a line chef?” Chaperon is excited about having an ownership stake in a restaurant where he can pay employees a decent wage and create a positive, inclusive work environment — both of which can be hard to find in the service industry. “I’ve just worked in this industry for so long and been overworked and underappreciated, and I just don’t want to do that with any of my employees,” Chaperon said.

Blacklist Bagels LLC owner Kevin Chaperon (above) seeks to transition from ghost kitchen to a brick and mortar restaurant to sell items like customizable bagel sandwiches (below). PHOTOS COURTESY OF GRETCHEN MATHOS

Coming Soon!

REAL ESTATE: MULTIFAMILY JUNE 7, 2021 In this focus section, we’ll provide a comprehensive report on the status of the multi-family housing market in West Michigan. We’ll dig into who’s doing projects, where they’re going and who’s financing deals throughout the region. Don’t wait to be in this issue! Contact us by Wednesday, May 26 to advertise. Contact Us Today! sales@mibiz.com • editor@mibiz.com • 616-608-6170

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MiBiz / APRIL 26, 2021

HEALTH BIZ DOCTOR BURNOUT

Continued from page 1 counterpart after learning of the program. The Michigan State Medical Society launched SafeHaven this month and has been contacting other organizations in the state that represent medical professionals, as well as medical schools whose students also experience burnout. “Provider health and wellness is something that is very challenging, and challenging the health and safety of our patients here in Michigan,” McFatridge said. “It goes back to bringing the joy of the practice of medicine back into the lives of physicians and provider communities. We want to make sure that physicians have the tools and resources available to them to do the best that they can on an everyday basis.”

‘Growing public health concern’ A 2019 National Academy of Medicine study characterizes burnout as emotional exhaustion, detachment and a low sense of personal accomplishment. The study concluded that “current understanding suggests that burnout is a growing public health concern among all types of clinicians and learners, that the problem has been growing for years, leading to an alarming rate of burnout caused by high stress, high de ma nds, h ig h patient caseloads, long hours and a lack of resources.” The Academy of Medicine estimated that 35 perBabineau cent to 40 percent of practicing physicians and nurses experience symptoms of burnout. The rate was even higher — 45 percent to 60 percent — among medical students and residents. Dr. Terri Babineau, chief medical officer for SafeHaven, cites data that indicat as many as two-thirds of doctors have

experienced symptoms of burnout in the pandemic. As a subscription service, SafeHaven offers clinicians telephonic behavioral health support 24 hours a day, plus peer coaching, counseling sessions, legal and financial counseling and other resources. Quite often physicians feeling burned out are reluctant to seek help. They worry that seeking mental health help would hurt their career, job status or their professional licensing, and that it “can affect your livelihood and also affect your reputation,” Babineau said.

Doctor burnout A survey this year of more than 12,000 physicians nationwide by Medscape, a website that provides continuing education for physicians and health professionals, identified what’s causing physician burnout. Here’s a look at what physicians answering the annual survey told Medscape most causes burnout:

“We want to make sure that physicians have the tools and resources available to them to do the best that they can on an everyday basis.” — KEVIN MCFATRIDGE Chief Operating Officer, Michigan State Medical Society Illustration by Kaylee Van Tuinen

“They would be afraid to go to anyone for help because it would cause a problem,” she said. “So, what was happening was physicians were just kind of suffering in silence and all of those factors started that really made burnout become a big issue.” In Virginia, the Medical Society worked with lawmakers to enact legislation preventing disclosure of information about a physician who seeks mental health care to a licensing board. Also playing into the reluctance to seek help is a culture within the medical profession that often keeps doctors, physician assistants and nurses from getting the help they need, Babineau said. Some believe that they can handle the mounting stress on their own or simply tough it out. “We have to absolutely admit and are really putting forth a lot of effort to

change that culture, that thought that ‘we don’t need help,’” she said. “We sometimes do adopt this culture that is almost dehumanizing. Many people in medicine are working hard to make medicine more humanistic, not just for patients but also for providers.”

Confidential support A key aspect to the wellness platform is the confidential peer-to-peer counseling. Surveys conducted by VITAL WorkLife Inc., a Minneapolis-based behavioral health consulting practice that focuses on workplace well being, found that doctors tend to not use traditional employee assistance programs. VITAL WorkLife operates SafeHaven through a partnership signed with the Medical Society of Virginia in March 2020.

Professionals who use SafeHaven for coaching or mental health care are speaking confidentially to peers “who understand where you’re coming from,” Babineau said. Survey data indicate just 2 percent to 3 percent of doctors will use “even the most robust” available employee assistance program (EAP), “and a lot of that is because maybe they created a ruckus somewhere and were forced to do that,” Babineau said. Early data since SafeHaven launched a year ago in Virginia show 30 percent to 35 percent of the doctors at participating medical practices have used the well being platform, she said. The peer-to-peer coaching for medical professionals adds a “very valuable” component beyond a traditional EAP that makes it appealing, according to McFatridge.

“When you’re having a personal issue, not everybody can resonate or relate to it, so it’s important to find folks who can relate and help you through a tough time,” he said. Michigan is the first market where the Medical Society of Virginia has extended SafeHaven. The Medical Society of Virginia is close to signing similar agreements with peer organizations in Indiana and South Dakota while finalizing an arrangement in Maryland, said Dustin Beekman, director of business development for the Medical Society of Virginia Insurance Agency. Medical organizations in another six or seven states are interested in adopting the service, he said. “If we find something of value, we share it,” Beekman said.

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Pine Rest psych bed appeal faces long odds, experts say By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com

ine Rest Christian Mental Health Services faces long odds to successfully challenge a proposed state decision allowing competitor Havenwyck Hospital Inc. to develop a new psychiatric hospital in Kent County. Few appeals end successfully for the party trying to reverse a recommendation from certificate-of-need staff to the director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Experts say appeals hinge on proving that the review process for a given project was somehow flawed. In this instance, Pine Rest would need to demonstrate that department staff erred in reviewing and scoring Havenwyck’s competing proposal for the 60 adult psychiatric beds available in the Grand Rapids-area market under existing certificate-of-need (CON) standards. “There has to be a manifest error,” said attorney Scott Alfree, who chairs the health care practice at Varnum LLP in Grand Rapids. “The appeal’s not to substitute a different judgment about evaluating Alfree what happened. It’s to make sure that the rules were followed and the people involved in making the decision weren’t acting in bad faith. It is only about making sure the decision was made with the proper process. (State staff) don’t make those kinds of mistakes very often.” Only “a fraction” of CON appeals — roughly 5 percent or less — succeed because the standard of review is so high, Alfree said. Pine Rest’s appeal contests a proposed Department of Health and Human Services staff recommendation to allow Auburn Hills-based Havenwyck Hospital Inc. to develop a 60-bed inpatient psychiatric hospital near Mercy Health’s Southwest Campus at Byron Center Avenue and 64th Street. Havenwyck plans to develop the $20.5 million facility through a joint venture formed with Mercy Health that the two announced publicly earlier this month. The appeal puts that recommendation by department staff and a final decision by MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel on hold for now.

Seeking ‘consistent standards’ In the appeal to the Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules, Pine Rest claims that Havenwyck’s CON application “did not include key required details which in similar situations has led the state to disqualify past applications from consideration,” and would have altered the scoring, CEO Mark Eastburg wrote in a memo. In a CON application last fall to the state, Pine Rest proposed adding 60 adult inpatient beds at the 68th Street campus in Cutlerville at a cost of $15 million for a new wing and renovated space at the Jay and Betty Van Andel Center. In its appeal, Pine Rest offered a lower-cost alternative and asked for approval to immediately house psychiatric beds that would flex between adult and adolescent use in a 40-bed special care unit now temporarily licensed for COVID-19 patients. The proposal would leave other providers to seek approval for the remaining 20 available licensed psychiatric beds in the market. Visit www.mibiz.com

BUSINESS NEWS THAT MATTERS. Get 24/7 access to web-only articles, breaking business news and more. Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services’ Jay and Betty Van Andel Center in Cutlerville. COURTESY PHOTO

“Those beds — two thirds of the licensed beds in question — would be available almost immediately, without the need to build a new hospital,” Eastburg wrote in the memo to state staff. Pine Rest claims that “there are clearly parts of the comparative review application of Havenwyck that in similar situations those applications were actually thrown out as being incomplete,” Pine Rest Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Bob Nykamp said. “Because of that kind of thing, it potentially alters the scoring, which potentially alters the final decision on who is approved and denied,” Nykamp said. “We’re not fighting Havenwyck. This is us saying to the state CON staff, ‘We want you to apply consistent standards in how you review applications and score them,’ and (through the appeal) they’re going to have to answer back to that process about whether or not they were consistent.” One area of contention is that CON rules used for scoring competing applications require applicants to use data on the number of Medicaid patients served at all of its Michigan hospitals, Nykamp said. Havenwyck’s owner, Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services Inc., a large for-profit provider of medical and mental health care, only used data from one of its three Michigan hospitals, in Auburn Hills, “which was completely to their advantage in terms of the statistics that are scored,” Nykamp said. Universal Health Services’ Michigan hospitals also include Forest View in Grand Rapids, a psychiatric facility with 77 adult beds and 31 beds for children and adolescents. Despite what has historically been long odds for overturning a proposed CON decision, Pine Rest filed the appeal confident of success, Nykamp said. “Was that process fairly and consistently done, like every other CON comparative review? The answer is ‘no,’ and that’s why we’re appealing and feel strongly in the end our application will be approved,” said Nykamp, who expects the appeal to take six months to a year.

Back to square one? In a joint statement to MiBiz, Havenwyck and Mercy Health said they “respect the appeals process and we are confident the Department of Health and Human Services properly exercised its statutory authority to

apply the CON review standards and reach the correct conclusion. We look forward to a prompt resolution so that we can move forward with our proposed project and address the need for additional adult psychiatric beds in Kent County.” Even in instances when a CON appeal substantiates an error in the review process, the appealing party needs to show that it would have otherwise resulted in a different decision, Alfree said. “Let’s say there is some kind of hole in the data. If it’s not a gigantic hole in the data, it’s not going to change the outcome,” he said. “How big is the hole in the data to be compelling to overturn this?” Even if an appeal overturned a DHHS staff recommendation, chances are the case would go back to square one for an entirely new review, Alfree said. “It would be much, much more likely to be that it would just go back to start over,” he said. “They’d do the whole thing over again.” When the Department of Health and Human Services conducts a comparative review of proposals from health care providers competing for approval, “It’s really trying to find the best situation for the people of the area” where a project will go, said Bret Jackson, president of the Economic Alliance for Michigan, which follows CON issues. Comparative reviews themselves are rare, Jackson said. Applicants that win a comparative review for projects such as the number of hospital beds in a market that are regulated by state CON standards “earned it,” Jackson said. “They have a proposal that meets the best needs of patients in that given area,” he said. “Ultimately, not everybody is going to win everything all of the time.” State Sen. Curt VanderWall, R-Ludington, who’s pushing to remove psychiatric hospital beds from CON review, cited the Pine Rest denial to support his legislation that recently passed the state Senate. VanderWall claims S.B. 181 would result in more inpatient psychiatric beds that are badly needed across the state. Yet even Pine Rest, which could potentially benefit, opposes VanderWall’s legislation. Nykamp said Pine Rest believes the CON process is still valuable despite the Havenwyck decision. Similar legislation lawmakers passed last year was pocket-vetoed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

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MiBiz / APRIL 26, 2021

HEALTH BIZ

Mary Free Bed requests approval for nearly $11M expansion to add 20 beds By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com GRAND RAPIDS — Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital wants to expand inpatient capacity to keep up with growing patient volumes. In a certificate-of-need filing with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Mary Free Bed asks for regulatory approval to add 20 beds at its 119-bed Wealthy Street hospital campus. Executives said in the filing that the campus has operated at a high occupancy over the last several years and on some days has had to turn away inpatients and refer them elsewhere. The $10.8 million project to increase capacity to 139 Riddle beds would enable Mary Free Bed to better handle existing demand for inpatient rehab care, which has been growing at high rates for years. The growth follows Mary Free Bed’s creation of a statewide care network a decade ago and comes as the Grand Rapids hospital has added specialized services. Changes in care techniques also have placed greater emphasis on rehabilitation. “As we’ve been expanding access to patients who haven’t traditionally gone to a rehab hospital who are much sicker than the patients that used to go to a rehab hospital, and as we’ve expanded our referral resources geographically, we’ve found ourselves to be relatively full all the time, especially during COVID, but even prior to that,” CEO Kent Riddle told MiBiz. “Because we’re a destination, we’ve really been able to continue to grow Mary Free Bed and we envision that growth to continue.” The rehab hospital today operates at more than 90 percent capacity and is sometimes full, Riddle said. In 2019, the hospital recorded an 86.8 percent average daily occupancy rate, according to the most recent state data.

Growth continues Mary Free Bed plans to finish shelled space on the sixth floor of a patient tower that opened five years

ago as part of a major $70 million expansion and renovation of the Wealthy Street hospital campus. The sixth floor would house 18 of the proposed 20 additional beds in private rooms. The two others would go in private rooms on the hospital’s third floor, according to the certificate of need (CON) filing. Riddle hopes the hospital, after securing CON approval, can begin the project in late 2021 or early next year and have the additional beds available by the end of 2022. Even with the additional beds, the rehab hospital will still operate at near its capacity. Mary Free Bed expects to have to expand bed capacity further in the years ahead as patient volumes continue to grow from referrals through a care network that now extends into Indiana, Riddle said. The patient tower that opened in 2016 has space for additional capacity, and further expansion would require construction of an addition at the hospital campus in the future, he said. “We’re optimistic about continued expansion beyond (the proposed project) because we’re just going to grow the network and continue to grow our partnerships with acute-care hospitals,” said Riddle, who envisions Mary Free Bed becoming “the Mayo Clinic of rehab to the country if we just continue what we’re already doing.” “We’ll just continue to expand and continue to bring those specialty patients for care here at Mary Free Bed in Grand Rapids,” he said. “I envision that Mary Free Bed will be able to continue to grow over the next 10 to 15 years, beyond even this.”

Changing pathways In proposing to expand inpatient capacity, Mary Free Bed is responding to growth that partly comes from a greater tendency among acute-care hospitals to refer patients to providers specializing in rehab to regain their strength before they are discharged to go home. For example, Mary Free Bed now provides rehab care to cancer and cardiac patients who were weakened by their conditions, and to organ transplant recipients before and after their surgery to improve their strength and increase chances for recovery. “The clinical pathways are changing,” Riddle said. “It’s proving that it’s a lower cost from a

Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids. COURTESY PHOTO

population health standpoint to have a rehab stay, even a short rehab stay, for patients nobody ever envisioned would go to rehab hospital.” Formation of the Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Network a decade ago also has driven strong grow th in referrals from hospitals around Michigan for patients with complex conditions — or the “sickest of the sickest,” Riddle said — who require highly specialized care. Mary Free Bed takes referrals from 100 hospitals, mostly in Michigan, and now runs inpatient and outpatient rehab units through partnerships with 38 hospitals across the state and in Indiana at South Bend and Elkhart. Partnerships include hospitals in Muskegon, Kalamazoo, Lansing and elsewhere. Through a joint venture with Mary Free Bed, Saginaw-based Covenant HealthCare is building a new $40.7 million rehabilitation hospital that opens this fall. Most recently, Mary Free Bed also expanded a venture with Traverse City-based Munson Health to include outpatient units at its hospitals in Cadillac and Grayling.

Stronger today As the network continues to grow in the years ahead, more patients with specialty needs will flow to Grand Rapids, Riddle said. Mary Free Bed also hopes to expand the network further outside of Michigan, he said. “The network has really worked beyond our expectations,” Riddle said. “We’re already talking with a number of providers in neighboring states.” Since forming the network 10 years ago, the number of patients Mary Free Bed serves annually has grown from about 12,000 to an expected 85,000 in 2021. The hospital, which had revenues a decade ago of about $45 million, now expects to well exceed $200 million for the 2022 fiscal year that started April 1. In the 2020 fiscal year, Mary Free Bed recorded $196.4 million in gross patient revenues with net income of $7.8 million, according to American Hospital Directory. “We’re a much stronger organization today than we were 10 years ago,” Riddle said.

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Small business owners need to plan ahead to ensure smooth leadership transition By NICK MANES | MiBiz nmanes@mibiz.com

or small family-owned businesses, getting the right succession plan in place can be a long, drawn-out undertaking. Just ask Marcia Elgersma. She and her husband, Al Elgersma, realized more than a decade ago that they needed to figure out a succession plan for Al’s Excavating Inc., the nearly fourdecade-old small business they co-own in Hamilton, Mich., about 10 miles southeast of Holland. At the time, they wanted to outline the roles their children would take on in the excavating company going forward. But that was in the year 2000 and despite their best intentions, the planning process ultimately ended unsuccessfully. “It just didn’t work at all,” said Elgersma, the company’s secretary and treasurer. “We didn’t understand the processes and we didn’t know how to determine who was Percentage of West capable of leading.” Michigan familyIn the meanowned businessses time, the Elgersmas with no succession plan, according to found it was easier the Family Owned to grow their comBusiness Institute. pany to $6 million in annual sales than it was to figure out the transition plan, she said. After their failed try at succession planning, the business went back to its old model and the owners “just hunkered in.” It wasn’t until more than a decade later and based on a referral from a friend that the owners of Al’s Excavating met with

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ground, make people calm and Waterbury’s career accomplishfind ways to help them out. ments as an M&A adviser, menThat’s a rare commodity, espetor and community builder cially with an intelligent attorearned him recognition as the riends and family saw Stephen Waterbury heading toward a ney who does a lot of deals.” first-ever winner of the Western career in law before he ever did. Barnes & Thornburg LLP Michigan Dealmaker Hall of A desire to serve others and help them succeed was the drivattorney Michael Campbell, Fame Award. ing factor that led him to law school and to go on to a lengthy, who served with Waterbury Waterbury is “the last of accomplished legal career. on the board of ACG Western a dying breed,” said Richard After graduating with an undergraduate degree from Michigan State Michigan during the Noreen, CPA, a tax University, he applied and earned acceptance to Harvard Law School. early 2000s, agrees. partner at BDO USA A Lansing native, he later joined Warner Norcross + Judd LLP in M&A AWARDS He’s also been on the LLP who has known Grand Rapids, where he’s practiced business law for nearly 39 years. INDUCTEE: other side of some Waterbury for a During his career, he has handled the legal work for hundreds of mergWESTERN MICHIGAN deals involving cliquarter-century and ers and acquisitions domestically and globally, and served as a mentor DEALMAKER ents Waterbury repworked with him on to the firm’s young associate attorneys at the dawn of their careers. HALL OF FAME resented, and praises several client trans“Others assumed I would go into law earlier than I assumed I would him for his approach. actions. He praises go into law,” Waterbury said discussing his career during an interview “Steve is a true gentleman. Waterbury’s “calming influat the law offices of Warner Norcross + Judd overlooking downtown He’s sharp. He’s respectful of ence” and consensus-building Grand Rapids. SERVING WESTERN MICHIGAN SINCE 1988 everybody — the clients, the approach on getting dealsBUSINESS done. “I ended up viewing it as a way of serving people — I wanted whatother attorneys. He’s a pleasure “No matter how contentious ever I did to have that be a central component,” he said. “At its highest to work with, even if he’s on the something was, Steve always and best, the legal profession is a service profession focused on helpother side,” Campbell said. found a way to find common ing people succeed.”

By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com

Preparing for Transition

Marcia and Al Elgersma, the owners of Hamilton-based Al’s Excavating, were typical of many small family-owned business owners in that they lacked a formal succession plan to transition to the next generation of leadership. After a failed attempt to develop a plan, the company tapped a team of local advisers to develop a leadership strategy and succession plan that it plans to launch Dec. 1. PHOTO: KATY BATDORFF business consultants and did a deep dive into the makeup of the family and analyzed which members were qualified to hold the various leadership positions. Such delays in putting together a formal plan of succession are not uncommon among small and middle-market companies, experts say. In West Michigan, 81 percent of family-owned businesses lack a formal succession plan, according to the results of a study conducted by the Family Owned Business Institute (FOBI), a joint project of the Grand Valley State University Seidman College of Business and Western Michigan University’s Haworth College of Business. Simply having a succession plan in place is not really enough for most companies, sources said. Rather, families and other shareholders in the business should do a thorough analysis of the company itself and the different people who could take on leadership roles, said Kirk Koeman,

a partner at DWH LLC, a Grand Rapidsbased business consulting firm. Koeman was one of a handful of people to advise the Elgersmas as they put their plan together. “In the case of Al’s Excavating, it took two years to make changes in the company,” Koeman told MiBiz. “Typically, there is a mindset that the owners’ sons will just take over. In many middle-market companies, that’s not always feasible, and you don’t really know that until someone from the outside talks with people in the company. … These people can still be owners, but they don’t have to be managers.” During the two-year analysis of Al’s Excavating — during which time DWH served as general manager of the company so it could continue operating during a busy construction period — the research showed that members of the Elgersma family from both the second and third Continued on next page

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PHOTO: KATY BATDORFF

A focus on serving others serves Waterbury well during four-decade legal career

SEPTEMBER 29, 2014

HELMINSKI PILOTS AUXO TO GROW COMPANIES WHILE MAINTAINING WHAT’S ‘SACRED’ By JESSICA YOUNG | MiBiz jyoung@mibiz.com

eff Helminski, co-founder and managing partner of Auxo Investment Partners in Grand Rapids, successfully leveraged his atypical experience and path into the world of private equity in multiple deals last year. Helminski has a diverse professional background, including experience in manufacturing engineering, high-volume assembly operations management and real estate development. His firm, Auxo, now specializes in investing in and growing founder- and family-owned industrial, manufacturing and business services companies. While he has managed dozens of transactions involving hundreds of millions of dollars during his career, Helminski believes last year’s transactions stand out as significant in establishing Auxo’s partnership-based model and the firm’s closely-aligned relationship between investors and fund managers. With a fully subscribed fund, Helminski had the ability to invest in 10 to 15 companies in the first few years after building Auxo from scratch. Last year, Auxo

WINNER/INVESTOR: JEFF HELMINSKI

Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Auxo Investment Partners

Brief business description: Private equity firm that specializes in investing in and growing founder- and family-owned industrial, manufacturing and business services companies Personal information: Wife, Tammy Helminski, who’s a partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP; two sons, Ryan, 7, and Dominic, 9 Academic degrees: MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, master’s in Engineering from Purdue University, bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Michigan Technological University Community involvement: Board membership in Spectrum Health Hospital Group, Broadway Grand Rapids, St. Thomas Educational Support Services

evaluated hundreds of opportunities and closed on several transactions, including deals for Prestige Stamping Inc. and Andrie LLC. “Both companies had a strong focus on people and culture with honest, hardworking, down-to-earth people throughout the organization from the shop floor to the C-suite,” said Helminski, the winner of the investor category in the 2019 MiBiz Dealmakers of the Year Awards. “The sellers of the businesses, both families, cared deeply about the legacy of the company, the employees and making sure they found a successor that was going to provide them with not only sustainable employment, but hopefully, greater opportunities going forward.” The businesses found a perfect fit in values and approaches with Auxo, according to Helminski. The October 2018 deal for Prestige Stamping was Auxo’s fifth acquisition in 13 months. The Michigan-based niche manufacturer of custom-engineered stampings for the fastener industry selected Auxo as the buyer even though the company was not the highest bidder, according to Helminski. The reason: The seller was concerned about the future of the company’s employees and younger generations of the founding family that remained in the business, which aligned better with Auxo’s values and longer-term investment approach. In February, Auxo acquired Andrie, a bulk marine transporter of specialty products including cement, liquid asphalt, light oil petroleum products, and calcium chloride throughout the Great Lakes. Andrie operates a fleet of 19 tugs and barges out of Muskegon, Helminski’s hometown. The company, a mature industrial business and “market leader in the niche that they serve within their sector,” checked important boxes for Helminski. The acquisition also followed the firm’s December 2017 deal to buy Metairie, La.based M/G Transport Services, an operator of inland barges. The two firms now operate as Auxo Marine, a newly formed platform company. When Helminski launched Auxo with partners Jack Kolodny and Fred Tedori, the team made “a very conscious decision” to be based in Grand Rapids. “Part of that was because the values of West Michigan align with our values, but also, to put us this close to a large number of the kinds of businesses that we’re interested in connecting with throughout the Great Lakes region,” Helminski said.

OCTOBER 14, 2019 VOL. 31 • NO. 26

Continued

Jeff Helminski, co-founder and managing partner, Auxo Investment Partners. MIBIZ PHOTO: KATY BATDORFF

Being based in the same community as many family- or founder-owned businesses is important when the firm is communicating with a potential target, he added. “My background is not the prototypical path to being in the private equity investing world,” Helminski said. “When I’m having a conversation with a family that is thinking about this transition that is often partly emotional and partly financial, I can talk to the family and say ‘here’s my story, here’s my background, this is the way I grew up in West Michigan.’ It makes a difference.” Even so, specializing in the acquisition of family-owned businesses also comes with its own set of unique challenges and opportunities. “What’s interesting is when (the businesses) have been so successful and there’s a big enough end market that they could try and grow into that they often just haven’t done yet,” he said. “In knowing that they need to do certain things differently or

professionalize certain aspects of the business that haven’t yet been professionalized, or haven’t been developed into a more scalable function within the company, that’s going to take change.” Stabilizing long-standing, familyowned business cultures while at the same time growing profits is “one of the most difficult things” Auxo does. “It’s a delicate balancing act between these two seemingly competing interests of stability and maintaining that which is great, with changing enough to accomplish the growth at a higher rate than what they’ve historically done,” Helminski said. Pre-transaction, the firm researches not only a potential target’s financial viability but also its culture and talent. “We have a roadmap to be able to see what things are sacred and we want to really protect within the business, and what things can be done better if the company is going to grow and scale up beyond the point that they’ve achieved today,” he said.

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APRIL 26, 2021 / MiBiz

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reporter’s NOTEBOOK

Investment helps Grand Rapids startup move medical device to market

Mark Sanchez writes about finance, health biz and life sciences. 616-608-6170 • msanchez@mibiz.com

Spectrum Health pursues ‘revolutionary’ value-based contracting with supplier

Airway Innovations LLC’s TubeTrac airway device. COURTESY PHOTO By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com GRAND RAPIDS — A $75,000 investment from an East Lansing-based early-stage investment fund helps move Airway Innovations LLC into the marketplace this spring with a new device to prevent patients from pulling out tracheal tubes. The funding from Quantum Medical Concepts, formed seven years ago by the Michigan State Medical Society to support medical innovation, is part of a $450,000 growth capital round that Grand Rapids-based Airway Innovations seeks to raise from investors. Quantum Medical Concepts was the first investor in the capital round. Airway Innovations hopes to launch sales of the TubeTrac airway device to hospitals in May, founder Eric VanMiddendorp VanMiddendorp said. The company prepares to launch sales after making a “few small changes” in TubeTrac’s design to reduce skin irritation, prevent pressure ulcers and improve the headgear. The company also recently completed the Conquer Accelerator entrepreneurship program in Grand Rapids, said VanMiddendorp, who first conceived of the TubeTrac as a graduate engineering student at Grand Valley State University. “It’s a very pivotal time for the company,” he said. Founded in 2016, Airway Innovations last fall launched TubeTrac to a limited number of pre-selected clinical sites. The company subsequently revised the design based on product feedback from test trials and is now heading toward a full commercial launch early next month, VanMiddendorp said.

Ready to grow The Quantum Medical Concepts funding enabled Airway Innovations to make the design changes. The company has a few health systems around the U.S. that are waiting to try out the TubeTrac and “many more” that will review the product with their medical staff that may lead to test trials and potentially sales, VanMiddendorp said. Airway Innovations is presently talking to 10 health systems and “has really close relationships with about five of those,” he said. Visit www.mibiz.com

“We have a lot of people in the wings. We’re just waiting to get some products and some sample packs ready to start shipping out to interested parties,” VanMiddendorp said. Contract manufacturer Keystone Solutions Group in Kalamazoo will produce TubeTrac for Airway Innovations, which recently named Daniel Karadsheh as CEO, who has experience in product development, sales and marketing at medical companies. VanMiddendorp took on the role of executive vice president. Airway Innovations looks to either scale up production or potentially sell the intellectual property, VanMiddendorp said. A sale “would be ideal” after “we get that market validation under our belts over the next six to nine months,” although the company can go forward on its own, he said. “We are absolutely ready and planning to grow the company as well,” he said. “We are in conversations with interested distributors and parties that we can partner with as we look to scale this.”

Solving problems Airway Innovations was one of three early-stage companies that Quantum Medical Concepts recently backed. The fund invested $225,000 collectively in Airway Innovations, The Patient Co. in Grand Rapids that developed a patient transfer device, and Detroit-based Alerje LLC that’s developing technology to help manage food allergies. Airway Innovations and The Patient Co. each offer simple innovations that solve problems in care settings and have a path toward an exit “in the not too distant future,” said Quantum Medical Concepts Managing Director Ben Louagie. Airway Innovations’ TubeTrac “is simple, intuitive and would be easily useable,” Louagie said. Since forming in 2014, Quantum Medical Concepts has invested more than $1 million in eight startup companies, all based in Michigan. Deal flow and investment opportunities were disrupted in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, Louagie said. The early-stage fund targets investments nationally, with a primary focus in Michigan and the Midwest. The fund sources deals from business incubators and accelerators, university technology transfer organizations and innovation units are hospitals, he said. “I continue to be impressed with the quality of the companies in Michigan and the Upper Midwest,” Louagie said. “There are a lot of good companies and ideas out there in the health care space.”

he health care industry for years has been transitioning to an economic model that pays hospitals and doctors based on how well they do, their quality and medical outcomes for patients, rather than volume or how many procedures they perform. Spectrum Health now looks to apply the value-based contracting model to a new level through a deal with Medtronic plc, a large medical technology company based in Dublin, Ireland. The arrangement applies value-based contracting to the Grand Rapids health system’s supply chain, where Bill Selles hopes the practice in time becomes a regular part of the procurement process to improve quality, reduce costs and drive greater value. If the initiative with Medtronic generates the results Spectrum Health hopes, the heath system anticipates using valuebased contracting with medical suppliers could become the norm — rather than the exception — for procurement. “I would love for this to be the first of several of these types of announcements we make over the coming years,” said Selles, Spectrum Health’s senior director of procureSelles ment. “We will want to make buys with suppliers who can stand by the quality of their product and who are helping us to make sure that the cost of the device does lower the total cost of health care.” The arrangement with Medtronic “is really the culmination of what’s been a few years of work on trying to bring a supplier into the outcome arrangements with health systems,” Selles said. Medical device suppliers have largely been left out of health systems’ shift to a value-based model and have not been asked to help improve clinical quality, he said. The arrangement with Medtronic “is a major milestone for us in bringing suppliers more into this type environment with Spectrum Health,” he said. “When you think about what we’re doing with Medtronic, this is a chance for a supplier to get away from the standard relationship, which is strictly commercial, where we need a product, they want to sell a product, and that’s as far as things go,” Selles said. He added that the supplier can now “be involved in making sure that their product outcomes are what we should expect and that we’re optimizing the patient and the care flow to make sure we get the best possible outcomes.” In other words, the vendor that sells to a hospital would have some proverbial skin in the game and financial accountability for how well its product works. Under their arrangement, Spectrum Health and Medtronic will work out a value-based contract for a device known as AdaptivCRT, an implantable defibrillator that’s used to treat patients with heart failure by improving the heart’s pumping efficiency. “COVID-19 has shed a light on the importance of working together efficiently, and we’ve never had a stronger opportunity to collaborate with our customers as they seek innovative business models that deliver value,” John Liddicoat, executive vice president and president of the Americas Region at Medtronic, said in a recent announcement of the arrangement. Among the outcomes Spectrum Health hopes to record is a reduction in the 30-day hospital readmission rates for heart failure patients “who are often very sick patients,” according to Selles. Medtronic’s device has been shown to improve a patient’s response to therapy, reduce readmission rates and increase survival rates. Selles declined to offer details on how the arrangement with Medtronic could work financially, other than to say “it is unique because all of the initiatives are tied to improving the patient outcomes while reducing the cost of care.” “That’s quite different from a typical contractual arrangement,” he said. “If you think about health care generally, it’s structured such that in a normal feefor-service model — which Spectrum has largely moved away from — there’s not a penalty for bad quality. There’s certainly never a penalty for the supplier for bad quality. “This is a time in that relationship where Spectrum and Medtronic are really making sure that we’re taking the full patient outcome involved and having the supplier in the middle of that is quite different.” Spectrum Health and Medtronic are using near real-time data to monitor the progress of patients who’ve received the device to standardize care, reduce clinical variations in care, and better personalize care for patients. The AdaptivCRT device was used in 200 patients in 2020 and Spectrum Health expects to have outcomes data by the end of 2021, Selles said. The two companies have been working toward a value-based arrangement for four years. Finally getting there “is absolutely new for Spectrum Health and for our supply chain and this is also something that is very unique from an industry standpoint,” Selles said. “This is revolutionary for us and this is revolutionary from an industry standpoint.”

MiBiz / APRIL 26, 2021

FOCUS: CULTURE AND GENERATIONAL CHANGE

Executives prioritize being adaptable, inclusive in leading multigenerational workplaces By ANDY BALASKOVITZ | MiBiz abalaskovitz@mibiz.com

n her 23 years at Grand Rapids-based tech firm Open Systems Technology Inc., Meredith Bronk has seen the company grow from seven employees to more than 300. At the company’s annual event (held virtually) this month to kick off the new fiscal year, Bronk underscored to those hundreds of employees the company’s value to “bring your whole self to work.” “When I talked about that: I’m standing here as a wife, a mother, a daughter whose dad has been in the ICU for 50 days,” Bronk said. “Here I am trying to inspire, and I’m looking for a little bit of grace, recognizing that we all have components outside of work that are important for who we are. We want to encourage those things to also be present in our work.” Bronk, who’s been CEO of OST since 2014, says this is a key aspect to leading a multigenerational workplace, and a theme that’s grown more important during the COVID-19 pandemic. With employees generally working longer into their lives, company executives must learn how to generate productivity from a multigenerational workforce. Additionally, research shows that the generations — spanning from the Silent Generation to Generation Z — have varying degrees of needs, wants and expectations from their employers. Bronk says bringing one’s “whole self” is a way to support a level of comfort and acceptance across generations. “We talk at OST about positivity and the requirement to bring your whole self to work,” Bronk said. “We want people to feel comfortable. We’re creating some shared expectations that say, ‘I’m encouraged to bring my whole self, and the way I bring my whole self might look different than others.’” Still, the “whole self” concept tends to resonate more with younger workers than older ones, Bronk said. According to a Gallup poll from 2018, the average American in the mid-1990s expected to retire at age 60. By 2018, the expectation climbed to age 66. That extended career span is leading to a more age-diverse workforce, researchers say. For example, OST is trending younger as it hires more workers. However, Bronk says the nature of the tech industry naturally brings generations together in the workplace. “There’s this co-creation that happens around software and digital transformation,” Bronk said. “There is this cross-functional, cross-collaborative nature to the work that we do that is natural.”

‘Common threads’ For other industries, the generational shift taking place is more noticeable. Ada-based Erhardt Construction Co. President and CEO Ben Wickstrom said the past decade has brought a demographic shift in construction, particularly Baby Boomers aging out and retiring. “It really puts us on notice to make sure we’re attracting younger generations and younger people to the construction industry and, once we attract them, make sure we have a good platform to develop and retain them,” said Wickstrom, who’s worked at Erhardt for nearly 23 years, including the past three as CEO. “It’s been a big part of my work and my leadership tenure over the last 10 to 12 years. It’s interesting to see that bell curve change.”

APRIL 26, 2021 / MiBiz

Multigenerational workforce Generations are loosely defined and can also be broken down into various subcategories. The five generations considered in the workforce are:

Source: Pew Research Center

Wickstrom said Gen X is Erhardt’s largest age demographic, making up about 40 percent of the 64-person team, which is likely “typical across the industry.” “What we do here is recognize how people and age demographics have different wants and expectations that, when realized, result in a rewarding work experience,” he said. “But it should also be recognizing what is the same through multiple generations. You’d start to see some common threads there, regardless of which generation you came up in. Everyone wants to provide for their family and improve themselves.” Shaping that productive work culture across generations means “having consistency in our core values and our culture and making sure we have people that enjoy and thrive operating in those,” Wickstrom added. Nate Koetje, CEO of Feyen Zylstra LLC, a Walker-based electrical services and industrial technology firm, agrees about finding common threads and supporting age diversity in the same way as racial, ethnic or gender diversity. “When it comes to multi-generations, the issues may be unique, but they’re not,” he said. “It’s still about understanding and being willing and open. The key is to have a culture that’s open to multiple perspectives.” While Baby Boomer and Gen Z employees may come with different perspectives on work or company ethics, “both should be built on a desire to learn from each other,” Koetje said. Wickstrom said the biggest difference he sees among generations is that “young people are hungry to do more. That is an exciting thing.” Moreover, it sets up a solid dynamic with older workers, he said. “Couple that with the wisdom, experience and built-in knowledge that only comes with doing something well for a long period of time, that’s when you really see cool things happening in terms of growth for both people,” Wickstrom said. Koetje said younger generations “seem to be moving the needle on what I might describe as

business as a force for good in the world. The older generations perhaps follow work or a vocation simply as a way to generate income. In a healthy way, that younger generation has challenged all of us Bronk Curry Van Ee Koetje Wickstrom to do well while doing good. It’s been a really what gives them hope, and what advice they would positive push in that direction.” have for students. Koetje, Wickstrom and Bronk are part of the “What struck me so much was just the real West Michigan CEO Council announced recently awareness of the importance of emotional intelliby the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. gence and leading with recognition that we have Bronk, who also chairs the Grand Rapids Chamber’s to lead not just with tasks but with relationships,” board of directors, said the council is in addition to Curry Van Ee said. “What came out was this importhree recently announced advisory groups focused tance of recognizing the need to take care of one’s on diversity, equity and inclusion. self as a leader but also to take care of the people they’re leading.” Pandemic shifts dynamic Prior to the pandemic, younger generations’ Last May, Grand Rapids-based consultant Erica desire for more flexible workspaces “was probably Curry Van Ee surveyed 74 local leaders in the nonthe biggest area of conflict” between employers and profit, for-profit and public sectors about about how workers, she said. they were managing their workplace two months Since then, the pandemic and working from into the COVID-19 pandemic. Van Ee, CEO of home has begun to blur the categorization of genUrban Curry Consulting, is also an instructor at erations. For example, Baby Boomers and Gen Z Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College may both be working from home without children, of Business, where she has taught topics relating to either because they’re empty nesters or they haven’t multigenerational workplaces. yet had children. The COVID-19 survey ended up providing “We’ve seen these dynamics emerge that may insights on leading multiple age groups, Curry Van or may not be generational in that regard,” said Ee said. OST’s Bronk. “On the flip side, when I think about “A lot of times, age and generation diversity is what’s true in younger people: Purpose matters, one of the most profound and most difficult to navipriorities matter.” gate through,” she said. “Pre-COVID, the work style Curry Van Ee’s research and teachings suggest preferences, values and motivations that define that being adaptable and inclusive are key aspects each generation are different enough that they of leading multigenerational workplaces. would create some real chasms with relationships Bronk said she applies the concept daily. or around expectancy.” “When you create an environment where people The five questions she asked area leaders are encouraged to be who they are,” Bronk said, “some included the effects of COVID on the workplace, of that inclusivity happens organically.”

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Return-to-Office: 5 Tips for Developing Your Come-Back Strategy

s the end of the pandemic moves closer every day, many office-staff employers are debating what the future of their work strategy will look like. Although Upwork’s Future Workforce Pulse Report estimated 26.7% of Americans will continue to work remote through 2021, many employees are itching to get back into the office. And, on the other hand, many are not. As an employer, you are tasked with developing a return-to-office strategy that appeases all levels of employees, maintains compliance, and serves the needs of your organization. Lighthouse, An Alera Group Company, a local leader in employee benefits consulting, offers five things to consider when developing a return-to-office strategy: 1. Establish Your End Goal: How do you want to see your team engaging with in-office vs. remote work when all is said and done? Immediately following the mass office closures in early 2020, “return to normal” was the goal for most employers – leadership was trying to figure out how much longer before we can all go back to how things used to be. Now that the shock of the pandemic has worn off, many employers have had time to reconsider their work from home practices and what makes sense for their workforce going forward. When strategizing for your own return-to-office plan, establish on the front end what makes sense for your company post-pandemic. Do you need everyone back in-person 100% of the time? Or would introducing a flex time schedule be beneficial for your operation and employees? Determine this now and use this goal to inform the rest of your strategic decisions going forward. 2. Honor Your Core Values: In determining your end goal and the decisions you are making throughout the process, you don’t have to do what the “big guys” are doing. Facebook, Google, and Adobe were quick to announce

plans to permanently embrace remote work. Tech companies of the like have the most to gain financially from a remote workforce and, therefore, have a high interest in encouraging companies to stick with the WFH model. Know what your competition and the rest of the industry is doing, but your organization has its own people, culture, and business objectives which should be your primary influence in determining your own return-to-office game plan. 3. Use Technology Wisely: Establishing your end goal first and keeping your core values front and center will help determine your technology use going forward. Many organizations found technological solutions for remote work far exceeded their expectations at the beginning of the Stay Home order. However, leaders should be careful not to let technology capabilities be the primary influence in determining a come-back strategy. Just because you have the technology to make remote work more efficient does not mean remote work is the most efficient. Consider what outputs will be sacrificed should you implement too much remote work technology solutions and determine if that is a price you are willing to pay. Additionally, once you determine the appropriate technology use going forward, set clear service standards. Is it okay to take virtual meetings from a coffee shop? Are there professional attire guidelines that should be followed? Make the expectations clear from the start. 4. Have Patience: If we have learned anything this year, it is that things change quickly. It is important not to set too many hard and fast expectations that could easily be altered by the next regional outbreak or even a changed mind. Consistent and transparent communication is necessary, but formal return-to-office strategy announcements should be well thought out and actionable. Many

workplace cultures are already relatively fragile due to the unknowns and financial unrest of the last year. It can add further stress to announce a return-to-office plan prematurely, upsetting the portion of your workforce who wants to stay at home, then not being able to stick with the announced strategy due to unanticipated outside factors. 5. Leverage Leadership: With today’s fight for top talent retention, understanding where your employees stand on the matter is key. Often, survey responses are emotionally charged and do not always reflect the true sentiments of the employee population. Instead, engage in frequent and honest conversation with management about how their teams feel toward their current production levels, their concerns about in office work, and their expectations for returning to the office.

For more information about strategizing your return-to-office plan, contact Zachary R. Haan, at Lighthouse, An Alera Group Company.

Zachary R. Haan Senior Account Executive zhaan@lighthousegroup.com 616.455.9286

The information contained herein should be understood to be general insurance brokerage information only and does not constitute advice for any particular situation or fact pattern and cannot be relied upon as such. Statements concerning financial, regulatory or legal matters are based on general observations as an insurance broker and may not be relied upon as financial, regulatory or legal advice.

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MiBiz / APRIL 26, 2021

FOCUS: CULTURE AND GENERATIONAL CHANGE

Workspace designers consider multigenerational needs of employees By JAYSON BUSSA | MiBiz jbussa@mibiz.com

he Generation Z workforce — once thought of as craving the opportunity to work from home, where they find flexibility and freedom from the watchful eye of a superior — happens to be the demographic that is most eager to return to the office. Researchers at West Michigan-based office furniture and design companies that track how generational differences are affecting workspaces have found that not only are younger workers eager to return to the office after being cast away by the COVID-19 pandemic, but their approach to work and the amenities they value are also shaping the modern office.

Anderson

Hamilton

“In some ways, it might be surprising: The younger generations are so social that I think they like coming to the workplace to connect and they love the sense of being around others and building on and learning from each other and the older generations,” said John Hamilton, global design director for Coalesse, a Grand Rapids-based manufacturer of contemporary office furniture that is owned by Steelcase Inc. With the COVID-19 pandemic causing many employees to work from home for the last year, companies were left to reimagine what their workplaces should look like and how employees will utilize these spaces. Each of the four generations in today’s workforce are having a say in that evolution.

Gen Z struggles at home With a giant swath of employees still stuck in the work-from-home format, conferencing with their colleagues and clients via video chat, one thing is becoming clear: The younger generations place value on the office, and they need it to develop professionally. “They’re wanting to grow and develop,” Hamilton said. “You want to be around other people and want to be learning from the older people that can show you the ropes, and you want it to

APRIL 26, 2021 / MiBiz

rub off on you. The only place that works well is at the workplace.” A study released last month by Microsoft shows that 60 percent of Gen Z workers — people born between 1996 and 2010 — said they are either struggling or simply surviving under the workfrom-home format. Gen Z respondents to the study admitted to finding difficulties engaging with their colleagues and were overall unexcited about work. This was true for Gen Z more so than the three other generations. Beck Johnson, senior research specialist for Holland-based Haworth Inc., and her team started a research program a couple of years ago that focuses on Gen Z and are slowly building trend data through the program. Johnson echoed Hamilton’s sentiments that Gen Z is looking to be around other people in order to collaborate and learn. “They’re heavily leaning into and seeking a lot more Johnson mentorship from their colleagues, their supervisors and managers, where Gen Xers were more like, ‘I don’t need a supervisor, I can get my work done,’” Johnson said. “Gen Z is really craving that relationship because they’re really keen on learning from folks who have been through things before.” Out of Haworth’s research, both flexibility and mental health carry a lot of weight with Gen Z. A desire for both structure and flexibility leads to open, collaborative workspaces with pockets for one-on-one meetings. “They do want the structure of an organization and being on a team, but the way in which they behave is a little bit more informal,” Johnson said of Gen Z. “They’re much more keen to having a structured meeting in a lounge setting as opposed to around a conference table. That’s something where probably the Boomers and Gen Xers were used to things being a little more formal and might be a source of maybe a little friction.” Employers can make workplaces more attractive to Gen Z by taking mental health into account. Younger job seekers are looking for companies that provide spaces with amenities such as clean air, biophilia and daylight. In some cases, these employees are willing to take a lower paying job if it places them in a more positive environment.

“Our belief is that using generational frameworks to guide workplace design is not only unhelpful but can actually be harmful as it can promote stereotypes, limit a deeper understanding of people’s needs, and inadvertently create intergenerational hostilities.” — RYAN ANDERSON VP of Global Research and Insights, Herman Miller Inc.

“The fact that I have access to daylight and clean air (ranks) way up there right now for me,” Johnson said. “I can look out the window and see nature. If I’m already stressed, that’s going to be important to me. There is a connection there and our current line of research shows there is some evidence that your work environment can influence and even be a mitigator of stress if you have the right elements in place.”

Flawed measurement Still, charting trends and conducting forecasting solely on the age of workers can be a precarious game, especially with so much nuance within each generation. The life stage of a professional, regardless of how old they are, can often have a much more profound effect on what that person is looking for in a job and workplace, for instance. “Sometimes, (lumping generations together) can be troublesome,” Johnson said. “You absolutely are going to run into a Boomer that might act more like a Gen Zer. It’s important to be aware that these categories are not written in stone.” Ryan Anderson, vice president of global research and insights for Herman Miller Inc., said his company finds it counterproductive to use a generational

Furniture design companies are finding that not only are younger workers eager to return to the office after being cast away by the COVID-19 pandemic, but their approach to work and the amenities they value are also shaping the modern office. PHOTOS COURTESY OF HAWORTH INC. framework within workplace design. Doing so fails to factor in differing cultures among organizations, industries and geographical locations, among other deep flaws. “Our belief is that using generational frameworks to guide workplace design is not only unhelpful but can actually be harmful as it can promote stereotypes, limit a deeper understanding of people’s needs, and inadvertently create intergenerational hostilities,” Anderson said. Instead of assuming broad generalizations of each generation, Anderson

and Herman Miller see a different solution. “Offer a wide variety of work settings within and beyond the office from which people can choose to work on a given day,” Anderson said. “Don’t limit people to working from a single desk or location. “If the employee has a wide array of options, then they can take into account the myriad of factors impacting their ability to be productive on that day. They can choose where to work to be most productive. Empower the employee with choice.” Visit www.mibiz.com

Evolving technology melds generations in skilled trades, though talent gap looms By JAYSON BUSSA | MiBiz jbussa@mibiz.com

yan Bennett used to be bothered by apprentices staring at their phones while on the job. Now, he lets it slide. “You used to see the apprentice over there on their phone and you automatically assumed they were slacking off and not working,” said Bennett, business manager for the West Michigan Plumbers Fitters and Service Trades Local 174 and president of the West Michigan Building Trades Council. “Now, there are so many pipefitting or plumbing apps on their phone where they might be figuring out an offset or looking up a code question. You have to be careful about how hard you come down on them — they might be working.” Across manufacturing sectors, the skilled trades are starting to implement higher forms of technology, which has highlighted a divide in knowledge and savvy between the older and younger generations in the workforce. In fact, it’s this disconnect in tech proficiency that has allowed Gen Z and Millennial workers to break into the industry and immediately offer valuable knowledge and experience to their Gen X and Baby Boomer colleagues. “We’re kind of at a unique point where the guys that are my age — 45 or older that may not be as tech savvy — have as much to learn on today’s job site from these younger people who grew up with this technology,” Bennett said. In addition to unlocking efficiencies on the job site, the higher-tech nature of skilled trades have made this line of work appealing to a new demographic of prospects. Digital natives can now find a place in construction and manufacturing without only hard physical labor. The trades also utilize advanced technology to train prospects and expose them to life on the job in vivid ways. Digital welding simulations are one example that Bennett highlighted. And, while the trades benefit from evolving technology, they are still defined by their physical nature. “The more that technology becomes prevalent in the trade, it will start to become more of a selling point,” Bennett said. “Right now, we’re still recruiting people that don’t mind a fair day’s work. I think with this big upswell where job sites are evolving, (technology) will be part of the conversation.”

Closing the gap With an aging workforce and a widening talent gap, the skilled trades look to create a steadier pipeline of young workers into the industry or risk worsening the situation. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median age of construction industry professionals is 42.9 years old, and nearly 245,000 workers are 55 years old or older. The manufacturing sector is even older, with a median age of 44.4, with 370,900 workers age 55 or older. Not only are the younger generations crucial in shaping how these industries look in the future, but they’re also vital to keeping them afloat. “It’s the most significant concern that our Visit www.mibiz.com

Bennett

Brady

Brown

members have right now,” Norm Brady, president and CEO of West Michigan’s chapter of the Associated Builders & Contractors, said of the widening talent gap. Marketing skilled trades to junior high and high school students is important. But at the same time, all industries in Michigan are dealing with a shallower talent pool. Brady pointed out that the number of high school graduates in Michigan has fallen since 2008, with around 100,000 graduates this year compared to 127,000 in 2008. In 2031, that number is forecasted to land at around 85,000. On top of that, Brady estimated that in the next 15 years, 48 percent of people currently employed in the construction industry will be retiring. “We have this steep curve down of people coming in and the acceleration of the rate out of the industry picks up in a significant way — and that doesn’t even consider the growth of the industry,” he said. With junior high and high school students bombarded with available programs and career path options, skilled trade officials must be methodical in how they market the industry to the younger generation.

“We need to tell the real story of construction,” Brady said of his strategy in engaging with future prospects. “The real story is the story about good paying wages and benefits that provide a living wage to raise your family. It’s a story of collaborating and teamwork and being a part of a team that improves the communities we live in. These are not deadend jobs that, if you can’t go to college, then you can do this.”

“The more that technology becomes prevalent in the trade, it will start to become more of a selling point.” — RYAN BENNETT

A slow shift Cindy Brown, vice president of talent initiatives at West Michigan economic development organization The Right Place Inc., said the industry has been paying the price for a period when it shied away from encouraging young workers to pursue the skilled trades. More recently, though, she has witnessed many West Michigan manufacturers creating strong pipelines that reach prospects as early as junior high, and said the efforts will eventually pay dividends. Brown said the thriving tech schools throughout West Michigan are also a good sign. “(Manufacturers) understand it’s going to take a while — it’s not easy where you need a person today so you’ll quickly grab someone,” Brown said. “It’s good that the manufacturers are really starting to think that way because they see they have to put in a little time to get the pipeline where it needs to be.” With a push toward Industry 4.0, manufacturers are more often leveraging big data, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and other advanced

President, West Michigan Building Trades Council

technology. This, according to Brown, is the perfect time for a younger, tech-savvy generation to “strut their stuff” in the industry. Creating a culture of continual learning is one attractive incentive employers in this field can use to attract younger generations of workers. In manufacturing alone, workers can acquire a number of certificates that transfer from job to job and make them a more marketable employee. “My generation, that really wasn’t the case,” Brown said. “You did your education and if you needed to go to (additional) training, you did. That’s totally different now. That’s got to be a mindset change with both the employee but also the employer to make it worthwhile for someone by getting that lifelong learning and continual upskilling and reskilling.” MiBiz / APRIL 26, 2021

FINANCE

Grand Rapids PE firm sees opportunity in hotel supplier By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com

he COVID-19 pandemic that’s battered the hospitality industry generates an opportunity for Grand Rapids private equity firm Blackford Capital to grow a recently merged portfolio company. Focused on interior design, procurement and project management for the hotel industry, Illinoisbased Boston Trade Interior Solutions looks to grow as hotel owners and operators use the down period to upgrade their properties and prepare for a postpandemic rebound. Boston Trade Interior Solutions was created through the March merger between Vertically Integrated Products — which Blackford Capital acquired in 2017 — and Boston Trade International. Stein The merger that created Boston Trade Interior Solutions produced “one of the largest players” in the design, procurement, and installation of hotel furniture and equipment that can grow as the industry rebounds from the

pandemic, said Blackford Capital founder and Managing Director Martin Stein. “It is a very unique time in the hotel industry and we are making a very contrarian bet that it’s going to come back,” Stein said. “We are looking to support hotels with their design, procurement and installation of all of the furniture, fixtures and equipment.” The company serves hotel properties that held up in the pandemic comparatively better than resort properties in popular tourist destinations, such as Hawaii. As one example, Stein cited an Iowa hotel favored by truckers and travelers staying overnight as a core customer for Boston Trade Interior Solutions. “We have a very different clientele base. Our customers’ revenues didn’t drop anywhere near as much as they did in the tourist areas,” he said.

Gaining market share Boston Trade Interior Solutions has been picking up market share from an ailing competitor, and Stein expects the company to have its best year ever on an organic and acquisitive basis. Revenues for the merged company should triple to more than $50 million “based on all of the new market share that is available to us,” he said.

in connection with the Boston Trade Interior Solutions acquisition — indicated it had raised $2.3 million in capital from four investors. The acquisition and merger to form Boston Trade Interior Solutions was among three deals Blackford Capital completed in the first quarter. In January, Blackford Capital acquired AquaLeisure Industries Inc., a maker of leisure products for water sports and recreation based in Avon, Mass. Blackford Capital now looks to do add-on acquisitions and to grow Aqua-Leisure globally by targeting markets in the southern hemisphere such as South America, Australia, southeast Asia and Africa, Stein said. Only about 10 percent of Aqua-Leisure’s $70 million in revenue annually comes from foreign markets. Blackford Capital aims to grow sales from outside of the U.S. to 30 percent of total revenue over five years while also growing domestic sales, he said, noting that “everybody likes to swim.” Aqua-Leisure could make add-on acquisit ions in t he second half of 2021, start ing domestically and then look ing internationally, he said. Blackford Capital deployed about $20 million to acquire the company and a corporate entity the firm formed in connection to the acquisition indicated that BFC-H20 LLC seeks to raise $50 million, according to a February filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing indicated that BFC-H20 had raised nearly $2.9 million from 25 investors.

“We saw the hit last year in the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth, but then the business really started to take off in the fourth quarter and first quarter (of 2021) before we completed this acquisition because our customer segment is a good one and we had a competitor that was not doing well at all,” he said. “The best time to do renovations on hotels is when people aren’t staying there.” Pent-up demand — or “revenge travel,” when “people are so angry at not being able to make trips that they are going to spend 2022, 2023 and 2024 fully traveling to locations that they had been inhibited from traveling to” — will also likely be a key recovery driver, Stein said. An American Travel and Lodging Association outlook from January forecasts the industry will begin to slowly recover this year, starting with leisure travel. Business travel “remains nearly nonexistent, though it is expected to begin its slow return in the second half of the year.” A full recovery to pre-pandemic levels will occur by 2024, according to the association’s 2021 report on the state of the industry. Blackford Capital plans to continue to add to the company. Stein expects more announcements involving Boston Trade Interior Solutions in the coming months.

Deal activity grows In a recent filing with federal securities regulators, Hospitality Consolidation Co. LLC — a corporate entity formed by Blackford Capital

Kalamazoo County regroups after housing proposal fails

Deborah Prato takes helm at The Rapid

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UPCOMING ISSUES

Federal proposal to change some metropolitan areas’ status could jeopardize crucial funding and economic development From left: Award-winning designer Joey Ruiter sits on his NOMOTO motorcycle concept at his design studio in Ada. A rendering of Buell Motorcycles’ 1190 Super Touring bike. Ruiter and Buell recently formed a new collaboration. PHOTO BY KATY BATDORFF. COURTESY RENDERING

Design Disruptor

New political boundaries to emerge in 2021

Jane Ghosh takes helm at Discover Kalamazoo Ada-based designer PAGE 22 Joey Ruiter leaves his www.mibiz.com minimalist mark on the vehicle and furniture industries and starts a new collaboration with Buell Motorcycles

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Despite new state law, no solid plans for Kalamazoo event center

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HELP ON THE WAY

Diversity/Equity/Inclusion Commercial Lending Quarterly: Commercial Real Estate Lending Update Contract Deadline: 4.28.2021

Contract Deadline: 6.23.2021

7.18.2021

Contract Deadline: 7.7.2021

Food Systems

Contract Deadline: 7.21.2021

Real Estate: Multifamily Contract Deadline: 5.26.2021

Transportation Update

8.16.2021

Automotive Supplier Outlook Commercial Lending Quarterly: Growth Lending Update

By JAYSON BUSSA | MiBiz jbussa@mibiz.com

APRIL 26, 2021 / MiBiz

ot many designers — if any — feature a portfolio of work quite like Joey Ruiter. From award-winning office furniture designs to a project he calls Snoped, a reimagined, black aluminum snowmobile that rides like a cafe racer, the Grand Rapids-based Ruiter is not your typical nine-to-five office furniture designer. In fact, it’s his work with cars, motorcycles, boats and other transportation elements that has grabbed attention from nationwide media and enthusiasts alike. “Some of my work is provocational,” Ruiter said. “It’s a piece of art. People will look at it and I want them to ask questions and for it to raise emotions.” With his studio located in Ada, Ruiter’s bread and butter might be lending designs to some of West Michigan’s top furniture manufacturers — names like Steelcase Inc., Herman Miller Inc. and Nucraft Furniture Co. — but he

By KATE CARLSON | MiBiz kcarlson@mibiz.com

has turned heads over the years with his transportation curiosities. In 2019, Ruiter teamed up with fellow conceptual designer Rem D. Koolhaas to host an exhibition called DISRUPTORS at the Los Angeles-based Petersen Automotive Museum, showcasing conceptual approaches to automotive design. As a self-described minimalist in his trade, Ruiter generally begins each of his projects by first stripping an object down to its core only to build it back up in unique and unexpected ways. One such example is his NOMOTO, a motorcycle concept where a metal, graffiticlad body completely camouflages the bike against typical urban settings. The bike is also fully functional. The Consumer Car is another highlight in Ruiter’s portfolio. Beginning with a 1993 Ford Festiva GL chassis and drivetrain, Ruiter See RUITER on page 3

everal Michigan communities are at risk of losing crucial federal funding under proposed changes to their designation as metropolitan areas, which local officials say would negatively affect services and economic development efforts. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is considering a proposal to redesignate 144 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas as “Micropolitan Statistical Areas” that are based on smaller population sizes. The proposal would affect metropolitan areas in Niles, Battle Creek, Jackson, Midland, Bay City and Monroe. Currently, Metropolitan Statistical Hackbarth Areas must contain a U.S. Census Bureau-delineated urban area with a population of at least 50,000, while micropolitans are areas with populations of 10,000 to 50,000. The OMB’s proposed change would increase the minimum population to qualify as a Metropolitan Statistical Area from 50,000 to 100,000. OMB published a notice on the proposed change on Jan. 19, kicking off a public comment period that ended March 19. OMB will consider recommendations from a review committee and public comments, and any revisions will be announced in a final notice. The potential changes could go into effect in 2023. See MSA AND CENSUS on page 5

By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com growing number of employers are offering incentives to their workers he new round of federal Paycheck who opt for getting a COVID-19 vacProtection loans cine, including Program with extra paid time off includes a number or small cash bonuses.of changes from the prior funding intended At automotive repair center Belle Tire, employsmall businesses ees are paidto $25aid for each vaccination visit,hurting or $50 total from the COVID-19 pandemic. As with the first round last spring and summer, borrowers working through a lender can again use PPP funding from the U.S. Small Business Administration to pay operating expenses. The new $284 billion PPP round extends eligible expenses to property damage incurred in last summer’s civil unrest that was not covered by insurance, supplier costs and worker protection expenditures. As well, eligible expenses now include costs to adapt to4the pandemic such as facility modifiPAGE cations, software and cloud computing and delivery services. See PPP LOANS on page 12

if they get the dual-dose vaccine from Pfizer Inc. or Moderna Inc. The amount will more than compensate employees for the time they may need to leave work to get vaccinated, company officials say. “We want to make sure all of the employees who want the vaccination can get it and feel safe, and that they don’t have to choose between staying on the clock and earning an hourly wage versus trying to get the vaccination,” said Don Barnes III, president of the Allen Park-based Belle Tire. The

Geography adds to talent challenges for northwest Michigan manufacturers

ILLUSTRATION: KAYLEE VAN TUINEN

Grand Rapids explores reviving formal arts council

has a relatively short application window based on previous demand. Applications for the $55 million Michigan Small Business Survival Grant Program open at 9 a.m. on Jan 19. The application process closes at noon on Jan. 22. Entertainment and live music venues can apply for the $3.5

million Stages Survival Grant Program beginning at 9 a.m. on Jan. 21. The applications window for Stages grants closes at noon on Jan. 28. The small window for the Small Business Survival Grant Program stems from an expectation that demand will easily outstrip available funding

Gender disparities in the workforce ‘uncovered further’ by COVID-19 pandemic P

See WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE on page 17

PAGE 9 www.mibiz.com

because of a “far, far greater need that exists than any amount of resources that we are facilitating,” Michigan Economic Development Corp. CEO Mark Burton said last week. Grant programs last year to provide relief for thousands of small businesses statewide quickly See MEDC GRANTS on page 10

Drinking Economy

CRAFT BREWERS RETOOL TO MAINTAIN PROFITABILITY

By JAYSON BUSSA | MiBiz jbussa@mibiz.com

Industry 4.0 SEE PAGE 4

Open-heart surgery partnership a ‘game-changer’

en and women both experienced steep declines in employment at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but on average, the workforce for men is back to pre-pandemic levels in Michigan while women have left the workforce at disproportionate rates. The pandemic’s negative effect on working women is amplified for working mothers, especially for women of color, according to a state Women in the Michigan Workforce report released at the end of March. “Traditionally we have been facing this issue for a long time, it’s just the pandemic that Fauble is pushing it to the forefront,” said Blanca Fauble, chief development officer for the nonprofit Michigan Women Forward. “It’s always been there, it’s just now that it’s been uncovered further.” Part of the problem is that more women than men are in low wage jobs. Because of the lack of workplace protections that lower wage jobs tend to have, employees in these roles were the most at risk for losing their jobs for longer periods of time during the pandemic. According to 2018 data from the Brookings Institution, close to half of all working women in the country — 46 percent, or 28 million — worked in jobs that paid low wages averaging $10.93 an hour, while 37 percent of all working men earn low wages. These percentages are even higher for Black and Latina women in the workforce, of which 54 percent and 64 percent, respectively, are low wage earners. “(The pandemic) has opened our eyes to a lot of different things,” Fauble said. “From

SEE PAGE 10

By KATE CARLSON | MiBiz kcarlson@mibiz.com

INSIDE:

Utilities & Energy

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he latest state effort to provide financial aid to Michigan small businesses and entertainment venues that are ailing from the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions

INSIDE:

PAGE 21 State expects ‘extremely high’ demand for $58.5M in small business COVID-19 relief By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com

company has 127 stores in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, more than 2,300 employees, and is one of the nation’s largest tire dealers. “We want all of the employees of all types to be able to do that so that they feel when they are at work it’s safe to be at work,” Barnes told MiBiz. “We want to make sure we create a safe working environment for all and we don’t want any of our teammates to hesitate.” See VACCINE INCENTIVES on page 9

ooking back on a 2020 plagued by the COVID-19 pandemic, Ed Collazo didn’t sound like a business owner who just saw his company’s revenue plummet by half a million dollars for the year. “2020 was a blessing, dude,” said Collazo, CEO of Grand Rapids-based microbrewery City Built Brewing Co. There is certainly no disputing that top line revenue for virtually every craft brewery took a hit in 2020, a year when brewpubs and taprooms were either shut down completely or See PROFITABILITY on page 14

Also Inside: n Craft beverage roundtable, page 11 n Suppliers see highs and low in pandemic, page 12 n Group seeks affordable health plans for craft beverage workers, page 13 City Built Brewing Co. CEO Ed Collazo. PHOTO BY STEPH HARDING

8-story Spectrum Health development to ‘breathe more life’ into GR district By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com GRAND RAPIDS — The eight-story office tower Spectrum Health plans to build will bring a major new redevelopment and hundreds of employees to the Monroe North neighborhood near downtown Grand Rapids. Spectrum Health aims to begin construction late this summer on

the Center for Transformation and Innovation that will rise on a 4.8-acre site along North Monroe Avenue and Ottawa Avenue just east of the Grand River. The $60 million to $80 million project will house about 1,200 Spectrum Health administrative staff — executive leadership, human resources, legal and finance — now working at 26 leased offices in the city.

Michigan infrastructure planning would get boost from Biden plan

Cannabis startups seek entry to market outside of retail

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Spectrum expects to save about $15 million annually in rent. Spectrum Health hopes the project will lead to further redevelopment and “breathe more life” into the Monroe North business district that most recently saw a former industrial site transformed into the 246-room Embassy Suites hotel, said Spectrum Chief Financial Officer Matt Cox.

“I think it’s certainly going to transform the neighborhood. It’s going to bring even more life into a neighborhood that’s growing now, and I think more development will happen as a result of us being there than if we weren’t there,” Cox said. The center also will house a training and a learning center in a first-floor meeting space for up to See SPECTRUM OFFICES on page 3

Contract Deadline: 8.4.2021

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Insurance

6.7.2021

See KALAMAZOO EVENT CENTER on page 3

Trade, labor shortage among top ag priorities this year

8.2.2021

Contract Deadline: 5.12.2021

Contract Deadline: 6.9.2021

Industry 4.0: Automation

West Michigan Tribal Economy

5.24.2021

6.21.2021

7.5.2021

KALAMAZOO — A new funding tool recently signed into law is intended to help finance an event center in downtown Kalamazoo, but it’s unclear if there is a desire or solid plans to move forward with the venue. House Bill 4816 was sponsored by former state Rep. Brandt Iden, R-Oshtemo Township, and was signed into law by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Dec. 30. The Regional Event Center Financing Act creates a financing program for potential venue projects in Kalamazoo, Ottawa, Muskegon, Ingham and Washtenaw counties. “The impetus for this legislation was basically to allow access to another economic development tool that larger communities have like Grand Rapids and Detroit,” Iden told MiBiz. “I have always supported an event center downtown because I believe that Iden if urban core centers don’t grow, then they have a tendency to just die out.” Iden was term-limited out of office at the end of 2020. He served on the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners for two years before he was elected to the state House of Representatives in 2014. “The event center was only ever discussed in concept. There were never formalized plans or a formal agreement about the size and scope of the project,” Iden said. “It’s always been preliminarily discussed as a high-level concept for the community.” The new legislation requires an event center financing program to describe the proposed size, location, cost and financing structure of the proposed facility, and to specify an assessment to be levied under the program, which can’t exceed 4 percent of county-wide hotel room charges. The assessment would effectively be a small increase to a county’s hotel lodging tax. The financing act defines an event center as a convention hall, auditorium, stadium, music hall,

More flexibility comes withfederal latestguidance as employers offer COVID-19 vaccine incentives Experts seek round of PPP loans

By KATE CARLSON | MiBiz kcarlson@mibiz.com

5.10.2021

www.mibiz.com

‘Substantial and far-reaching’

sales@mibiz.com | editor@mibiz.com | 616-608-6170 Visit www.mibiz.com

Report: Venture capital investments cut in half during pandemic By MARK SANCHEZ | MiBiz msanchez@mibiz.com

“What it shows is a broad cross-section of companies in the state had to raise capital because things changed, and the (venture capital) ecosystem here was strong enough to make those rounds happen,” Gross said. “There were a lot of rounds across the ecosystem.”

enture capital investors in Michigan backed more startup companies in 2020 than ever before, though the amount they put into deals declined by half in a year when the COVID-19 pandemic altered deal flow. The sharp decrease in the amount of venture capital invested — from $514 million in 2019 to $257 million in 2020 — came as the number of investments in Mich iga n-based sta r t ups increased from 71 to a record 88 companies, according to an annual report from the Gross Michigan Venture Capital Association (MVCA). “The industry is really strong in Michigan,” said Michael Gross, managing director of Beringea LLC in Farmington Hills and chairman of the MVCA. “While the average deal size was down, there was just a lot of activity Topouzian across the entire ecosystem.” The record for startups funded in a year “shows kind of the breadth of the ecosystem” for entrepreneurs in Michigan seeking to commercialize an innovation, Gross said. Some of those 88 investments could have resulted when venture capital firms injected capital last spring to stabilize portfolio companies as the economy plunged under pandemic-related restrictions.

Smaller funding rounds The flow of capital to stabilize startups generally was for smaller rounds, contributing to the steep decline in the amount of capital invested even with an elevated number of deals, he said. Investments in 2020 tended to go more to earlier rounds that require less capital, according to the MVCA report. In 2020, 65 percent of the amount invested went into startup and seed rounds, compared to 48 percent in 2019. Rounds for companies in growth and expansion stages declined from 23 percent of the amount invested in 2019 to 17 percent in 2020, according to the MVCA report. The 2020 trend follows two straight record years for venture capital investments in Michigan in 2018 and 2019 that saw some large capital rounds. There were no expectations for a third straight record year in light of the pandemic’s economic effects that had some investors delaying deals for larger growth capital rounds needed to scale a company until the economy recovers and the pandemic wanes, Gross said. That could lead to strong activity in 2021 as venture capital firms relaunch larger capital rounds in a rebounding economy, he said. “So, I’m optimistic for 2021 because we’re starting to see those big rounds come back on the market now that people have visibility, the economy’s opening up and accelerating pretty significantly. And we still have good macro capital tailwinds from the Fed’s response to the pandemic,” Gross said. “In 2021, we should see those big rounds return and we should have quite a good year.”

At the end of 2020, the 20 active venture capital firms in the state collectively had $2.8 billion in capital under management, an increase from $2.7 billion in 2019 and $600 million more than in 2015. The amount of capital under management has doubled from a decade earlier, according to the MVCA report that details the state of the venture capital industry in Michigan. “If we can do that again over the next decade, that will show real consistent growth and a really established ecosystem for the next decade,” Gross said. MVCA Executive Director Ara Topouzian sees the data for 2020 as illustrating the “strength and resilience” of venture capital in Michigan. “Michigan firms are a group of firms that just kind of continue to push through,” Topouzian said. “There’s still strength in fundraising that’s been going on and work that’s been happening in Michigan.” The Ann Arbor-based association’s annual report highlights the industry’s steady progress over several years. The average amount of capital under management per Michigan-based venture capital firm grew to $141 million 2020, which compares to $133 in 2019 and $88 million five years earlier. The

average size of a Michigan-based fund dipped from $60 million in 2019 to $58 million in 2020, yet remains well above the $45 million in 2015. Overall capital under management that includes out-of-state venture capital firms with a presence in Michigan declined from $4.26 billion in 2019 to $3.65 billion in 2020. The decrease results from the amount of capital under management by out-of-state firms dropping by half, from $1.6 billion to $820 million. The lower capital under management by outof-state firms likely stems from them “feeling like they can service their portfolio companies in the state without having a formal office” here, said Gross, who’s “not too worried” about the decline. “They built their relationships they needed while they had that office (in Michigan) and now they can do it from out of state,” Gross said. The MVCA 2021 research report also shows that Michigan venture capital firms have $431 million available for follow-on investments in portfolio companies, while the 165 startups backed in the last two years require a collective $1.2 billion in additional capital in the next two years to grow. Eleven of the existing firms in Michigan are presently seeking to raise a combined $446 million. “We have a big pipeline of entrepreneurs that definitely need funding, and there’s no shortage of investments,” Topouzian said.

THE TRANSFORMATION BEGINS HERE

Venture capital in Michigan Michigan has seen steady growth in venture capital investments since 2012: Investments

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INFORMED IMPACT To overcome racial, social and economic inequities we must respond with intention and care. Grand Rapids Community Foundation uses the tools of philanthropy to answer community needs. Our partners inspire, motivate and guide our work.

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City, Grand Rapids Community Foundation partner to grow housing fund By KATE CARLSON | MiBiz kcarlson@mibiz.com GRAND RAPIDS — The city of Grand Rapids is partnering with the Grand Rapids Community Foundation on what has been a years-long process of creating a fund to increase the amount of affordable housing. The city’s Great Housing Strategies initiative first recommended creating a dedicated housing fund in 2015. The Grand Rapids Housing Commission helped move the fund forward in 2018, but momentum on the project slowed when the former Kent County Land Bank Authority disbanded. About $900,000 sits in the housing fund today, but a proposed policy change soon to be considered by the Grand Rapids City Commission could help grow the balance to at least $20 million by 2025. “We are ready to move forward with a slightly different direction — still with the housing fund and involvement with the Housing Commission, but in a different way,” said Grand Rapids Deputy City Manager Eric DeLong. The City Commission will likely vote in June on a new operations policy for the Grand Rapids Housing Fund and establish a new board to make spending decisions. The Grand Rapids Community Foundation will act as the fund’s fiduciary. “Essentially, the city would invest these dollars into the Community Foundation, which would then be the steward and try to earn as much money as possible through portfolio management so that there is additional interest earned that could be spent within the community and they would be the steward long term,” said Ryan Kilpatrick, executive director of Housing Next, which partners with local governments, developers and nonprofits to remove housing barriers. The plan is to create a non-endowed designated fund that would allow the city to access the fund at a greater level than an endowed fund, explained Grand Rapids Community Foundation Vice President of Development Marilyn Zack. Other funds have been set up at the Community Foundation for the benefit of the city, but this will be the first relationship the nonprofit has had with the city as a fund holder, Zack said. “Our role is to simply steward those dollars, take care of them and make sure they have the very best performance,” Zack said. “We will not inform the grant-making decisions.”

Projects like Inner City Christian Federation’s 501 Eastern Apartments in Grand Rapids are helping to address the need for affordable housing in the city. PHOTO BY KATE CARLSON

“We want to bring more people into this process of growing housing supply and wealth creation across the city.” — RYAN KILPATRICK Executive Director, Housing Next

Housing needs Kilpatrick said some years could see significant spending — up to one-quarter or one-third of the fund — based on the city’s significant housing needs. Other years could see far less spending. About 5,340 rental units across every price point need to be added to Grand Rapids’ housing stock by 2025 to keep up with demand, according to Housing Next’s recent housing needs assessment for the city. Combined with home ownership units, about 9,000 total additional housing units will be needed over the next five years. Meeting that demand will require more than $1 billion invested in rental housing and about $250 million for gap financing, according to the study. “We have a big goal in front of us,” Kilpatrick said. Visit www.mibiz.com

“$20 million is our first start, that’s our down payment. We want to be looking for additional state and federal funds to get to housing supply and stability.” Given those funding disparities, the Housing Fund board will need to prioritize funding in a way that serves the greatest number of households with the greatest needs, while also acknowledging that the current funding can’t solve everything, Kilpatrick said.

Cost burdens Meanwhile, roughly half of the renters in Grand Rapids are cost-burdened — meaning they spend

more than 30 percent of their income on housthe Housing Commission would also have a seat ing — and a little more than 30 percent of renters on the board. in the city are spending more than half of their “My hope is we’ll be bringing in some major lendincome on housing, according to the housing ers from our community to be talking through the needs assessment. barriers of homeownership, both from the cost side Homeowners are far less cost-burdened overall related to wages or down payments,” Kilpatrick said. than renters in Grand Rapids, according to data Neighboring communities in West Michigan in the housing needs assessment. The amount of are also working on ways to address the lack of homeowners who spend more than 30 percent of affordable housing, but Kilpatrick said he is not their income on housing is at 19 peraware of another city or township cent, and the number of homeowncreating its own dedicated housers who dedicate more than half of ing fund. NONPROFITS their income to housing costs is at DeLong noted that decisions on NEWS 7 percent. housing investments will come back — Sponsored by: The number of cost-burdened to the City Commission for considerGRAND RAPIDS Black households far exceeds ation. The goal is to target property COMMUNITY white households, which needs to acquisition, preservation, pre-develFOUNDATION be a priority in how the Housing opment loans for qualified and expeFund is used, especially in disadrienced nonprofit housing organizavantaged neighborhoods, Kilpatrick said. tions, gap financing for housing projects, and to pay “We want to bring more people into this profor city fees for things like water and sewer conneccess of growing housing supply and wealth creation tions for housing projects. across the city,” Kilpatrick said. Meanwhile, a new fund board would create The proposed 11-member Housing Fund “much more independence” and opportunities to board would help with this decision making, raise funds, Mayor Rosalynn Bliss said when the with three members appointed from each ward housing fund plans were recently presented at a in the city, one member appointed by the mayor, City Commission meeting. and five members appointed from the commu“This opens us up to the possibility of greater nity. The city manager and executive director of investments,” Bliss said. MiBiz / APRIL 26, 2021

Outgoing CEO ‘never been more excited’ about Steelcase’s future A Q&A with Jim Keane, CEO of Steelcase Inc. After serving with global office furniture maker Steelcase Inc. for 25 years, and the last seven as CEO, Jim Keane recently announced he would step away from his leading role this fall when he will be replaced by executive vice president and incoming CEO Sara Armbruster. Keane will continue as vice chairman on Steelcase’s board of directors before fully retiring at the beginning of 2022. Keane spoke with MiBiz to reflect on his two and a half decades with the contract furniture leader. What were some indicators that this was an appropriate time to step away as CEO? I had to really think about it from two perspectives: What is the right timing for me and what is right for the company? For me, I didn’t have a magic formula or anything — there was no magic age when I felt like I had to retire. COVID obviously was a major factor. I would have never left in the middle of the crisis. Our factories were shut down, our offices were empty, our customers’ offices were empty for a while, and then we had a cyber attack and other things happening in the company. It’s a benefit to have an experienced CEO during that period. I see this new era for our industry and our company. That’s super exciting and requires new thinking and new strategy. While I’m really excited about it, it didn’t feel right for me to write the strategy and then leave. I thought this is a good time for a new CEO to step in, create that strategy, execute that strategy and do it in a time when the COVID crisis is behind us and a time when the economy is getting stronger so there are tailwinds forming. Do you expect Steelcase to look different in the future based on the drastic changes brought on by the pandemic? Absolutely. In fact, I’d say I’ve never been more excited about the future of the company than I am right now. I wish I was starting my career today at Steelcase because I think there is an enormous opportunity in front of us, but not if we stay the same. We’re a great company. Fiscal 2020 was one of our best years in 20 years — this was just before COVID hit. So we’re on a really solid footing, but things are changing, so we absolutely have to keep changing. One of the things I’m most proud of during my time at Steelcase is we reinvented this company countless times. When I joined it was all about cubicles and everyone sat at a cubicle all day and that’s where they worked. If we were still a cubicle company, we would be obsolete. We’ve had to reinvent ourselves every few years and that’s going to continue. What do you consider to be your mark on this company — your legacy? First of all, the reinvention of the company — whether I was CEO or before that. I participated actively in all the reinventions, leading strategies, leading R&D, working on product development, head of North American sales and eventually head of global. That reinvention of the company over and over was really important. If we had not been able to lead in a post cubicle world, if we had not moved from the world of everyone owning a desk, we would not have been successful. Corporate and environmental responsibility has been a focus for Steelcase. For example, the company achieved carbon neutrality in 2020. Did you fuel these efforts or has it been ingrained in the company from the beginning? I came to Steelcase because it was a global leader in its industry and yet it felt like a family business. It felt like a business where people really cared about each other. In my first few board meetings, I realized that for every decision I bring to the board I better be ready to answer questions about how it links to the environment and what the environmental impact was. Today you kind of say, ‘Well, duh.’ But 25 years ago, that never happened in Corporate America. That was not a question people were asked. Steelcase always cared about the community in which we did business, our employees and our customers. That was evident when I first arrived but I continued to advance those principles that our founders created. As CEO, you seemed to refocus the company on its core businesses, like with the divestiture of coated steel manufacturer PolyVision Corp. last year. Where are you in that process and what steps would you like to see in the future? I think we’re pretty good. We did a lot of the divestitures over the first half of my tenure and today I think we’re pretty good at being focused on the core of work, worker and workplace. That’s really where we’re centered. Today, we think about how we can make sure we’re filling out our business and covering adjacencies and broadening our products. A few years ago, our push was to make sure we were covered in the world of ancillary — this is more the informal, more residential-like furniture you see in offices now. What’s interesting there is that we didn’t do it all through acquisitions. We were able to do a lot of it through partnerships and joint ventures. And that’s kind of a new way of thinking about it. Over 25 years at Steelcase, you’ve seen just about everything. Does anything compare to the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic? There was nothing quite like it. That said, all those other crises taught us a lot about how to manage through crises, and that was very useful. We went through a very difficult time during 2001 and again in 2008 with the financial crisis. But, every time, I think we’ve actually managed them more easily because we got better as a management team in knowing how to set our priorities and how to organize ourselves for it. We’ve always put people first. No matter what the crisis is, you start by thinking about people and then you think about things like assets and then eventually you, of course, think about customers and protecting your brand. And lastly you think about profits. Normally, you think about profits pretty high up but when you’re in a crisis you think about people first. Interview conducted and condensed by Jayson Bussa. Courtesy photo.

APRIL 26, 2021 / MiBiz

IN THE NEWS M&A n Grand Rapids-based investment banking firm Charter Capital Partners served as the exclusive M&A adviser to Littleton, Mass.-based Optical Phusion Inc. in its sale to Sole Source Capital LLC, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based private equity firm. OPI is a self-service kiosk, enterprise mobility and wireless technology integration solutions company. Sole Source Capital simultaneously acquired PeakRyzex Inc., a Columbia, Md.-based reseller of barcoding and data collection solutions, and merged it with OPI, according to a statement. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. n Turn Key Installation LLC, a Grandville-based contracting company that specializes in conveyor systems, made a recent strategic acquisition by purchasing another West Michigan business. The company, founded by Bradlee Hager and Matt Chayer in 2011, recently closed on the purchase of J&J Electrical Services Inc., which is located in Muskegon and has eight employees. J&J Electrical Services is an electrical contractor that works with residential, commercial and industrial clients. By acquiring J&J Electrical Services, Turn Key Installation, headquartered at 3056 Dixie Ave. SW, will be able to provide more nuanced project management services for its clients while also expanding its client base. n Grand Rapids-based RedWater Collection has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire its eighth golf course in West Michigan. RedWater, which operates a portfolio of restaurants, event spaces and golf courses throughout West Michigan, plans to purchase the Muskegon Country Club, which was founded in 1908 and is located at 2801 Lakeshore Drive. RedWater is buying the country club from 11-member investor group MCC Partners LLC. n The owners of Wyoming-based Garage Bar & Grill are selling the bar to the owners of India Town, an adjacent restaurant along South Division Avenue. India Town owners Manjit and Tony Multani, via Manny’s Bar & Grill LLC, are buying the bar from an affiliated entity of Grand Rapids-based Third Coast Development LLC and told MiBiz they are not planning to change the business. n The largest power sweeping company in the United States recently expanded its footprint with the acquisition to two West Michigan companies. Cleveland-based Sweeping Corporation of American (SCA) announced that it has bought Kalamazoo-based Superior Sweeping Services Inc. and Rockford-based West Michigan Sweepers (WMS). At the end of 2020, SCA also purchased Detroit-based C&J Parking Lot Sweeping. The recent flurry of acquisitions makes SCA the largest sweeping provider in Michigan. n A Boston private equity firm has acquired Traverse City-based High Street Insurance Partners Inc., an insurance brokerage platform company formed in 2018 that has since acquired two-dozen agencies across the U.S. Abry Partners LLC, which manages $5 billion in capital across its active funds, announced the High Street Partners acquisition from Huron Capital Partners LLC. Terms of the deal were undisclosed. Detroit-based Huron Capital Partners formed High Street Partners three years ago. n B2B Industrial Packaging has acquired Kalamazoo-based Fibers of Kalamazoo, marking the 14th major acquisition for the Addison, Ill.-based company, which provides a wide range of packaging equipment and supplies for its 6,000 active clients. Fibers of Kalamazoo, which specializes in packaging, janitorial and safety products, has been in business for 35 years.

EXPANSION

n Automotive supplier Magna Cosma Casting is planning to invest $31.9 million into an expansion of its facility in the Fort Custer Industrial Park in Battle Creek. Owned

by Canadian Tier 1 automotive supplier Magna International Inc., Cosma is planning a roughly 50,000-square-foot expansion to its facility for additional manufacturing space. Cosma, which specializes in high-pressure aluminum castings to create lighter weight vehicles, expects to hire 68 new employees over the next three years. n Grandville-based Grand River Bank recently opened a new office at 50 Crahen Ave. NW in Grand Rapids Township. The new office adds to the bank’s growing presence in the Ada/Cascade area and houses retail bankers, commercial and mortgage lenders, operations personnel, and administrative staff. Cascade-based BDR Inc. developed the office. n A Pennsylvania-based civil engineering firm that specializes in the design, inspection and rehabilitation of bridges is opening an office in Grand Rapids. Modjeski and Masters Inc. — which also offers bridge maintenance, research and code development — was established more than 125 years ago and is headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pa. Modjeski and Masters recently hired Laura Rampersad as regional director of the firm’s new Grand Rapids office, where she manages operations across the state and surrounding region. n MWS Wholesale Auto Outlet in Grand Rapids is expanding operations just north of its current location after acquiring property that houses Al’s Trailer Mart. MWS Wholesale owner Chris Wawee closed on the seven properties along Leonard Street and White Avenue on Grand Rapids’ west side that make up Al’s Trailer Mart, which has been in business for the last 70 years. Wawee purchased the properties from Al’s owner Kenneth Kruh for a total of $495,000. In addition to keeping the existing building on the property, Wawee said he plans to add a used car lot to the site while continuing to sell trailers at the location. n The Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, or Gun Lake Tribe, will add a hotel and resort amenities as part of a $300 million expansion planned at its Gun Lake Casino. The project, which will be the largest expansion yet for the casino, will add 250,000 square feet to extend the property west toward US-131. New additions to Gun Lake Casino will include a 250-room hotel with luxury suites, a full-service spa and a restaurant. The expansion also includes a fully enclosed glass domed pool and nightlife entertainment space. n Colorado-based manufacturer Woodward Inc., which specializes in designing, manufacturing and servicing control systems for the aerospace industry, plans to expand its operations in Zeeland. The company operates a campus located at 700 N. Centennial St. in Zeeland, currently designated as Woodward’s home for combustion testing. Woodward plans to use the site to expand its efforts in additive manufacturing, which is an alternative to machining and casting metal parts.

PHILANTHROPY

n Spectrum Health named Kelly Dyer as president of the Spectrum Health and Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital foundations. Dyer, with 17 years of experience in philanthropy that includes major gift fundraising and strategic planning, will succeed foundation President Vicki Weaver in late May. Weaver retires at the end of April after 28 years with Spectrum Health. Dyer will join Spectrum Health from the University of Michigan’s Office of University Development, where she serves as senior executive director of leadership and major gifts.

HEALTH CARE

n Spectrum Health will join Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s Medicare Advantage PPO network beginning July 1. Already a network provider for Blue Cross and Blue Care Network commercial plan members and Blue Care Network HMO Advantage Medicare plans, Spectrum will accept Blue Cross Medicare Advantage PPO plans at physician offices and its 14 hospital locations in Western Michigan. Visit www.mibiz.com

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