A money game for mayor A money game for mayor

Transcription

20130812-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
5:56 PM
Page 1
®
www.crainsdetroit.com Vol. 29, No. 33
AUGUST 12 – 18, 2013
$2 a copy; $59 a year
©Entire contents copyright 2013 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved
JOHN SOBCZAK
Health Care Heroes
Election officials
organize
envelopes
containing tally
sheets of write-in
votes at the Board
of Elections last
week.
Honorees influence pop
culture and beyond, Page 11
CRAIN’S
MICHIGAN BUSINESS
Rising from the ashes of the
ash borer, Page 19
Page 3
It’s a seller’s market for
homes in ... Detroit
This Just In
Blue Cross to buy building
that houses Metro Times
NEWSPAPER
Blue Cross Blue Shield of
Michigan is expected to close
this week on the purchase of
the 24,000-square-foot building that houses the Metro
Times, among other tenants.
The former Detroit Cornice &
Slate Co. building at 733 St. Antoine St. is expected to house
about 100 Blues employees on
its second and third floors, Helen Stojic, director of corporate communications, wrote
in an email to Crain’s. She declined to provide a sale price.
The lease for Flood’s Bar &
Grille, the first-floor tenant,
will be maintained, Stojic
said, but the rest of the building’s tenants are expected to
relocate. That includes Paxahau, organizer of the Movement
Electronic Music Festival.
Both Paxahau and the
Metro Times say they have
until Oct. 1 to move.
Brian Piergentili, senior vice
president for DTZ, formerly
UGL Equis, represented the
Blues in the sale. Cornice &
Slate LLC, an entity registered
to attorney Dean Gould of
Bloomfield Hills-based Jackier
Gould PC, was the seller.
— Kirk Pinho
ANDRE J. JACKSON/AP
Write-in counting done;
last 2 standing must play …
A money game
for mayor
NATHAN SKID/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
A worker scrapes away excess concrete on the site of the Troy transit center
near Maple Road and Coolidge Highway.
Troy moves ahead
on transit center
BY KIRK PINHO
Construction funding
resumes, but dispute
on ownership remains
CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
I
f Benny Napoleon wants to give
Mike Duggan a run for his money
in the Detroit mayoral race, he
needs more of it. Fast.
For the next three months, expect a
whole lot of fundraising and a barrage
of advertising centered on differentiating the two candidates. Political experts expect the mayoral hopefuls to
continue soliciting business and union
contributions for their campaigns, and
to spend those funds on advertising
and outreach to voters in the run-up to
the Nov. 5 election.
Duggan emerged from last week’s primary as a voters’ favorite former underdog, while Napoleon has garnered
heavy union support.
See Election, Page 41
Napoleon: Needs
campaign cash
BY CHAD HALCOM
At the current pace of construction, there is a good chance Troy
will be finished with its transit
center project before the Michigan
courts can say the same.
And if the center opens near
Maple Road and Coolidge Highway
next month with the legal question
of ownership unresolved, the city
could have to buy it back at substantial cost from Farmington
Hills-based Grand/Sakwa Properties
LLC in a long-running dispute.
The Federal Railroad Administration last week notified Troy it
Duggan: Needs
policy specifics
GOV ON LIFE
AFTER CH. 9
Snyder makes
plans for postbankrupt Detroit,
Page 41
would resume reimbursements to
the city for construction on the
transit center, which had been
halted for several months, after receiving a plan for continuous control from the city, said Rob Kulat,
public affairs specialist for the
railroad administration.
Reimbursements had stopped on
the federal funding portion of the
nearly $10 million transit center
after the Michigan Court of Appeals
ruled in May that the property belonged to Grand/Sakwa, not the
city. Troy has racked up about $1.6
million in reimbursable building
expenses since then, said City Engineer Steve Vandette.
A three-judge appellate panel
overturned a 2011 Oakland County
Circuit Court ruling in Troy’s favor,
and ruled that Grand/Sakwa is entitled to reclaim 2.7 acres of land
where most of the construction is
See Troy, Page 37
State initiative draws new map for regional organizations
BY CHRIS GAUTZ
CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT
A mishmash of boundaries and
maps that state departments and
agencies for decades have used to
provide services is being thrown
out in favor of a new map dividing
the state into 10 geographically
distinct regions.
And the multitude of local economic development groups, work-
force development agencies and
other regional associations are
now learning what changes could
come their way under this new
system, called the Regional Prosperity Initiative, which Gov. Rick Snyder rolled out Thursday.
Details are still being worked
through, but the initiative appears
to have two major goals: Have all
organizations contributing to economic development address the
SPONSORED BY
MEDIA SPONSORS
same set of strategies and have all
state departments operate with the
same service areas.
State government departments
will be organized to have specific
points of contact for each of the 10
regions that have been created.
Wayne, Oakland and Macomb
counties make up one region, for
example. The Upper Peninsula
makes up another.
Currently, some state depart-
ments have different service areas
between divisions within their departments that can cause confusion when local officials need to
know whom to contact.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, for
example, has 15 different zones it
uses to provide services for things
like dairy and food inspections,
See Map, Page 38
Deadline
for entries
Aug. 16
Be recognized for your best practices that promote healthy employees and healthy
workplaces. To enter, please visit crainsdetroit.com/nominate
20130812-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
4:05 PM
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Page 2
August 12, 2013
MICHIGAN BRIEFS
Expanding Meijer plans to hire 4,400 in Michigan
Saginaw Co. becomes 3rd muni to
halt bond sale after Detroit’s Ch. 9
The number of Michigan municipalities to delay bond offerings after Detroit’s record bankruptcy filing last month grew to three last
week after Saginaw County postponed a planned $61 million bond
sale, Bloomberg News reported. A
spokesman for Cincinnati-based
Fifth Third Bancorp, lead underwriter on the offer, confirmed the
postponement.
Saginaw County, which had
been set last Thursday to hold the
biggest bond deal in the state since
Detroit sought court protection
July 18, joined Genesee County
and Battle Creek in delaying sales.
Genesee County’s sale, planned for
Aug. 1, was to be $54 million in
bonds; Battle Creek was to sell $16
million in bonds this week.
The Saginaw County and Battle
Creek securities are rated Aa3, the
fourth-highest level, by Moody’s Investors Service. The localities have
been delaying sales amid investor
speculation that Detroit Emergency
Manager Kevyn Orr’s treatment of
general-obligation debt could set a
precedent, especially in the state.
Walker-based Meijer Inc. plans to hire 4,400 workers in Michigan in the months ahead because it is
growing beyond its current 100-plus stores across
the state and because the fall and holiday selling
seasons are approaching, MLive.com reported.
The retailer has opened five of six new stores
planned for this year, including its first in Detroit. It
has nine openings planned for 2014.
Overall, Meijer plans to hire 9,000 workers chainMichigan has an Old National, after Evansville, Ind.-based Old National Bancorp acquired 20 Bank of
America Corp. branches in southwest Michigan. Now the company
wants to extend its reach from the
area around Kalamazoo into Grand
Rapids, a market four times larger,
MiBiz reported.
“We’re very encouraged by our
growth prospects” in Michigan
and northern Indiana, said Bob
Jones, Old National’s president
and CEO. He said the bank wants
to make additional acquisitions in
the state.
Old National has nearly 190 offices in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky
and Michigan, and assets of $9.7
billion.
Banking’s latest First says you
haven’t heard the last from it
Let’s see. You have First Nationals. You have Fifth Thirds. Now
MICH-CELLANEOUS
䡲 Central Michigan University has
opened its new medical school to
wide. Nearly one in 10 — 880, to be exact — will be in
the Grand Rapids area. Last year, Meijer said it
would hire 12,000 workers companywide.
Most of the new positions this time around will be
part time, the company said.
Most new Meijer stores require 200-250 employees. Besides the traditional retail roles of stocker
and cashier, stores also will hire meat cutters and
cake decorators.
the first group of wannabe doctors,
The Associated Press reported. The
64 students in the first class will
spend their first two years on
CMU’s Mt. Pleasant campus and the
final two years in Saginaw. The
Saginaw facilities include a CMU
campus and sites linked to Covenant
HealthCare and St. Mary’s of Michigan.
Speaking of new medical schools,
MLive.com reports that more than
2,100 students have applied for the
50 openings at the Western Michigan
University School of Medicine, which
doesn’t open until 2014.
䡲 After losing more than $5.2 million over the previous nine years,
the DeVos Place convention center
in downtown Grand Rapids posted
an operating surplus in the recently
concluded fiscal year, the Grand
Rapids Business Journal reported.
The preliminary and unaudited figures show $95,725 in the black.
䡲 MiBiz reported that the
Farmington Hills-based private
equity firm Beringea LLC has invested $3 million in Freeosk Inc., a
marketing services company
with operations in St. Joseph and
Chicago. Freeosk provides a
quick way for consumers to receive free samples of new products and has pilot tests in a handful of retail operations, with plans
to roll out nationwide this year.
䡲 Christopher Shires, director
of interpretation and programs at
the Edsel & Eleanor Ford House in
Grosse Pointe Shores, will become
executive director of the Holland
Museum next month, The Holland
Sentinel reported.
䡲 The ninth annual Traverse City
Film Festival, whose six-day run
ended Aug. 4, broke all records, the
Traverse City Record-Eagle reported. All told, 123 of 188 screenings
sold out. Admissions totaled
119,000, up 28,000 from last year.
䡲 An $80 million development
has been proposed for Bath Township, near East Lansing, the Lansing State Journal reported. The
plan includes residential buildings
surrounding covered parking areas along a commercial main
street, as well as restaurants and
retail space.
䡲 What do you call someone
who promises “outlandishly high
interest rates” and suggests that
your investment is safe? In the
case of Greg McKnight of Swartz
Creek, you call him a prisoner, after a judge in Flint sentenced him
to more than 15 years for a financial scam that involved more than
$45 million and more than 3,000 inFind business news from
around the state at crainsdetroit
.com/crainsmichiganbusiness.
Sign up for Crain's Michigan
Business e-newsletter at crains
detroit.com/emailsignup.
CORRECTION
䡲 A story on Page 23 of the Aug. 5 issue should have listed Scott
Miller, owner/operator of detpokerz.com, as fundraising chairman for
the Band Boosters Association of West Bloomfield rather than president.
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20130812-NEWS--0003-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
5:45 PM
Page 1
August 12, 2013
Page 3
Inside
Detroit: A seller’s market?
City home prices jump, so do bidding wars
erty to buy. Prices have doubled over
the past year, inventory is shrinking,
and bidding wars are breaking out in
Three months after Diana Bowman 䡲 Loss of state
some of the city’s most desirable
bought a grand Victorian home with a tax credit hurts
neighborhoods.
wraparound porch in southwest De- redevelopment,
“We have more buyers than we
Page 40
troit, the city declared bankruptcy.
have sellers,” said Ed Potas, real esNow she is fielding calls from her fartate development manager for Midflung friends and family expressing shock and town Detroit Inc. “We’re seeing value come
concern for her decision.
back. We’re seeing buyers in the market who
She is not deterred.
are bringing more cash to the table. We’re in
“It is interesting to see the various spins be- the meat of the rebound.”
Median home prices in the metro area
ing put on this story by the international media,” said Bowman from her native Australia, jumped nearly 20 percent between May 2012
where she is visiting family. “I think it is going and May 2013, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller
to be a really interesting period for all of us liv- Home Price Index. That’s more than double the
ing in Detroit, and I am really excited to be a national rate.
And prices aren’t just rising in the suburbs.
part of it.”
The problem now, in a city known interna- The city itself posted an 11.7 percent increase
tionally for its swathes of vacant land and end- in the first quarter of 2013, putting the median
less derelict homes, is actually finding a propSee Homes, Page 40
BY AMY HAIMERL
DIS-CREDIT
Sale clears way for hotel at
Detroit firehouse, Page 31
Company index
These companies have significant mention in this
week’s Crain’s Detroit Business:
TONY BARCHOCK
Diana Bowman, who teaches at the University of
Michigan, bought a house in Detroit so she could help
the city through her research and work.
Telemus
plans growth
with stake
sale to Focus
BY SHERRI WELCH
Southfield-based Telemus Capital
Partners LLC plans to use capital
from the sale of a minority stake of
the firm to New York City-based
Focus Financial Partners LLC to fund
the acquisition of other Michigan
investment advisers.
Focus, one of the largest groups
of independent wealth management companies in the country
with more than $60 billion under
management, has invested an
undisclosed amount in Telemus in
exchange for the minority stake,
company executives told Crain’s
last week. Telemus, in turn, has secured an undisclosed share in Focus.
Focus was included on Inc. magazine’s list of fastest-growing private companies in 2010 and 2011.
Crain’s New York Business named
it to its 2012 list of the “Fast 50” list
of New York City’s 50 fastest-growing companies.
The deal is the fifth this year for
Focus, the third in the Midwest
and second in Michigan, following
its Aug. 1 investment in Grand
Rapids-based investment adviser
LaFleur & Godfrey Inc.
Telemus, with assets under
management of more than $2 billion, will continue to operate under the direction of its current
partners while securing access to
capital and expertise in areas such
See Telemus, Page 38
GLENN TRIEST
Townhouse Bistro owner Jeremy Sasson said his restaurant’s smaller size allows him to fill it more often during the
summer, making up for lower traffic in the winter.
Bistros feed Birmingham’s
appetite for smaller restaurants
BY NATHAN SKID
ver the past 2½ years, downtown Birmingham’s largest restaurants — South Bar,
Chen Chow Brasserie and Zazios — shuttered their doors, pushed out by poor
management or slow sales.
In their wake, the downtown area has been filling
up with smaller bistros, about two per year since it began offering bistro licenses in 2007, to the current 16.
The bistros share several commonalities: smaller
footprints, seasonal menus with thoughtfully
sourced ingredients, and casual atmospheres.
Bob Bruner, city manager for Birmingham, said
there has been a noticeable move away from largescale, white-tablecloth restaurants.
O
“It’s part of an overall shift,” Bruner said. “Birmingham is not a cheap place to do business, and the
economics can be difficult, especially with the dining
public trending toward smaller, more intimate
places.”
Mary Chapman, director of product innovation
for Chicago-based food industry research firm Technomic Inc., said Birmingham’s boom in smaller, chefdriven bistros is following a national trend.
Chapman said guests are choosing the bistros
over their larger counterparts for several reasons;
mainly, customers are looking for high-end cuisine
without the pretension.
“If there is comparable quality of food to a whitetablecloth restaurant for less money, of course it will
21 Century Holdings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings . . . . . . . 19
Art Van Furniture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
AudioNet America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Autoliv ASP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
BarFly Ventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Beaumont Health System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12, 14
Belfor Holdings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Biggby Coffee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Bistro Joe’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan . . . . . . . . . . 1, 17
Capitol Park Partnership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County . . . . 4
Center for Automotive Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation 16
Citizens Research Council of Michigan . . . . . . . . . 26
Clark Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Commonwealth Café . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Compuware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Contech Castings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Continental Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Con-way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Cooper-Standard Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Delphi Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Diamond Electric Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Domino’s Pizza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Dow Chemical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Dow Corning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Dykema Gossett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Foley & Lardner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Ford Motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Forest Grill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Foster McCollum White & Associates . . . . . . . . . . 41
General Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Grand/Sakwa Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Grassroots Midwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Hatch Detroit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Henry Ford Health System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Hospice of Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Kelly Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Key Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Legacy Advisors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Loomis Sayles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Main Street Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Media … Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Metaldyne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Michigan Chamber of Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Michigan Inst. of Urology Men’s Health Foundation 12
Michigan Lending Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Midtown Detroit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Miller Law Firm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
MSX International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Muskegon River Lodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
O’Connor Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Real Estate One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Recycle Ann Arbor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Rockford Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
St. John Providence Health System . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Shiloh Industrial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Sinai-Grace Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Social Kitchen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Superior Capital Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
TI Automotive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
TonTin Lumber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Townhouse Bistro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
TRW Automotive Holdings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
University of Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4, 10
Urban Ashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Wayne County Airport Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Zingerman’s Deli . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Department index
BANKRUPTCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
BRIEFLY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
BUSINESS DIARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
CALENDAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
CAPITOL BRIEFINGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
CLASSIFIED ADS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
See Bistros, Page 39
KEITH CRAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
THIS WEEK @
WWW.CRAINSDETROIT.COM
Don’t let summer slip by
Check out what the weekend holds in store with
“10 Things to Do in Detroit,” posted every Thursday
afternoon at crainsdetroit.com/tenthings.
Inside scoop
See what’s on the minds of reporters on
the front lines of gathering Crain’s
business news at crainsdetroit.com/blogs.
OPINION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
PEOPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
RUMBLINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
WEEK ON THE WEB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
20130812-NEWS--0004-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
5:29 PM
Page 1
Page 4
August 12, 2013
New charges, stay request signal more
supplier price-fixing prosecutions ahead
BY CHAD HALCOM
Shareholder problems?
Changing the Odds in Our Clients’ Favor
Brian E. Etzel
Jayson E. Blake
E. Powell Milller
Marc L. Newman
Kevin O’Shea
Richard “Tony” Braun
Shareholder and partnership disputes
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Breach of fiduciary duty
Securities fraud and derivative claims
248-841-2200
millerlawpc.com
Federal officials who eased up
the pace of prosecuting automotive
supplier price-fixing for eight
months could be ready to punch the
accelerator again, if recent courthouse activity is any indicator.
U.S. District Judge Marianne
Battani for the Eastern District of
Michigan could decide by next
week whether to grant the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s request for a one-year stay on
portions of the expansive civil lawsuit alleging price-fixing over the
past decade — in order to protect its
ongoing criminal investigation.
A stay might not sound like
things are heating up, but attorneys said the timing suggests the
government’s case will be much
further along by this time in 2014,
with several more companies and
executives taking fines and prison
terms like those who have already
made deals.
Last week, Osaka, Japan-based
Panasonic Corp. entered guilty
pleas before U.S. Judge George
Steeh, also for the Eastern District,
on three counts of conspiracy to restrain trade in violation of the
Sherman Antitrust Act. Panasonic
is the first company to do so in Detroit since Tokai Rika Co. Ltd. did in
mid-December.
Diamond Electric Manufacturing
Co., an Osaka company with U.S.
headquarters in Dundee, has
agreed to enter a guilty plea on a
similar charge brought July 16, as
will the former vice president of
its Toyota Global Business Unit,
Takayoshi Matsunaga. But no date
is set in court for either case.
Diamond has agreed to $19 million in criminal fines and Panasonic another $45.8 million for
their role in the collusion, bringing the total fines to about $874
million against 11 supplier companies since fall 2011.
Panasonic admits to conspiring
with other suppliers to fix the
prices of steering wheel and turn
signal switches, headlamp regulators, door courtesy switches and
wiper controls sold to Toyota Motor
Co., Honda Motor Co. and then-Ford
Motor Co.-controlled Mazda Motor
Co. Ltd. between 1998 and February
2010. Panasonic houses its U.S.
subsidiary in Secaucus, N.J., and a
sales office in Farmington Hills.
Diamond will admit to rigging
bids for ignition coils sold to Ford,
Toyota and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.
and some subsidiaries between
2003 and 2010. The two companies
are the first new charges in eight
months other than a pair of individual charges in May against former Denso Corp. executives Yuji
Suzuki and Hiroshi Watanabe.
Suzuki and Watanabe also entered
their pleas and were sentenced last
week before Steeh. Previously the
federal government had charged
and sentenced nine supplier companies in just over one year, culminating last December.
The new charges, coupled with
the new stay that the Department
of Justice is seeking on the related
civil cases in Battani’s court, suggest much is to come in the next
few months in terms of federal
prosecutions, attorneys said.
“That’s the reward for coming
clean, as a conspirator your company has its portion of the case resolved early, when the government is still doing some
fact-finding, and
it comes with a
legal
requirement to cooperate with the rest
of its investigation,” said E.
Powell Miller,
president of The
Miller Law Firm
PC in Rochester
Miller
and
liaison
counsel for a prospective class of
auto customers affected by pricefixing in the Battani lawsuit.
“But then as the cooperation
builds, the strength of the government’s case builds. And after that
first wave of actions, another one
can be expected to follow based on
that cooperation. That’s usually
how these cases progress.”
Until now, Justice has mostly
gone along with civil attorneys requesting discovery or depositions
from segments of the auto supply
chain where the government considers its own investigation largely over — like among wire harness
suppliers, where it has landed convictions of Furukawa Electric Co. Ltd.
(U.S. subsidiary in Plymouth
Township) and Yazaki Corp. (U.S.
headquarters in Canton Township), or among suppliers of heat
control panels.
But the new request, to put a
stay on discovery and depositions
on what the government is calling
“subsequent product cases” (or the
industry segments where Justice’s
investigation isn’t done yet), may
be more telling. Miller and Mark
Aiello of Foley & Lardner LLP in Detroit both said it’s possible that request means the government expects its second wave of cases
soon, but wouldn’t speculate on a
timetable or scale for that.
Justice attorneys have also said
that some plaintiff attorneys in the
Battani civil case have said the
stay should be six months instead
of a year, but Miller said he is not
making that objection.
“We want to build our case as
much as possible, but our case is
mainly parallel with the government’s, and we certainly don’t want
to get in the way of that,” he said.
William Kohler, co-chair of the
automotive and manufacturing
practice group at Detroit-based
Clark Hill PLC, said other variables
are likely in play as well, like the
time it takes to convince certain
auto executives of the need to take
a plea versus facing a worse outcome from going to court.
The government also could try
to time a wave of cases together for
media exposure that helps convince other suppliers that Justice
is taking collusion very seriously,
he said.
“The Justice Department wants
its settlements to have impact, and
they will hold out for a resolution or
set of resolutions that are sure to get
noticed,” he said. “It’s sort of a
Martha Stewart effect, where the
defendant does have an interest in
an offender who had a specific
transaction, but also in an outcome
that is high-profile, it encourages
cooperation in the same field.”
In the meantime, local suppliers
have been putting a lot of effort into
new or expanded internal compliance programs to monitor their
sales staff and prevent future collusion, said Aiello, who co-chairs the
auto industry team at Foley.
“It’s very company-specific. But
almost all companies we’ve been
dealing with have done at least
something by now, whether it’s establishing new internal controls,
or employee education policy,” he
said.
“And it absolutely takes some
commitment, in terms of personnel and expense. There’s a time
value in the portion of the employee’s own work that now gets devoted to compliance, whether it’s
making new reports or attending
training sessions to follow an HR
policy.”
Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796,
[email protected].
Twitter:
@chadhalcom
UM family clinic transferred to Catholic Social Services
The University of Michigan School
of Social Work has spun off its
Family Assessment Clinic to
Catholic Social Services of Washtenaw County.
The transfer took place in May
but was announced last week.
Through the transfer, the location of the Ann Arbor clinic and
the responsibility for administering assessment and treatment of
children who are victims of physical, sexual and psychological
abuse and neglect and their families shifts to Ann Arbor-based
Catholic Social Services.
Students and faculty from UM’s
schools and departments of social
work, law, education, medicine
and psychology continue to be involved with the clinic in its new location, said Laura Lein, dean of
the UM School of Social Work.
It made sense to shift the services to CSS because of its long history of providing clinical services.
Now the clinic will be able to expand its services, and the UM
school will be able to focus on its
related research and training.
President Larry Voight said he
expects the costs of operating the
clinic will be covered through the
state contract and through fee-forservice counseling. CSS is operating on a 2013 budget of $7.5 million,
Voight said.
— Sherri Welch
DBpageAD_DBpageAD.qxd 8/5/2013 12:36 PM Page 1
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20130812-NEWS--0006-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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Page 1
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Manufacturing is not
just coming back,
it’s moving forward.
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August 12, 2013
10 small businesses make it to
semifinals in Hatch Detroit contest
BY AMY HAIMERL
First there were almost 200 competitors. Then there were 10.
Hatch Detroit unveiled the semifinalists for its third annual Comerica Hatch Detroit Contest on Thursday night, revealing what area
businesses will be competing for
grants from Comerica Inc. plus
business services, such as legal,
marketing and IT.
The only rule? It has to be a retail-based business and call Detroit home.
“We see independent retail as
the lifeblood of neighborhoods,”
said Nick Gorga, co-founder and
co-chairman of Hatch and a partner at Honigman Miller Schwartz and
Cohn LLP.
The next stage of the competition is straight-up popularity with
public voting. Polls open today and
can be found online at hatch
detroit.com, on Facebook or in person at various retailers. Voting
ends on Aug. 25 when the final four
competing for $50,000 are announced.
Then, it’s the big showdown, aka
Hatch Off, on Aug. 29. The last
firms standing will present elevator pitches to a panel of judges,
and skin planned for
Corktown.
The
founder is Dameshia
Edwards.
䡲 HenriettaHaus
Coffee Roasters, a coffee roaster and café,
plus waffles, planned
in a building purchased in Hamtramck. The founder is
Amy Duncan.
䡲 Mama’s Sweet Side, a brotherand-sister-owned bakery that specializes in cakes that is looking to
build a commercial kitchen;
founders Antony and Kathleen
Haralson currently share space in
Southfield. Their pre-packaged
“dream cakes” are sold at Whole
Foods in Detroit.
䡲 Spielhaus Toys, a store centered on toys that engage kids, like
puzzles, planned for downtown or
Midtown. The founder is Kurt
Spieles.
䡲 Treats by Angelique, a sweet shop
featuring cookies, cakes, and
brownies opening in Midtown. The
founder is Angelique Robinson.
䡲 Voigt’s Soda House, a soda
counter with homemade syrups
flavoring tonics and cocktails
planned likely for Midtown. The
founder is Sarah Pavelko.
We see
“
independent retail
as the lifeblood of
neighborhoods.
Gorga
who will crown the winner.
The finalists are:
䡲 Batch Brewing Co., a nanobrewery (small batches) opening
in Corktown, founded by Stephen
Roginson, Jason Williams and Anthony O’Donnell.
䡲 Busted!, a bra boutique
planned for Midtown or downtown, founded by Lee Padgett.
䡲 Corktown Cinema, an independent cinema planned as a reincarnation of the Burton Theatre, in
Corktown. The founders are
Nathan Faustyn, Jeff Else, David
Allen and Brandon Walley.
䡲 Detroit Barber and Shave Shop, a
men’s club/barbershop with
drinks, memberships and hot towel wraps planned for downtown.
The founders are Brandon Maake
and Isaiah Dahlman.
䡲 Eartha’s Natural Hair & Body
Boutique, a pharmacy selling natural and organic products for hair
”
Superior Capital
acquires two glass,
aluminum companies
BY CHAD HALCOM
Did you kknow??
The Health Care industry drives 1/6 of the U.S. economy.
TCF Bank in Michigan has lent over $100 million to
health care related businesses.
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Did you know that TCF Bank :
s Has health care banking experts on its team?
s Is committed to growing its loan portfolio in the health care segment?
s Finances medical practices?
s Finances long term care projects?
s Finances the senior-living industry?
®
To learn more, contact:
Janet Pasco at 248-740-1622 or [email protected]
©2012 TCF National Bank. Member FDIC. www.tcfbank.com
Detroit-based private equity
firm Superior Capital Partners LLC
has acquired two architectural
glass and aluminum companies —
Aldora Glass Holdings in Florida and
Coastal Glass Distributors Inc. in
South Carolina — from its initial
equity fund.
Terms of the deal, which took effect July 26, were undisclosed. The
combined operation, to be bundled
under platform company Aldora
Holdings Inc., is based in Miramar,
Fla., and represents about $20 million in combined revenue and more
than 160 employees in both states,
with more than 1,250 customers in
several southeastern U.S. states.
Aldora Glass owner Leon Silverstein becomes CEO of Aldora Holdings. Managing Director Scott
Hauncher at Superior Capital said
Aldora and Coastal are the fund’s
14th and 15th acquisitions, and both
companies retain their names as
subsidiaries of Aldora Holdings, the
fund’s sixth platform company.
Aldora and Coastal are fabricators and distributors of architectural glass and aluminum products, including storefront and
entrance doors, table tops, shelves,
window and curtain wall systems.
Superior Capital launched its
first fund in 2007 with a $50 million
fund to invest in distressed companies in need of turnaround help, and
told Crain’s in July it is preparing
this year to raise a second fund.
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20130812-NEWS--0008,0009-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
4:05 PM
Page 1
Page 8
August 12, 2013
OPINION
An artful solution
amid bankruptcy
A
rt patrons are incensed over a New York City auction
house’s contract to appraise the value of the art held
by the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Appraisers, hired by Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn
Orr, will focus solely on art purchased with city funds versus
works that have been
donated. Such valuations will be made of
other city assets, such
as the Coleman A.
Young International
Airport and the cityowned portion of the
Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.
Diego Rivera Court at the Detroit Institute of
But the art is emoArts
tional — and political.
In public debates, for example, mayoral candidate Benny
Napoleon made it clear: If Belle Isle, the water department and
other city assets are on the table, the DIA’s art should be, too.
This is an opportunity for Detroit, the DIA and art patrons
to create a path to protect the museum from financial raids
now and in the future. It is a city asset unlike any other. How?
First, the DIA has benefited from public investments from outside of Detroit for years; from 1989 until 2009, the state of
Michigan pumped about $130 million into the museum in
recognition that it was an asset for the entire state.
More recently, voters in the tri-county area last summer
agreed to support museum operations with a millage over 10
years to the tune of an estimated $23 million a year initially. A
sale of art could lead those governments to rescind the payments, arguing that the game had changed.
So why shouldn’t the DIA voluntarily offer to sell some
works it could live without? Two reasons: First, it means that
any time the city has a financial problem, the piggy-bank
precedent is set: In the red? No problem! Just go sell a painting!
Second, such a sale violates professional canons. Which
means the DIA could kiss goodbye any hopes of getting works
on loan from museums worldwide for future exhibits.
The solution may come in a transition to a different kind of
ownership of the works, an ownership that would protect the
art for future generations. That restructuring could be considered as part of a bankruptcy plan, perhaps with the DIA making a significant contribution to the city through its endowment.
If this current crisis leads to such a resolution, Detroit’s
bankruptcy may be the best thing for the Detroit Institute of
Arts and the public who visit, after all.
LETTERS
City retirees aren’t the villains
Editor:
Regarding your article on the
city of Detroit retirees and Kevyn
Orr’s stand regarding the pension
fund and bankruptcy (“Detroit Ch.
9 may set pension precedent,”
Aug. 5, Page 1), there is one statement I find very upsetting due to
false information.
A portion of the article says
“some employees have been able to
stockpile large chunks of vacation
and sick time over the years … .” It
should also be acknowledged that if
an employee has accumulated a
large amount of vacation time, they
had worked years without even
taking vacation days they had
earned.
Please be mindful that employees only earned 14 days of vacation
per year. So if they accumulated
any vacation days, that meant
they worked the entire year for
years. Also, workers could carry
Crain’s Detroit Business
welcomes letters to the editor.
All letters will be considered for
publication, provided they are
signed and do not defame
individuals or organizations.
Letters may be edited for length
and clarity.
Write: Editor, Crain’s Detroit
Business, 1155 Gratiot Ave.,
Detroit, MI 48207-2997.
Email: [email protected]
over only a limited amount of vacation time from the previous
year. If you did not use the time,
you lost the time.
Regarding sick time: You could
only get paid for half of sick leave
upon retirement. So you gave the
city back time you earned over the
years.
Also, retirement is not calculated by your last year of service. De-
pending on when a person retired,
it could have been calculated on
the last six years of employment.
So much misinformation printed and stated through the media
needs to be corrected. Even one of
the councilwomen has been quoted as stating a retiree receives
$100,000 a year. In reality, the average civilian pensioner receives
about $16,000 or less yearly. Also,
Detroit police retirees do not receive Social Security.
Retirees are not the villains of
the city of Detroit. We were the
backbone of the city, and we sacrificed greatly during employment.
Retirees have been laid off, taken
numerous pay cuts, worked without pay, were overworked due to
staff cuts and no replacements,
have worked 18-hour shifts due to
manpower shortages, lost cost-ofliving pay, and were paid less than
See Letters, Page 9
KEITH CRAIN: It’s nice to have something to cheer about
Last week, Detroit voters took
surprising action and overwhelmingly picked Mike Duggan with almost half of the ballot on a write-in
along with Benny Napoleon. The
top two vote-getters for mayor
were no surprise — the surprise
was the overwhelming response to
Duggan’s write-in candidacy.
But we have our candidates for
mayor and all the Detroit City
Council districts as well as the two
at-large positions. I have no doubt
that it will be a vigorous mayoral
campaign with lots of mudslinging
and plenty of racial talk. I can only
hope that through all
the muck, we’ll be able
to learn something,
however slight, about
how the many candidates plan to build the
economy of Detroit
when and if the emergency manager leaves
the city.
The EM’s job is to get
the financial house in
order. These elected
politicians are going to have to
concentrate on economic development if we want to see Detroit
grow and prosper.
Meanwhile, the Detroit Tigers are giving
us something to cheer
about. It’s exciting to
see America’s pastime
getting the attention
that it deserves in the
Motor City.
We all love a winner,
and we all love our
sports heroes. What
seems to be so great
about the Tigers is the number of
heroes we have on our team. There
are plenty of players to root for
every game.
Sure, we have our superstars,
but I am pleasantly surprised at
how all the players seem to take
turns each game to be today’s
hero.
It seems bizarre that while the
Tigers are on a tear, we have the
Lions opening up for business next
door. It’s been more than half a
century since we’ve seen the Lions
win it all, but amazingly we still
have a ton of optimists who know
that this year will be the year. Like
the rest of Detroit, I hope they are
right.
There is still a lot of baseball until the World Series, and in between, we’ll be able to watch and
root for football, as well. And let us
not forget that we’ll see the start of
college football very soon.
Detroit needs something to
cheer for, and the Tigers have given us that. Let’s hope we can continue to enjoy their victories for
the next couple of months, and
with a little luck and a prayer, we
might even see the Lions have
their own winning ways.
Heck, we might be able to tolerate the election campaign after all.
20130812-NEWS--0008,0009-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
10:17 AM
Page 2
August 12, 2013
LETTERS CONTINUED
TALK ON THE WEB
■ From Page 8
the private sector and other government agencies. But retirees
stayed through it all and provided great services. Retirees stayed
with the knowledge they would
receive a pension upon the completion of the 30-plus years.
Retirees have also invested
their own money into the pension fund from the low income
they received. Retirees did this
with the understanding that this
was a guarantee provided by the
law under the Michigan Constitution.
Additionally, Mr. Orr has compared himself to a city of Detroit
retiree, saying he does not have a
pension, and he has to pay his
own insurance. How can he compare himself with a city of Detroit
employee/retiree when he is being paid more than $250,000 and
has his accommodations and
meals paid by the city? Had employees been paid the money he is
being paid for 18 months of service, surely we could have invested our money in other funds other than the Detroit general
pension system.
The city of Detroit retirees
should also have a voice. Justice
should be served, and the truth
should be told.
Cynthia Haskin
Detroit
Detroit residents made
right election choices
Editor:
Detroit
residents’
voice
emerged as the loud and clear
winner in the election results on
Tuesday. What an extraordinary
victory. Residents seemed to understand the difficult tasks at
hand, the opportune moment as
the eyes of the nation are focused
on Detroit again, and the special
historical firsts involved.
This strong resident “voice” is
an emerging asset that will help
build Detroit’s next chapter. Engaged, caring citizens chose to affirm and reaffirm the connection
between place (in these first district elections) and political effectiveness. They selected candidates, by and large, with strong
neighborhood roots (like Scott
Benson, Raquel Castanada-Lopez
and Adam Hollier) and candidates with demonstrated commitment to leadership for the public
good (like James Tate and Saunteel Jenkins, as well as others).
They acted to move forward a
historically unprecedented writein candidate, but more importantly, they chose two candidates
for mayor who are ethical, decent
leaders. They both exude positive
energy, possess distinguished executive track records and display
willingness to raise the real and
the tough issues. Detroit voters
soundly rejected the politics of
hate, exclusion and divisiveness.
Bravo, Detroit residents. This
strong voice will be the framework for building a better tomorrow.
Edward Egnatios
CEO
EK & Associates LLC
Page 9
Re: Wayne sees extra yield for debt
soar in wake of Detroit bankruptcy
Wayne County is not a victim of anything. The prices of its bonds, and
the demanded yield on those bonds,
are only reflective of investors’ assessment of Wayne County’s fiscal
mismanagement. I will not be surprised when Wayne County has an
emergency manager take over. The
sooner the better.
257244
Re: Snyder and post-bankrupt Detroit
Gov. Snyder is looking at New
York City’s brush with bankruptcy? Maybe he should have been
Reader responses to stories and blogs that appeared on Crain’s website.
Comments may be edited for length and clarity.
looking at that before the Chapter
9 bankruptcy for Detroit was filed.
New York averted bankruptcy. …
I am sure Snyder would be delighted with getting Detroit out of
bankruptcy in the fall of 2014. The
election for Michigan governor is
in November 2014.
It is apparent that Snyder has the
Ilitch family’s best interests at
heart. He seems to have no problem
with 80- and 90-year-old people losing pension money or selling DIA
art because of the dire circum-
stances in Detroit. However, those
dire circumstances will not stop the
handout of hundreds of millions of
dollars for a hockey arena for one of
Michigan’s richest families.
Carolyn Mazurkiewicz
their lives to line his pockets. If he
did the same with a knife or gun,
this would not be a question. I hope
he enjoyed fleecing the public till
and really enjoyed the money. And
don’t forget to pull his medical license; he shouldn’t even work at a
doll hospital.
Timothy Dinan
Re: Voting not easy in Detroit
Re: Judge to say if doc gets released
Yes. Keep him in, please. Unlike a
notorious felon whose violent acts
are readily apparent, Dr. Fata violated the fundamental rights of his
patients and recklessly endangered
I had no problems, either at the
polling place for my mom (a
school) or my polling place (a
church). Both were easy to find,
and parking was easy. Please
don’t generalize.
WritingItRightForYou
Nursing education
that changes lives
Certified Nurse Practitioner Davida Kruger
is devoted to diabetes patient care and
research. For more than 30 years, she has
studied the illness that affects more than
25 million Americans while also teaching
her patients how to manage the disease.
Davida received her master’s degree
from the Wayne State University College
of Nursing. Honored by the American
Diabetes Association for her work, she
is part of a National Institutes of Healthfunded study and has co-authored more
than 70 articles. And every day, she
demonstrates our college’s steadfast
commitment to excellence in clinical
practice, scholarship and research.
Sooner or later, most of us will need a
nurse. And at the Wayne State University
College of Nursing, we’re graduating
the best.
Davida Kruger, C.N.P. in the Henry Ford Health System Division
of Endocrinology, is past chair of the American Diabetes
Association’s Research Foundation, editor-in-chief of the journal
Clinical Diabetes, and a 1982 graduate of the Wayne State
University College of Nursing. Aim Higher.
College of Nursing
20130812-NEWS--0010-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
10:13 AM
Page 1
Page 10
August 12, 2013
Hot topics among suppliers: Electronics, downsizing
BY DUSTIN WALSH
TRAVERSE CITY — At the Center
for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminars conference
last week, suppliers announced new
plants and products while automakers talked about the redefined supplier-customer relationship.
One of the hot topics executives
pointed to: Suppliers are doubling
down on vehicle connectivity and
planning for the future.
Continental AG unveiled a proofof-concept vehicle at the conference with technology from Cisco
Systems Inc. that is designed to offer next-generation connectivity.
Tejas Desai, head of electronics
for Continental Automotive in Auburn
Hills, said the technology provides
reliable network connectivity and
enhanced security, which is needed
to solidify the automobile as a mobile device.
“The expectations for connectivity and safety are a large step up
from consumer electronics,” Desai
said. “Losing a signal on a mobile
phone or tablet happens, but in
auto, we’re not willing to tolerate
that loss.”
Andrew Brown, vice president
and chief technologist for Troybased Delphi Automotive plc, said
the industry is well down the rabbit hole of technology, and that
connectivity will redefine it again.
“Transportation is being transformed by the smartphone,” Brown
said. “We will all be astonished by
the solutions we have in 10 years.”
Delphi is also conducting data
mining using a cloud-based telematics device through Verizon Communications Inc. The consumer product,
Vehicle Diagnostics by Delphi, provides buyers troubleshooting and
monitoring of their vehicle from a
smartphone or computer. Through
DENTAL IS ALL WE DO—
the Web or a mobile app, the device
provides remote access such as
command of door locks and remote
start, plus diagnostic testing.
Information gathering is helping
the industry cope with the quick innovation cycle, Brown said.
“We’re all working to tackle the
industry’s greatest challenge” from
a technology standpoint, Brown
said. The telematics device is a risk
getting into the consumer electronics market, he said, “but we must
try to stay ahead of the wave.”
Jim Sayer, program manager of
the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, updated at-
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tendees on the connected-vehicle
testing happening in Ann Arbor.
More than 2,750 cars are
equipped with connected devices
and are being tracked by the Transportation Research Institute. The
Connected Vehicle Safety pilot program is testing active safety technologies and interactions between
vehicles and infrastructure for the
U.S. Department of Transportation.
The two-year program, which
captures data from personal and
commercial vehicles of volunteers,
launched Aug. 21, 2012. It has
logged more than 37,500 vehicle-tovehicle interactions and more than
9 billion safety messages from more
than 6 million miles driven by the
cars, Jim Sayer, program manager
of the Transportation Research Institute, told attendees at a briefing
seminar.
The inner circle?
Speaking of communication, the
supplier-automaker relationship
was another major topic at the
CAR seminars as automakers and
large suppliers continue to shrink
their supplier rosters.
Referred suppliers to Ford Motor
Co. will get a bigger share of the
automaker’s purchasing budget —
70 percent, up from 65 percent — as
the automaker continues to reduce
its network of suppliers.
Birgit Behrendt, the company’s
vice president of global programs,
said 104 suppliers in Ford’s Aligned
Business Framework will get a bigger share of the pie. However,
Behrendt did not indicate how long
it would take to shift more of Ford’s
purchasing to these vendors.
Behrendt also said the automaker will continue to facilitate the
creation of minority-owned joint
ventures such as Detroit Manufacturing Systems LLC and Detroit Thermal Systems LLC, both created last
year.
DMS is a joint venture between
Wayne-based Rush Group and
French supplier Faurecia SA. DTS
was created between Redford Township-based V. Johnson Enterprises LLC
and French supplier Valeo SA.
Behrendt said the joint ventures
create opportunities for both suppliers and allow Ford to consolidate its supply base.
The big M&A deal
Shiloh Industries Inc., which operates a technical center in Canton
Township, announced during the
conference the acquisition of Revstone Transportation LLC subsidiary
Contech Castings LLC for $54.4 million.
The acquisition of Southfieldbased Contech gives Shiloh with
four plants — in Alma; Clarksville,
Ohio; Auburn, Ind.; and Pierceton,
Ind. — as well as new contracts
with Ford Motor Co., General Motors
Co., Chrysler Group LLC and Nexteer
Automotive Inc. That’s according to
Ramzi Hermiz, president and CEO
of Shiloh.
Shiloh gains capacity through
the deal, which is constrained in
the stamping and die-casting supply base, Hermiz said.
Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042,
[email protected]
Twitter:
@dustinpwalsh
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Page 11
HOME IS WHERE SAVINGS IS
Blue Cross touts medical
home project, Page 17
Crain’s 12th annual Health Care Heroes
awards honor people in area health care
roles in five categories. Stories on the winners and honorable-mention recipients begin here and continue through Page 16.
People
䡲 The American Osteopathic
Association elected Craig Magnatta,
D.O., an osteopathic family physician in
private practice at Rochester Medical
Group, as first vice president.
䡲 Crystal Holmes, D.P.M., a clinical
assistant professor at the University of
Michigan Health System, was appointed
by Gov. Rick Snyder
to the Michigan
Board of Podiatric
Medicine and
Surgery to serve a
four-year term.
䡲 Ariel Barkan,
M.D., a professor of
internal medicine at
the University of
Michigan Health
Holmes
System, was elected
to a one-year term as president of The
Pituitary Society.
䡲 Dottie Deremo, president and CEO
of Hospice of Michigan, was appointed
to a three-year term on Ascension
Health’s board of trustees.
䡲 James Froehlich, M.D., director of
vascular medicine at the University of
Michigan’s Samuel and Jean Frankel
Cardiovascular Center, was installed as
president of the Society of Vascular
Medicine.
䡲 Jim Giordano, president and CEO of
Troy-based CareTech Solutions Inc., has
been appointed chairman of the St. John
Providence Health System board of
trustees.
䡲 Anne Fischer, M.D., has joined
Beaumont Children’s Hospital, Royal
Oak, as the
surgeon-in-chief and
chief of pediatric
surgery for
Beaumont Health
System. She also is
a professor at the
Oakland University
William Beaumont
School of Medicine.
Previously, Fischer
Fischer
was a faculty
member at the University of Texas
Southwestern and a surgical director at
the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas.
䡲 The Michigan Peer Review
Organization has elected its executive
leadership positions: David Herbel,
president and CEO of LeadingAge
Michigan, to chairperson; Gregory
Forzley, M.D., chief medical
information officer of health networks
for Trinity Health, to chairpersonelect; Beverly Allen, CEO of
CoventryCares of Michigan Inc.,
treasurer; and Linda Dean Hamacher,
executive director of Genesee Health
Plan Corp., secretary.
䡲 Michael Genord, M.D., a boardcertified ob-gyn at Beaumont Hospital in
Royal Oak, was elected to the Michigan
State Medical Society board of directors
as a representative for Macomb and
Oakland counties.
䡲 Kris Rutkowski, manager of
pediatric speech and language
pathology at Beaumont Health System in
Royal Oak, was selected by the
Michigan Autism Council to serve on its
early identification and early intervention
advisory group.
Reginald Eadie’s
effort to educate
employees at SinaiGrace Hospital on
the dangers of
obesity led to a
hospital-wide and
city-wide campaign
called ‘Say No to
Soda Pop.’
JOHN SOBCZAK
WINNER: OUTSTANDING PHYSICIAN ACHIEVEMENT
‘Say No’ campaign against obesity catches on
Reginald Eadie, M.D.
President
Detroit Medical Center’s Sinai-Grace Hospital
Detroit
s an emergency physician in Detroit,
Reginald Eadie, M.D., saw firsthand
the effects of obesity: diabetes, high
blood pressure, shortness of breath, heart
disease, cancer.
A
He even wrote a book about obesity, How to
Eat & Live Longer.
But it was as CEO of Sinai-Grace Hospital in
Detroit that Eadie was able to stimulate the
imagination of hundreds, if not thousands, of
people on the dangers of obesity.
“I gave a speech last year on obesity before
employees and was asked what the number
one source of weight gain was,” he said. “I
said, ‘soda pop.’ ”
That answer last fall sparked a hospital-
wide campaign that blossomed into a citywide campaign to “Say No to Soda Pop.”
At least 500 employees of the 2,200-person
workforce at Sinai-Grace raised their hands
and pledged not to drink soda during November 2012.
After word got out, Eadie began to work
with officials of the Detroit City Council, Wayne
County Commission and Wayne County Health
HONOREES BY AWARD CATEGORY
Outstanding Physician Achievement
䡲 Winner: Reginald Eadie,
Sinai-Grace Hospital, above
䡲 Honorable mentions: William
O’Neill, Henry Ford Health
System; Edward Walton,
Beaumont Health System;
Michael Lutz, Michigan Institute
of Urology Men’s Health
Foundation, Page 12
WINNER CATEGORIES
Corporate Achievement
in Health Care
䡲 Winners: Colleen Shefferly,
AudioNet America Inc., Page
13; Jeffrey Band, Beaumont
Health System, Page 14
Allied Health
䡲 Winner: Dottie Deremo,
Trustee
䡲 Winner: Sister Xavier
Balance, St. John Providence
Health System, Page 16
䡲 Honorable mention: Jack
Billi, Center for Healthcare
Research & Transformation,
Page 16
Hospice of Michigan, Page 14
THE JUDGES
䡲 Mahir Elder, M.D., director of the cardiac care
unit at the Detroit Medical Center
䡲 Robert Hoban, president of the care continuum
and a senior vice president of St. John Providence
Health System, Warren
See Eadie, Page 12
䡲 Lisa McDowell, manager of clinical nutrition,
pharmacy department, St. Joseph Mercy Health
System, Ann Arbor
䡲 Robert Naftaly, board member, UAW Retiree
Medical Benefits Trust, Detroit
䡲 Corporate Achievement in Health
Care: Honors a company that has
created an innovative health benefits
plan or solved a problem in health
care administration.
䡲 Advancements in Health Care: Honors
a company or individual responsible for
a discovery or for developing a
procedure, device or service that can
save lives or improve quality of life.
䡲 Physician: Honors a physician
whose performance is considered
exemplary.
䡲 Allied Health: Honors an individual
from nursing or allied health fields
whom patients and peers deem
exemplary.
䡲 Outstanding Physician Achievement
and Trustee: Honors leadership and
distinguished service on a health care
board.
20130812-NEWS--0011,0012-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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Page 12
August 12, 2013
Health Care
Eadie: Taking fizz out of soda craze
HONORABLE
MENTION: PHYSICIAN
■ From Page 11
Department and students who
During that same time, sales of
served as anti-obesity ambasbottled water and other healthy
sadors from Dr. Benjamin Carson
drinks increased.
High School and Cornerstone Charter
Eadie said the effects from last
Health High School.
year’s “Say No” campaign are still
“This isn’t a war against soda pop
being felt.
companies,” said Eadie, 44, a native
“People are begging for more
Detroiter who graduated from Cass
gym equipment,” he said. “They
Technical High School and received
are thinking about their health
his medical degree from the Wayne
more.”
State University School of Medicine.
Eadie said he thinks the cam“This is a war against the lack of
paign also has increased morale,
knowledge the public has regardloyalty, teamwork and engagement
ing the dangers of soda pop.”
at Sinai-Grace.
While Eadie said he hasn’t
“Our employee satisfaction
tracked or studied the number of
scores are going up,” he said. “Last
people who actually quit or slowed
year we increased the participatheir intake of soda — generally
tion rate for our surveys to 63 perReginald Eadie, M.D.
about 200 calories for a 12-ounce
cent from 32 percent.”
drink — employees continue to
Over the next several months,
talk about their pop-drinking habits.
Eadie said, Sinai-Grace will begin several healthy
“People stop me in the halls and tell me they food programs, including adding artificial sweeteners
stopped drinking soda,” he said. “Some became veg- while reducing fried foods and drinks high in sugar.
etarians. I go to the cafeteria and people hide the fat“We have talked with our food vendor about
ty foods and sodas they are drinking.”
bringing in healthier foods for our cafeteria,” Eadie
Sales of pop in the Sinai-Grace cafeteria fell said, noting that the hospital offers a 10 percent disroughly 15 percent in November 2012 compared count on water.
with October, said Jennie Miller, public relations
Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325, [email protected].
and marketing manager for Sinai-Grace.
Twitter: @jaybgreene
This isn’t a war
against soda pop
companies. This is a
war against the lack
of knowledge the
public has regarding
the dangers of soda
pop.
“
”
THE LEUKEMIA & LYMPHOMA SOCIETY
CONGRATULATES OUR 2013 MAN & WOMAN OF THE YEAR
CANDIDATES ON A RECORD BREAKING YEAR!
Making an impact in the fight against cancer
Left to right: Dr. Jeffrey A. Zonder, Nancy Mendicki, 2013 Woman of the Year, Brenda Jenkins,
Dr. Andy Harris, 2013 Girl of the Year, Nicole Burton, 2013 Boy of the Year, Kyle Peterson,
Jon Brief, Renata Crooms, Tom Connelly, 2013 Man of the Year, Ryan LaFontaine,
John Ruggero, Adrian Vido. (Not Pictured: Dr. Tom Simmer)
William O’Neill
Cardiologist
Henry Ford Health System
Detroit
This year, Henry Ford Health System cardiologist William O’Neill
was the first to
successfully repair a ruptured
heart and open
five
blocked
blood vessels using a catheterization process.
In 2012, his
team performed
the first lariat
O’Neill
procedure
in
Michigan, using a catheter-based
technique that limits the risk of
stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation who can’t take blood thinners.
He also pioneered the use of angioplasty for treatment of heart attacks, and in 2004 performed North
America’s first heart valve replacement through a catheter.
While he has many accomplishments, O’Neill thinks his greatest
was leading a research partnership between Beaumont Health System and the University of Michigan
from 1985 to 1992 that “established
angioplasty as the definitive treatment for heart attacks,” he said.
Since August 2012, O’Neill has
been the medical director of the
Center for Structural Heart Disease at
Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He
previously was dean for research at
the University of Miami Health System.
O’Neill said he’s now trying to
treat structural heart disease with
catheter-based techniques and
less-invasive surgeries.
“This will improve the lives of
those who are unable to have open
heart surgery by extending their life
and improving life quality,” he said.
O’Neill’s plans include establishing the Structural Heart Disease Center “as one of the pre-eminent centers for fixing heart
valves and heart tissues,” he said.
Plans also include links to other
centers in South America and
Canada by starting clinical trials
there and transporting the trials to
the United States. These trials will
test new medical devices for treating heart problems, he said.
— Ross Benes
Edward Walton
Director of pediatric
emergency medicine
Beaumont Health System
Royal Oak
Simply put, we are closer than ever to cures for many kinds of blood cancers.
We are on the brink of historic breakthroughs that will literally change people’s lives.
Cures today. Not someday. That’s the goal. And you are at the heart of it. Help us finish the job.
For more information or to get involved, please visit www.mwoy.org/mi or call 248.581.3904
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
The North Star Reach camp in Ann
Arbor now has 11 health system
sponsors, thanks
in part to Edward
Walton,
M.D.
The
camp,
dedicated to providing
lifechanging experiences
for
children
and
families with seWalton
rious
health
problems, is on pace to break
ground on a $26 million capital pro-
ject after six years of fundraising.
Michigan campers are being
served around the country by other
members of the SeriousFun Children’s
Network of camps, but the ultimate
goal is to serve all local campers at
the new campsite outside of Pinckney, said Walton, director of pediatric emergency medicine at Beaumont Health System in Royal Oak.
Walton, who is on the North Star
camp’s board, was recognized for
his efforts with the American Camp
Association when the Martinsville,
Ind.-based organization presented
him its 2013 Hedley S. Dimock
Award for outstanding service. He
also received the 2012 Summit
Award from the Center for Association Leadership for the ACA’s
healthy-camp research initiative.
Walton served on the ACA’s
board of directors and was its vice
president from 2010 to 2013.
At Beaumont in the past two
years, he led the creation of a division of pediatric emergency medicine and a pediatric emergency
medicine fellowship.
Walton also is a U.S. Navy reservist scheduled to deploy to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
— Ross Benes
Michael Lutz
Founder
Michigan Institute of Urology
Men’s Health Foundation
St. Clair Shores
When asked about his greatest
professional achievement, Michael Lutz points
to the Michigan
Institute of Urology Men’s Health
Foundation,
which he cofounded.
The
foundation,
which
funds
prostate cancer
research
and
Lutz
work involving
men’s health issues, raised nearly
$500,000 over the past two years.
For the past five years, the foundation has held a Father’s Day
prostate cancer benefit run at the
Detroit Zoo.
Lutz also helps stage the institute’s Men’s Health Event at Ford
Field, where hundreds of men get
an opportunity to evaluate their
health with free screenings, as
well as educational and treatment
opportunities.
“Every time our foundation conceives, develops and implements a
new community opportunity, a
new memory is created, becoming
a special part of my urological career,” Lutz said.
Since Lutz joined the Troy-based
Institute of Urology in 2008, the
practice has doubled in size and
now has 55 multi-subspecialtytrained urologists.
Lutz also said he’s involved with
new technologies to detect prostate
cancer, including 3-D mapping, and
efforts to minimize invasive treatments.
He has been a co-chairman of
the American Cancer Society Great
Lakes Division’s prostate cancer
task force since 1999. He also cofounded the first Us Too prostate
cancer support group in Michigan.
Lutz is an assistant professor of
urology at the Oakland University
William Beaumont School of Medicine.
— Ross Benes
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Health Care
W I N N E R : C O R P O R AT E A C H I E V E M E N T I N H E A LT H C A R E
Current, retired UAW members turn a listening ear
Colleen Shefferly
President and founder
AudioNet America Inc.
Clinton Township
Colleen Shefferly created AudioNet America in 2008 because the
auto industry wanted to improve
hearing care while reducing costs
and increasing access for workers
and retirees.
As a longtime consultant to the
UAW, Shefferly knew the union
sought to lower costs and was looking for hearing aid providers that
could meet the requirements of a
collective bargaining agreement.
“No one was out there that could
do that,” she said. “As a result, I
created an entire managed care
company for hearing aids.”
AudioNet’s first contract was in
July 2008 with UAW retirees at Ford
Motor Co. The contract was assumed
in January 2010 by the UAW Retiree
Medical Benefits Trust commonly referred to as a Voluntary Employees’
Beneficiary Association.
“We had no intent to go outside
of autoworkers. We started realizing we were unique and had a
product corporations would be interested in,” Shefferly said.
As baby
“
boomers have
increased and
technology in the
workplace increases,
more people need
hearing aids and
suffer from hearing
loss.
”
Colleen Shefferly, AudioNet
AudioNet currently has 100,000
retirees and active-duty members
receiving benefits through the
UAW VEBA and the program enacted last July for active General
Motors Co. employees and their dependents, Shefferly said.
By Jan. 1, AudioNet’s network
will be available for active Ford and
Chrysler Group LLC workers represented by the UAW, Shefferly said.
“We hope to add GM and
Chrysler retirees sometime,” she
said. “We are also talking with local
and national health insurers to add
AudioNet as the network manager
for their existing hearing benefits.”
Under the hearing aid benefit
program, Shefferly said, AudioNet’s national provider network offers annual hearing assessments by 4,500 audiologists for a
flat fee. Two hearing aids are offered every three years.
“Hearing used to be a small item
in the overall health care benefit
program,” Shefferly said. “But as
baby boomers have increased and
technology in the workplace increases, more people need hearing
aids and suffer from hearing loss.”
Before flat fees were negotiated,
Shefferly said, people were being
billed $3,000 to $8,000 for a pair of
hearing aids.
“We save companies up to
51 percent for our current clients
over what they were paying before,” Shefferly said. Participating
companies choose to offer two
standard digital hearing aids to
workers and retirees instead of
one, she said.
She expects her company will
double over the next two years be-
cause a real hunger exists for
health care cost containment.
“Hearing loss used to begin at
age 75,” she said. “Now it is happening earlier, at age 70.”
Sixty percent of people with
hearing loss are below retirement
age, Shefferly said, adding, “The
amount of occupational noise in
the auto industry and in the environment has increased.”
Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325,
[email protected]. Twitter: @jaybgreene
LARRY PEPLIN
AudioNet, founded
by Colleen
Shefferly, currently
has 100,000
retirees and
workers receiving
hearing aid benefits
through the UAW
VEBA and through a
program for active
GM employees and
dependents.
How Beaumont doctors are saving the lives
of patients they will never meet.
It took months of painstaking
detective work by a team of
Beaumont epidemiologists
led by Jeffrey Band, M.D.
They uncovered a bacteria
in ultrasound gel causing
life-threatening infections
in critically ill patients. A
discovery that led to a
national recall enhancing
patient safety. Not just at
Beaumont but everywhere.
That’s why Dr. Jeffrey Band
and his team are our heroes.
Jeffrey Band, M.D. is the
Chair of Epidemiology at
Beaumont Health System and
recipient of the 2013 Crain’s
Healthcare Hero “Advancement
in Healthcare” award.
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Health Care
W I N N E R : C O R P O R AT E A C H I E V E M E N T I N H E A LT H C A R E
Beaumont team found source of life-threatening infection
Jeffrey Band, M.D.
Health system chairman,
epidemiology and
international medicine
Beaumont Health System
Royal Oak
An unusually high number of
patients were becoming ill with a
mysterious infection after undergoing cardiovascular surgery in
December 2011 at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak.
Beaumont’s infection control
team, under Jeffrey Band, M.D.,
identified a fivefold increase in patients testing positive for pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can
cause pneumonia and urinary tract
and blood infections.
So far, 16 patients had become
sick.
What was the source of the infection? No one had a clue.
Band, a former investigator and
head of the special pathogens
branch at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, challenged his personally recruited 15member team to solve the mystery
before more patients became sick or
worse.
Band, who has led Beaumont’s
epidemiology department since
1983, earlier in his career had
helped solve the mysterious Legionnaire’s disease in 1976 and in
1981 won a commendation medal
for his groundbreaking work in
identifying toxic shock syndrome
in menstruating women.
“The process of problem-solving
JOHN SOBCZAK
Jeffrey Band and his team at Beaumont tracked the source of a life-threatening infection to a brand of ultrasound gel.
and becoming a medical detective
was a natural to me,” said Band, a
Detroit native who received his
medical degree in 1973 from the University of Michigan Medical School.
Band’s team, which includes infectious-disease specialist Paul
Chittick, M.D., quickly determined
that all patients had respiratory
tract infections, all were in the same
post-operative unit, and all had undergone cardiovascular surgery.
The infected patients also had a
procedure performed during surgery called an intraoperative transesophageal echocardiogram. The
procedure consists of inserting an
ultrasound probe into a patient’s
throat and esophagus, creating an
image of the heart for the surgeon.
“We found the longer the probe
was in place, the more the chance
of infection,” Band said.
But tests showed all ultrasound
devices
were
negative
for
pseudomonas. It had to be the ultrasound gel, he concluded.
“We got rid of all the gels, and almost immediately we had no cases,” said Band, noting that it took a
brief three weeks to complete the
investigation.
Culture tests on the gels came
back positive for pseudomonas
and were confirmed by DNA fingerprinting to be the strain found
in patients.
“The unopened gels had the
same DNA molecular type” as
found in the patients, thereby providing a link to the manufacturer
of the gel, he said.
Band already had alerted the
CDC, Michigan Department of Community Health and U.S. Food and Drug
Administration. Warnings were
quickly posted on the CDC’s Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report — the “bible for chiefs like
me,” Band said.
The FDA shut down the gel manufacturing plant in April 2012 and
issued its own safety warning not
to use the product. The plant remains closed, Band said.
“I have tremendous pride and
satisfaction that we were the only
institution (in the U.S.) that identified this as a problem,” Band said.
“This is because of the way we conduct our comprehensive surveillance.
“In getting this removed, it really
did result in saving many patients’
lives, because if you do develop
pneumonia from (the pseudomonas), it is a life-threatening
event with a very high morbidity
and mortality rate.”
Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325,
W I N N E R : A L L I E D H E A LT H
Model of care for pre-hospice patients finds success
Dottie Deremo
President and CEO
Hospice of Michigan
Detroit
When Dottie Deremo joined Detroit-based Hospice of Michigan as
its top executive 15 years ago, she
was tasked with meshing the operations of the 10 hospices that had
merged to create the organization.
She set to work establishing a
single standard of quality care,
just-in-time pharmaceutical delivery and inventory systems and an
online university to educate hospice staff.
She also put in place a common
electronic medical record system
for the hospices, a decade before
federal health care reform tied financial incentives to adoption of
the systems.
Under her direction, Hospice of
Michigan developed its own resource and education center to provide education and research and to
test innovations in end-of-life care.
In 2001, Hospice of Michigan began testing a model that provided
wraparound services to seriously
ill people who had 18-24 months
left to live but were not yet eligible
for hospice care.
Those services included regular
physical, emotional and social support to the family caregiver during
the day, round-the-clock tele-support with a nurse, care coordination and at-home crisis care.
The idea was to improve the patients’ quality of life, while cutting
costs by minimizing the time they
spent in emergency rooms or hospitals and rehabilitation or longterm care units.
Hospice of Michigan’s testing
led it to launch a wholly owned
subsidiary, @HOMe Support.
Its clients include Genesys ACO,
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan,
Blue Care Network, Health Alliance
Plan, HealthPlus of Michigan and Detroit Medical Center’s Michigan Pioneer ACO.
The concept of providing wraparound services to pre-hospice, seriously ill patients is paying off.
One example: Hospice of Michigan mined Michigan Pioneer
ACO’s raw claims data to find the 5
percent of its Medicare population
that was accounting for half of its
total Medicare costs, Deremo said.
It began providing services to
the first patient from that 5 percent
group in April 2012. Between then
and the end of last year, @HOMe
Support provided services for an
average of 150 patients per day and
270 by the end of the year.
Its wraparound services decreased ER visits for that population by 9 percent during that eightmonth period, hospital admissions
by 33 percent, hospital readmissions by 57 percent, and it hit all of
its quality markers.
Its overall patient and family satisfaction was 4.86 on a 5 scale, Deremo said. And it spurred $3.5 million
in related savings for Michigan Pioneer ACO, reducing health care
costs by 30 percent or more for that
5 percent cohort of patients.
@HOMe Support makes revenue
based on the cost savings per patient when compared to the patient’s costs the 12 months before
services began.
Hospice of Michigan began offering a franchise-like option for
@Home Support in November and
today is talking with 54 home caregivers, health systems and health
plans and hospices from around
the country who are interested in
delivering services according to
its model, Deremo said.
Under her direction, Hospice of
Michigan also developed what it
ARA HOWRANI
Dottie Deremo’s list of accomplishments at Hospice of Michigan include an
electronic medical record system, a subsidiary for pre-hospice care, and an app
that alerts family members when a nurse, doctor or staffer visits a client.
believes is a first: a mobile application called “HOM Cares,” which
sends alerts to a client’s family
members when a nurse, doctor or
other staffer visits that client.
The alert includes the staff
member’s name and a little background on them, along with the
date, duration and reason for their
visit with a client, information
about the caregiving process and
what to expect as the patient be-
comes more ill.
Hospice of Michigan plans to license the app nationally, likely
this fall, Deremo said, providing
not only a new revenue stream to
support its mission, “but more importantly ... a way of connecting
families that are spread across the
country.”
Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694,
[email protected]. Twitter: @sherriwelch 1
355 BCBSM* PCMH
Designated Physicians
Thank you for your commitment and dedication to improving health care delivery and patient care quality.
Marie Abiragi, MD
Nelia Afonso, MD
Kevin Agrest, DO
Dennis Ainhorn, MD
Nancy Ajemian, MD
Roger Ajluni, MD
Zulekha Ali, MD
Mark Alrais, MD
Zeena Al-Rufaie, MD
Hannan Alsahlani, DO
Robert Amsler, DO
Momtaz Anar, MD
Steven Antone, MD
Marc Arens, DO
George Artzberger, DO
Sami Asmar, MD
Ryan Barish, MD
Bradley Barnes, MD
Thomas Barriger, MD
James Bauer, MD
Larry Baylis, DO
Harjaneet Bedi, MD
Muna Beeai, MD
Susan Bellefleur, MD
Ronald Bellisario, MD
Stacey Beltz, DO
Thomas Bering, MD
Lalitha Bhogineni, MD
Michelle Biddinger, MD
Bret Bielawski, DO
Herminia Bierema, MD
John Blanchard, MD
Marshall Blondy, MD
George Blum, MD
Robert Blum, DO
Linda Bolton, MD
John Bonema, MD
William Bowman, MD
James Bragman, DO
Joel Buchanan, MD
Anne Butry-Bluj, MD
Raymond Buzenski, MD
Annetta Byrne, MD
John Byrne, MD
John Calado, DO
David Calton, MD
Sumner Camisa, MD
Alan Carbajo, Sr, MD
Maria Cardozo, MD
Tamara Carlin, MD
Avinash Chawla, MD
Saif Cheema, MD
Keith Christmon, MD
Sarah Clune, DO
Jennifer Cohen, MD
Kimberlee Coleman, MD
Erin Considine, MD
Richard Cooke, MD
Jonathan Copeland, MD
Genevieve Crandall, MD
Nancy Crossley, MD
Kim Dang-Schlabach, DO
Renda Dawud, MD
Jeffrey Deitch, DO
Ernestina Delos Santos Mac, MD
Mark Deprez, MD
Michael Dionne, MD
John Dorsey, MD
Hina Doshi, MD
Jaime Dreyer-Laezza, MD
Jennifer Driker, MD, MPH
Stephen Driker, MD
Janet Dubeck, MD
Elizabeth Dubina, MD
Erin Duchan, MD
Amy Dunn, MD
Jay Eastman, MD
Brandy Eberhardt, DO
Margaret Eckel, DO
Derek Einhorn, MD
Luke Elliott, MD
Rhonda Elton, MD
Aimee Espinosa, MD
Rolando Estupigan, DO
Matthew Ewald, MD
Seth Faber, MD
Samuel Fawaz, MD
Florante Fermil, MD
Lori Finn, MD
Jeffrey Fisher, MD
Laurie Fisher, MD
Sumit Fogla, MD
Jenny Folcik-Gerken, MD
Kumudinie Fonseka, MD
Seth Forman, MD
Neil Fraser, MD
Brent Fuller, MD
Mala Gaind, MD
Stephanie Galdes, DO
Denise Gavorin, DO
Mara Geiger, MD
Sharon Geimer, MD
Habib Gennaoui, MD
Vasilios Gikas, DO
Michael Gilbert, MD
Steven Glickfield, DO
James Golden, MD
Sandra Golden, MD
Umesh Gowda, MD
Glenn Gradis, DO
Steven Grant, MD
Anna Groebe, DO
Amber Gruber, DO
Tristan Guevara, DO
Ceres Guzman-Morales, MD
Corey Haber, DO
John Habicht, MD
Todd Hachigian, MD
Jennifer Haener, DO
Lisa Hall, MD
Jeffrey Haller, MD
Nada Hana, MD
Wafaa Hanna, MD
Majda Hannish, MD
Charles Hartley, MD
Kristen Herman, MD
Charles Heth, DO
Jennifer Hichme, MD
Donna Hoban, MD
Stephen Hoerler, MD
Gary Hollander, DO
David Hug, MD
Russell Hug, MD
Robin Hugen, MD
Neil Jaddou, MD
J Mark Joliat, MD
Johnathan Joliat, MD
Elizabeth Joslin, MD
Jyothi Kadambi, MD
Melinda Kakish, MD
Norman Kakos, MD
Hanit Kalo, MD
Ehud Kapen, MD
Bridget Karle, MD
Christine Karle, DO
Carl Karoub, MD
Frederick Karoub, MD
Stacey Kastl, MD
Lakshmi Kaza, MD
Lucia Kemennu, MD
Colleen Kennedy, DO
Dana Kerges, MD
Urmilla Khilanani, MD
Shree Kilaru, DO
Paula Kim, MD
Xandrea Kirtley, MD
Lisa Klein, MD
Jeffrey Klein, MD
Walter Klimkowski, MD
James Kohlenberg, MD
Karl Kolbe, MD
Myra Kolin, MD
Marcus Koss, MD
Steven Kotsonis, DO
Kimberly Koval, MD
Jeffrey Kraft, DO
Anna Kulczycki-Mittag, MD
Kenneth Kulik, MD
Susan Lagrou, MD
Deborah Lambrecht, MD
Gary Langnas, DO
Zinaida Laska-Sobol, MD
Jonathan Lauter, MD
Carrie Leff, DO
Danielle Leskie, MD
Thomas Li, MD
David Lick, MD
Charles Line, MD
Katherine Ling-McGeorge, MD
Susan Little-Jones, MD
Karen Lockwood, MD
Michael Lumberg, MD
Denise Mackey, MD
Andrew Madak, DO
Michael Maddens, MD
Nicole Mahoney, MD
Vikram Mali, MD
Nancy Mannisto, MD
Michael Margolis, MD
Steven Margolis, MD
George Maristela, MD
Norman Markowitz, MD
Nicolas Marsheh, MD
Frank Martilotti, MD
Lillian Marzouq, MD
Tamer Massarani, MD
Joseph Masternick, DO
Ami Mavani, MD
Steven McClelland, MD
Keith McKenzie, MD
Sharon McManus, DO
Sheila Meftah, MD
Abdel-Wahab Meri, MD
Demetrios Mermiges, MD
Bradford Merrelli, MD
Leia Meyers, MD
Kenneth Meyers, DO
Christopher Milback, MD
Beth Miral, MD
Paul Misch, MD
Jay Mitchell, MD
Pratibha Modi, MD
Syed Mohiuddin, MD
Gregory Montpetit, MD
Donald Moore, MD
Craig Mueller, MD
Elie Mulhem, MD
Peter Muller, MD
Alina Murariu-Dobrin, MD
Beth Nadis, MD
Manhal Naoumi, MD
Keisha Nelson, MD
Michael Nichols, MD
Carolyn Nine, MD
Kathleen Norton, MD
Kevin Nurmi, MD
David Obudzinski, MD
Andrew Oleszkowicz, MD
Reginald O’Neal, DO
Anna Maria Oniciu, MD
Silvia Operti-Considine, MD
Kelly Ortwine, MD
Mary O’Shea, MD
Neethi Patel, DO
Parag Patel, MD
Prameela Patel, MD
Zoy Patouhas, MD
Lowell Paul, MD
David Pawlowski, DO
Renee Paye, MD
Nicole Peltz, DO
Suzanne Peplinski, DO
Ratnavali Perla, MD
Sasenarine Persaud, MD
Susan Pikal, MD
Susanna Pinelis, MD
Srilakshmi Pinnamaraju, MD
Pamela Pirzada, DO
Mirjana Popovic, MD
George Popp, MD
Sangita Pradhan, MD
Julie Price, MD
Jennifer Prohow, DO
Jeffrey Provizer, DO
J Patrick Quigley, MD
Michael Raad, DO
Sumitra Raam, MD
Jennifer Raffin, MD
S Bhimsen Rao, MD
Aya Rifai, MD
Trevor Ripley, MD
Aleida Rivera, MD
Nabil Rizk, MD
William Rizzo, MD
Jeffrey Rochlen, MD
David Rodgers, MD
Peter Rodin, DO
Kathleen Rollinger, DO
Suzanne Romadan, MD
Robert Roman, MD
James Rosbolt, DO
Arthur Rose, MD
Daniel Rosenberg, MD
Herbert Roth, Sr, MD
Marlene Roth, MD
Ronald Rothenberg, DO
Sulafa Roumayah-Elia, MD
Fiona Rubenstein, MD
Veena Sabharwal, MD
Bradley Sabin, MD
Neda Saker, MD
Camelia Salanta, MD
Robin Samyn, MD
Jay Sandberg, DO
Carl Sarnacki, MD
Micah Scharer, DO
Steven Schlabach, DO
Daniel Schnaar, MD
Thomas Schnur, MD
Siegfried Schweighofer, MD
Niraj Shah, MD
Kalpana Shah, MD
Lalit Shah, MD
Rita Sharma, MD
Wissam Shaya, MD
Teri Shermetaro, DO
Christa Shilling, MD
Nidhi Shishu, MD
Michael Simpson, MD
Mark Sinkoff, MD
Joseph Skoney, MD
Katherine Sloan, DO
Jami Small, MD
Kamilia Snyder, MD
Prakash Soares, MD
Lisa Speck, MD
Daniel Stachelski, MD
Mary Steele, MD
Paul Steffan, MD
Stuart Stoller, DO
Anna Strumba, MD
Jennifer Supol, DO
Ramkrishna Surendran, MD
Bindu Suresh, MD
Mary Sue Sylwestrzak, MD
Shawn Syron, MD
Jason Talbert, MD
Theodore Tangalos, MD
Steven Thibault, MD
Timothy Tinetti, MD
Keith Tom, DO
Kien Tran, DO
Michael Treblin, MD
Jennifer Tucciarone, MD
William Tuuri, MD
Rachael Ustruck, DO
Anuradha Vempati, MD
Salvatore Ventimiglia, MD
John Vollmer, MD
Jennifer Wang, MD
Ping Wang, MD
LoriAnn Washe, MD
Rebecca Wasvary, MD
Rebecca Wegner, MD
Richard Weiermiller, Jr, MD
Lee Weinstein, MD
Marc Weisman, DO
Christopher Wilhelm, MD
Michael Williams, MD
Stephen Williams, MD
Sarah Wilson, MD
Leanne Wisniewski, DO
Stacey Wittenberg, MD
Kenneth Wolok, DO
Maria Wozniak, MD
Kwan Yee, MD
Joyce Yeghissian, DO
Cordell Yoder, MD
Amy Youn, MD
Ghazala Zafar, MD
Alan Zakaria, DO
Nahed Zakaria, MD
Megan Zawaideh, DO
Shoshan Zolo, MD
Erik Zuckerberg, MD
Congratulations on earning this designation and your outstanding performance!
* Blue Cross ® Blue Shield ® of Michigan is a nonprofit corporation and an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
20130812-NEWS--0016-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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11:12 AM
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August 12, 2013
Health Care
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to book our bus.
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WINNER: TRUSTEE
St. John trustee’s biggest challenge:
Merger that formed Ascension Health
Sister Xavier Balance
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Board member on the continuum-ofcare and quality committees,
St. John Providence Health System,
Warren
After 56 years as a member of the
Daughters of Charity congregation, a
hospital administrator, a board
chairman and a trustee, Sister
Xavier Balance still works 40-hour
weeks and has an office at St. John
Providence Hospital in Southfield.
Known for her sense of justice
and sense of humor, Balance has
been a lifelong advocate for the
poor and vulnerable. She helped
build Providence’s community outreach and was an early proponent
and key driver in helping found
Providence Park Hospital in Novi.
“I was president of Providence
Hospital from 1975 to 1986, and we
saw population beginning to move
out to South Lyon and Novi,” Balance said. “Our team was very entrepreneurial, and we began staking out the hospital site in the 1980s.
“We started out with three trailers in Novi.”
In 2008, St. John Providence Health
System opened the $229 million,
100-bed Providence Park Hospital.
Balance’s biggest challenge as a
trustee came in 1999 when the
Daughters of Charity National Health
System merged with the Sisters of
St. Joseph Health System to form As-
LARRY PEPLIN
Sister Xavier Balance’s many years of experience as a nurse and hospital
administrator has proven beneficial in her helping improve patient care at St.
John Providence Health System.
cension Health. Ascension now operates 113 hospitals in 22 states, including 12 in Michigan.
“It was an interesting experience
to merge two cultures,” said Balance, who at the time was vice
chairman of the Daughters of Charity system. “The only place where
the two cultures met was in Southeast Michigan when Providence
Hospital and St. John Hospital
merged” into one system. One of
her most gratifying assignments as
a trustee has been the continuing
oversight of St. John Providence,
the five-hospital system.
“We (Providence Hospital) were
the flagship in the east region of
the Daughters. It was extremely
hard to come together because
most of the leadership for the new
system came out of the old St. John
Hospital,” she said. “We felt disenfranchised and left out.
“It has been a journey to create
system-ness, and there is still
some angst there.”
Currently, Balance is a member
of St. John’s quality committee and
15-member
continuum-of-care
board. Her experience as a nurse
and hospital administrator has
proved valuable to helping the system improve patient care across all
settings.
“We need to improve care after
patients leave us (at the hospital)
and they are taken care of in the
ambulatory, home health and hospice” settings, said Balance, who
now is a special adviser to Michael
Wiemann, president of Providence
Hospital and executive vice president of the western region of St.
John Providence.
“Our bigger plan is to organize
our system in a network fashion,”
Balance said. “We can’t treat patients in silos anymore. We are in
the population health business
now. We are in the process of developing this, keeping patients
well and out of the hospital.”
Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325,
HONORABLE MENTION: TRUSTEE
Jack Billi
What would a true hero do?
Put the mission and
the people first.
Congratulations to Dottie Deremo, one of
Detroit’s
Healthcare Heroes.
Congratulations to Dottie Deremo, president and CEO of Hospice of Michigan,
for being honored as one of Crain’s 2013 Healthcare Heroes.
Dottie knows that it’s the mission that matters.
And the people who deliver on the mission.
And the people whose lives are made better because of the mission.
We are proud of what we do at Hospice of Michigan,
and we are proud of our leader.
888-247-5701 | www.hom.org
Founder
Center for Healthcare Research
& Transformation
Ann Arbor
Seven years ago, Jack Billi led
the creation of the Ann Arborbased Center for
Healthcare Research & Transformation, which
aims to improve
health care delivery to Michigan residents.
Billi
has
served as either
chairman
or
Billi
vice chairman
of the board since the founding of
the center, a research and policy
partnership between the University
of Michigan Health System and Blue
Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
After working for the UM
Health System for 36 years, Billi
has seen a change in leadership
philosophy.
“There is less ‘the leader has all
the right answers’ mindset and
more local problem-solving and decision-making,” he said. “More
and more, leaders realize they
shouldn’t just jump to solutions.
More often, I hear them asking
what we know about the problem
and its root causes. This is a huge
and positive shift.”
Billi also leads UM’s Michigan
Quality System, which has trained
more than 4,000 nurses, physicians
and staff members in “lean thinking” — an approach that focuses
on identifying and removing barriers to delivering efficient care.
“Although lean thinking was
made famous in other industries,
we desperately need this form of
root-cause scientific problem-solving in health care,” he said.
Billi said that mindset helped reduce the length of stay and shortened the time to angioplasty for
heart attack patients.
Billi also is on the board of the
Michigan State Medical Society,
Washtenaw County Medical Society,
Michigan Quality Improvement Consortium and Greater Detroit Area
Health Council.
— Ross Benes
20130812-NEWS--0017-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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3:51 PM
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August 12, 2013
Page 17
Health Care
Need a
New Bank?
Blue Cross touts $155 million in
savings with medical home project
BY JAY GREENE
David Share, M.D., senior vice
president of value partnerships at
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan,
has been shepherding the Blues’
patient-centered medical home
project during its five years of existence.
With more than 3,000 physicians
and 994 groups participating in
Michigan, Share has slowly seen
physicians move from skepticism
to acceptance and advocacy, to patient care improvements and now
to real cost savings.
“We always had some data that
medical homes are working, but
now we have strong evidence” of
cost and quality savings, Share said.
During the first three years of
the program, Blue Cross has documented $155 million in savings by
avoiding hospital admissions and
readmissions, emergency department visits, and through increased
generic drug use and less reliance
on expensive radiologic studies,
according to a study in the July 5
Health Services Research Journal.
Share said preliminary data
show that the medical home project
saved $155 million in 2012 alone, increasing the savings to $310 million. Some 2 million patients are
participating through their primary care physicians, Blue Cross said.
Each year, said Share, as physicians added preventive and evaluative services and became more
sophisticated in monitoring and
engaging patients, savings have
increased.
For example, savings totaled
$14.9 million from July 2008 to July
2009, $47.3 million in July 2009July 2010 and $92.9 million from
July 2010 to July 2011, the study
found. For adults, the monthly savings amounted to $26.37 of medical
costs per member.
A patient-centered medical
home is a physician-office care
team, led by a primary care physician, that coordinates care across
all settings, focusing on wellness,
had
“ We always
some
data that
medical
homes are
working,
but now
we have strong
evidence.
”
David Share, Blue Cross Blue Shield
disease management and patients’
personal health goals.
Using University of Michigan researchers, the Blue Cross study is
the first major look at the financial
savings from the use of patientcentered medical homes by primary care physicians. Blue Cross
sponsors the nation’s largest patient home project.
“The problem with the past studies, which have been much smaller
in scale, is they aren’t as robust as
ours,” Share said. “We have spent
quite a few years in helping these
practices implement these homes.
It takes time to see the effects.”
Share said physicians might put
a medical home component in
place — a disease registry or
evening hour appointments — and
the results might not appear until
the second year.
“Our study has shown steady
improvement from year to year.
Physicians, nurses and staff need
time to ingrain them into the practices,” he said.
While medical homes reduced
costs dramatically for adult patients, Share said, there was no
change in costs for pediatric patients.
Overall, however, medical homes
increased preventive quality scores
CON Roundup
The following are selected filings from the month of June.
Letters of intent
Shelby Crossing Health Campus,
Shelby Township: Lease nursing
home facility for 10 years with two
renewable five-year extensions;
$16.3 million.
Applications received
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Center,
Hamtramck: Acquire 27 beds
from St. Anne’s Convalescent Center and enter new lease for initial
five-year term with five five-year
renewal options for a total of 30
years; $29.6 million.
Select Specialty Hospital-Downriver, Taylor: Began operations of 35bed long-term acute care hospital
that will be hosted within Henry Ford
Wyandotte Hospital; $8.7 million.
Decisions
William Beaumont Hospital,
Royal Oak: Construct four-story
north pavilion emergency department; $140 million. Approved.
Oakland Health Campus, Novi:
Build single-story 60-bed nursing
home facility; $4.7 million. Denied.
Executive Ambulatory Surgical
Center, Dearborn: Renovating freestanding surgical outpatient facility; $6 million. Approved.
United Diagnostics, Rochester
Hills: Host new mobile CT scanner
network for five-year agreement;
$5.6 million. Approved.
Harbor Oaks Hospital, New Baltimore: Add 12 adult psychiatric
beds to current campus; $1.9 million. Approved.
— Ross Benes
for children by 12.2 percent.
Aside from financial gains, Blue
Cross continued to document higher quality scores within the practices but also compared with nonmedical home physician groups.
Last year, Blue Cross found
higher quality scores in a number
of other areas.
In comparing medical home-designated doctors with nondesignated doctors within Blue Cross’
Physician Group Incentive Program, medical home doctors in
2012-2013 have:
A 19.1 percent lower rate of
adult hospital discharges for certain “ambulatory care sensitive”
conditions that include gastroenteritis, angina, pneumonia, asthma, congestive heart failure, hypertension and diabetes.
Medical home physicians help
patients avoid admissions by
evening appointments, weekend
and same-day appointments.
An 8.8 percent lower rate of
adult emergency department visits.
A 7.3 percent lower rate of
adult high-tech radiology usage
than other non-designated primary care physicians.
For children under age 17, a
17.7 percent lower rate of ER visits.
Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325,
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20130812-NEWS--0019-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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3:53 PM
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August 12, 2013
Page 19
PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK
Contact Mary
Kramer at
mkramer
@crain.com.
CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS
Mary Kramer
Detroit’s loss
was Three
Rivers’ gain
Tiny Three Rivers, south of
Kalamazoo, is enjoying a boom from the
expansion of its
American Axle &
Manufacturing
Holdings Inc.
plant: $100 million
and 500 more jobs
by the end of this
year, on top of
more than $50
million and 300
jobs in 2012. The
investments
Dauch
solidify American
Axle’s status as the largest employer
in St. Joseph County, population
61,000. The investments also
validate the 2008 vote by members of
the plant’s UAW local to accept
concessions American Axle said it
needed to compete globally.
Other locals rejected the
concessions. Those plants are now
closed; American Axle plans to raze
its shuttered complex in Detroit and
Hamtramck.
Dick Dauch — the guy most
responsible for creating American Axle
and leading it through the downturn
and closing those plants — died Aug.
2, just hours after making one last
journey to the Detroit headquarters for
a board of directors meeting. He was
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer
soon after the board appointed his
son David CEO last September.
Dauch’s passing led Crain’s to do
something we have never done before:
We turned off the ability to post
comments on our online story of his
passing. The vitriol of former employees
from the now-shuttered plants was off
the charts. And inexcusable. A public
Facebook page was even worse.
But he had a couple of defenders:
“Who MADE you work for him?” asked
one. “I applied for his company; he
didn’t come looking for me.”
Dauch followed a path to save the
company he co-founded. Ironically, the
concessions came just a few months
before General Motors Co. and Chrysler
Group LLC would seek two-tier wage
structures coming out of bankruptcy.
Last week, hundreds of people stood
as long as two hours at a Royal Oak
funeral home to pay respects to
Dauch’s widow, Sandy, and the
couple’s adult children. Hundreds
attended the service, including
luminaries such as Mitch Daniels, exIndiana governor and now president of
Dauch’s alma mater, Purdue
University, where Dauch played football
and studied industrial management.
Dauch had always been a vocal
champion of keeping manufacturing in
the United States. But he could not
control national industrial policy — or
lack of it. Nor could he control fair
trade policies around the globe.
But he could control where the
company invested. And that’s good
news for Three Rivers.
Rising
from the
ashes
Businesses sprout
to recycle wood from
trees killed by
emerald ash borer
This wall at Rockford Construction in Grand
Rapids is made from the wood of ash trees
that were killed by the emerald ash borer.
A tree recycling program saved them from
becoming a pile of wood chips.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ROCKFORD CONSTRUCTION CO. INC.
it also may be bringing a big gang to the party.
Kent and nearby Ottawa, Allegan and
Muskegon counties have 272 companies in the
forest products industry, compared with
about 361 companies in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties, according to a
Michigan Department of Natural Resources directory. And those companies are learning how
to prosper from the sale of rescued wood.
BY MATTHEW GRYCZAN
I
nside the new headquarters of Rockford
Construction Co. Inc. in Grand Rapids, a
wall of beautifully stained and carefully
arranged ash planks curves gracefully
and rises three stories to the ceiling, filling the building’s atrium with warmth.
It represents tree recycling, or
“treecycling,” at its best, as the ash
trees used to make the wall were killed
prematurely by the emerald ash borer
in Kent County and were destined to be
ground into chips for burial in dumps.
Instead, a supply chain of small businesses within a 25-mile radius of Grand
Rapids rescued the logs from what
would have been an ignominious end.
Conservation advocates nationwide cite
Michigan as a leading example of how profitable businesses can be built on the rescue of
trees in urban settings that need to be removed
because of disease, infestation, storm damage
or interference with construction.
“Michigan is at the head of the line in urban harvesting,” said Sam Sherrill, an author and advocate who has organized conferences in San Francisco and Asheville, N.C.,
Why chop more?
JON BROUWER
Emerald ash borers leave these trails of
destruction just under the bark of ash trees,
where they girdle the layer that transports
nutrients between leaves and roots.
on the urban harvesting of trees.
“California does this extensively, but what
is lacking in California that exists in Michigan and what makes Michigan unique is organization. The businesses in California simply don’t know about one another.”
Because the emerald ash borer — the worst
destructive forest pest ever seen in North
America — was first discovered in metro Detroit and Windsor in 2002, Southeast Michigan led the charge in developing marketplaces for rescued lumber and a supply
network of sawmills, kilns and lumber mills.
Although West Michigan may be a bit late,
Hypermarket giant Meijer Inc. is gearing up a
larger demonstration of what can happen when
the skills of several companies converge.
In renovating its Walker headquarters,
Meijer has ordered five times the amount of
rescued ash lumber that Rockford Construction used in its 4,500-square-foot atrium wall
and flooring. Rockford carpenters who came
up with a way to form the radius of the wall,
and stain and arrange wood in a pattern that
appears random, now will turn their attention to the Meijer project.
Flush with success in supplying Rockford
and Meijer, TonTin Lumber Co. in Grand
Rapids will build a saw that can handle logs
larger than 5 feet in diameter that are harvested in urban settings.
See Ash, Page 20
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August 12, 2013
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PHOTOS BY JON BROUWER
Owner Daryl Weaver (right) and Nick Kaleefey of TonTin Lumber Co. stand by a
truckload of ash wood that they cut and is off to be kiln-dried.
The 2013 Crain’s House Party events in Grand Rapids on Aug. 28 and Detroit
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■ From Page 19
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“We’ll be working on it this winter, and it will be big enough to cut
slabs that can be used for entire
tabletops,” said TonTin’s owner,
Daryl Weaver. “Ash is stunningly
beautiful wood and a real viable
product.
“I couldn’t stand to see that kind
of wood go to waste. And now we
do all species of wood that are cut
in the city: elm, oak, maple, walnut
as well as ash.”
That kind of talk thrills Jessica
Simons.
“This being Michigan, people
tend to think of forests as something
being up north —
forestry is a business that happens up north,”
said Simons, a
consultant who
helped organize
the Urbanwood
Project for Recycle Ann Arbor. “I
don’t think peoSimons
ple tend to think
of themselves as living within
forests, yet we do.
“What the emerald ash borer did
was to bring a forest problem into
cities and force them to acknowledge that they live within forests.
And that raised the question: Are
these trees a waste to be disposed
of or a resource?”
To help people view Southeast
Michigan as a hub for sustainable
forestry, the Urbanwood Project
and Recycle Ann Arbor will host a
Sawmill Day on Saturday in Ann
Arbor.
sources specialist with the Southeast Michigan Resource Conservation
and Development Council in Ann Arbor. “It’s taking trees that were cut
out for another reason — trees that
were thought of as waste — and
finding ways for those trees to be
used at their highest added value.”
Urban logging always will be a
niche opportunity in Michigan for
small businesses because of various factors. Trees growing in a
community are not groomed for
the large-scale harvesting that forest product giants such as Weyerhaeuser Co. and Potlatch Corp. practice in northern Michigan. Rather,
they spread out throughout city
streets in places that may make
them hard to reach.
Quantities of trees that can be
harvested in cities are unpredictable, and the trees themselves
can be studded with nails from
garage sale signs or even something as large as an ax head, said
Cities: A lumbering giant
A study done by Michigan State
University estimated that urban
communities throughout the state
generate a total of more than 73 million board feet of lumber from dead
and dying trees annually. But even
with that ready supply of trees for
lumber, city dwellers needn’t worry about lumberjacks and log skidders running through their neighborhoods anytime soon.
“It is far more like recycling
than it is logging,” said Simons,
who also serves as a natural re-
Kim Dalenburg of TonTin Lumber Co. uses a custom
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TonTin’s Weaver. Those metal
contaminants can wreck the expensive circular saw blades that
sawmills generally use.
TonTin got around the problem
by using inexpensive band saw
blades in its sawing operation of
butt logs — basically the trunk of
the tree before it extends its limbs.
TonTin, established in 1983, employs a dozen people primarily as a
provider of custom millwork. It got
into the business of rescuing urban
trees and sawing its own slabs
strictly by chance, Weaver said.
The company holding the contract
with the city of Grand Rapids for
tree removal needed a place to park
its trucks, and it asked TonTin
whether the vehicles could be located on its lot.
Weaver inquired about what the
tree service did with the butt logs,
and the response was “grind them
up and throw them in the dump.”
In a barter arrangement, TonTin
now picks up the logs on location
in exchange for free parking.
On the plus side of urban harvesting, TonTin doesn’t need the gigantic equipment and workers’ compensation insurance that forest
product companies require because
the trees are already cut and accessible by roadside pickup, Weaver
said. The company processes 250300 logs a year.
From log to lumber
Cutting the logs into slabs is
only the first step in what can be
an involved process to get a finished wood product.
Hardwood tree slabs cut by TonTin are taken to a kiln where they
are dried for about a month until
the moisture content reaches less
than 6 percent, because the lumber
will shrink and crack without such
treatment. The dried slabs are then
cut into dimensional lumber and
milled and sanded. TonTin uses a
molder machine to mill in the
tongue and groove on the edges of
planks destined for work such as
Rockford Construction’s headquarters.
What the
“
emerald ash borer
did was to bring a
forest problem into
cities and force them
to acknowledge that
they live within
forests.
”
Jessica Simons, Urbanwood Project
The rescued ash lumber may cost
only about 10 percent more than
normally harvested ash lumber for
small jobs. On larger jobs, such as
Rockford Construction, the material cost is about the same.
George Colvin Jr., a project superintendent for Rockford Construction, said his company was
examining different ways to incorporate natural wood into the headquarters, which opened in midJuly, and hit upon using either
rescued wood or wood reclaimed
from old barns or factories.
With the rescued ash, “each
piece was individually stained to
show our workmanship, then randomly selected to create a wall
with character,” Colvin said. “We
thought it would be a better use
than them just becoming pallets.”
Grand Rapids forester Tyler
Stevenson said the city has been
spending about $250,000 a year
since 2011 to remove ash trees,
which are prized in communities
as being hardy and tolerant of
harsh street conditions such as
compacted soils, salt and drought.
Ironically, they were often used as
a replacement for elms killed by the
Dutch elm disease.
The city has taken out about 3,600
infested ash trees since the removal
program was launched in 2007, and
about 6,600 ash trees still remain on
See Ash, Page 22
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es a custom-built saw to square an ash log at the Grand Rapids plant.
20130812-NEWS--0020,0021,0022-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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August 12, 2013
Ash: Project targets urban trees
■ From Page 21
city streets and in parks, Stevenson
said. Grand Rapids chemically
treated about 650 ash trees last year
as part of its effort to preserve 1,400
ash trees on streets and in parks. Insecticide is injected into soil or
sprayed on tree trunks annually or
every other year, so treatments can
be relatively expensive.
Simons said the emerald ash
borer — a beetle that burrows underneath the bark and girdles the
layer of the tree that transports
nutrients between roots and leaves
— has killed tens of millions of ash
trees in Michigan. “It has, for the
most part, done its damage in
Southeast Michigan and moved
on,” he said. The insect is now
found in more than 20 states and
parts of eastern Canada.
“Like the elm and Dutch elm disease, this may not be the end of ash
trees,” Simons said. “But it’s the
end of ash trees as we previously
knew them.”
Even with the declining population of ash, the lessons learned
about how to recycle urban trees
are useful for any species of tree.
When the scourge of the emerald
ash borer appeared, the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded programs
in Southeast Michigan that eventually spawned the Urbanwood Project, a partnership between Recycle Ann Arbor and the Southeast
Michigan Resource Conservation
and Development Council in Ann
Arbor. The project brought together small sawmill owners and other
interested groups to collectively
market wood products from reclaimed urban trees.
The Urbanwood Project now has
marketplaces in Ann Arbor, Flint
and Haslett, near Lansing, where
customers can buy a variety of
woods native to Michigan.
“The marketplace grew very
slowly,” Simons said. “But what
started off as a single shelf of lumber is now about 2,000 square feet
of warehouse space (at Recycle
Ann Arbor) with about 30 different
wood species that can be found in
Southeast Michigan. None of the
wood came from more than a couple of counties away.”
Rescued wood: The kindest cut of all
The Traverwood branch of the
Ann Arbor District
Library
made rescued
ash wood a centerpiece of its
construction
when it was
built in 2008,
and
other
Michigan businesses such as
Urban Ashes in
Ann
Arbor
make picture
frames and othAsh logs milled into er home furthese moldings.
nishings from
the
rescued
wood. Furniture designer Paul
Hickman launched the company in
2008 specifically to use the wood.
Simons said only a small portion
of the state’s urban wood is being
recycled, but it’s a start.
“There is no possible way that
all of the logs are good for a
JON BROUWER
John Iden of TonTin Lumber Co. debarks planks of ash wood at the Grand Rapids
plant.
sawmill,” she said.
“Sometimes a tree has to be cut
up just to be removed in the first
place, but we do love to see woods
used at the highest and best value.
That could be fuel for the power
plant in Flint that runs off of wood
or mulch. Our stock policy is that
all of those uses are good.”
Sherrill, author of Harvesting
Urban Timber: A Complete Guide
and who runs a kiln for drying urban wood in Asheville, said businesses that trade in lumber from
urban settings understand that
the wood “has a story, it has an
origin. It has sentimental value to
the owners or to the community
that commercially sold lumber
doesn’t have.
“In addition to that value, it can
be sawn in a way that plays to its
grain and character in a way that a
fungible commercial product would
never be cut.”
For TonTin, the rescued wood
represents a business opportunity
for customers that want to preserve
the West Michigan connection.
“When you have a business, it always seems that you have to reinvent yourself,” Weaver said. “And
this has worked out well for us.”
Matthew Gryczan: (616) 916-8158,
[email protected].
Twitter:
@mattgryczan
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20130812-NEWS--0023-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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The Engineering Society of Detroit
Engineering & Technology Job Fair
Is fly-fishing the new golf?
Lodge reels in business clients
BY SHANE TRITSCH
CRAIN NEWS SERVICE
When he wants to mix business
with pleasure, Grant Brown doesn’t go in for golf, that time-honored
lubricant for sealing deals and
nurturing professional ties. And
Brown, a financial adviser, would
rather not ply his wealthy clients
over slabs of beef at a Chicago
steakhouse.
Instead, he likes to build business relationships on a trout
stream, fly-fishing.
“If I’m going to spend money entertaining my clients, I’d rather it
be for a day of fishing,” he said.
Besides his personal interest in
the sport — he is past president of
Chicago’s Elliott Donnelley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, a conservation group — Brown said, “If you
spend eight hours in a boat with
someone, you’re going to get to
know them, and they’re going to
get to know you. You’re going to
know if you like each other. You’re
going to learn about a guy’s temperament, the people he knows.”
When fishing for business,
Brown’s destination of choice is
the Muskegon River Lodge, north of
Grand Rapids near the town of
Newaygo. Originally a private residence, this under-the-radar lodge
is built of massive white pine logs
and perches on a forested ridge
with views of the Muskegon River.
Andy Kirkulis, owner of Chicago
Fly Fishing Outfitters, said the
Muskegon River Lodge is comparable to some of the fly-fishing
lodges he has visited in Montana
and other trout meccas out west.
Indeed, for people accustomed to
the high-end amenities of such
places, he said, the lodge is the
Midwest’s “premier venue for a
guided fly-fishing experience with
accommodations.”
The lodge’s co-owner, Steve
Kuieck of Grand Rapids, invested
in the property in 2008 with his
business partner, David DeVries, to
complement Riverquest Charters, the
fly-fishing guide service he founded
in 1996. The idea was to offer an intimate private retreat — only single
parties at a time, typically of two to
10 people, book the lodge — to
Riverquest’s fishing clients.
Because no staff works on the
premises, guests have the run of the
place. They can cook their own
meals in the well-appointed kitchen
or drive 10 minutes into town for
food. Or, for an additional charge,
they can have chefs prepare
gourmet breakfasts and dinners.
Although anyone can book the
lodge, most guests opt to go fishing. Riverquest’s guides pick them
up by boat after breakfast and return them after a day on the river.
In the early evening, the action
usually shifts to the property’s
recreational nerve center, a former
three-bay garage reconstituted as
the “Man Cave.” Although women
are equally welcome there, it contains all the accoutrements its
name suggests: overstuffed leather
furniture, a big-screen TV, a bar,
pool and foosball tables, a dart
board and well-stocked humidor.
A package that includes lodging,
PHOTO COURTESY OF STEVE KUIECK
The Muskegon River Lodge, north of
Grand Rapids, has become a favorite
spot for some businesspeople to mix
business and pleasure.
guides and meals cooked on-site
runs $445 per person a day for a
minimum of two people.
The lodge is busiest from October
to early December — when salmon
migrate into the river from Lake
Michigan to spawn, followed by
steelhead (rainbow trout that have
turned silvery after several years in
the lake and matured into big, fast,
powerful, coveted game fish) — and
from March through early May,
when the steelhead spawn.
John Rudolph, owner of two
manufacturing companies in
Grand Rapids, books the lodge
about three times a year to entertain customers and hold company
sales meetings. He finds the property’s privacy and layout suited
for work and play.
“I haven’t found another lodge
that has the layout to have an intimate, quiet setting, no one else
around, with the boardroom up
above and the ability to be downstairs (in the Man Cave) and hang
out as a larger group, with the
catered meals,” Rudolph said.
“You don’t have to go very far to
get into great fishing on the river,
and the guides do a really nice job”
— even for people who never have
fished before.
Although he has shot plenty of
rounds of golf, Rudolph finds the
leisurely rhythms of fishing more
conducive to mixing work and play.
“Golf appeals to a limited audience,” he said. “Fishing there is
open to anybody, male or female. It
allows us to bring anybody out
that wants to experience the outdoors, and between dinner and
hanging out in the lodge and fishing together, we have a chance to
really get to know (our customers)
and understand their business and
where we’re trying to go together.”
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August 12, 2013
Buyer sought for Titanic artifacts; one estimate: $189 million
BY MATTHEW GRYCZAN
COURTESY OF GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC MUSEUM
A hook and pulley from the Titanic are
part of the exhibit now showing at the
Grand Rapids Public Museum.
As they file past authentic
wreckage from one of the most
devastating maritime disasters in
history, visitors to the Titanic exhibit that showed at The Henry Ford
in Dearborn and is now at the
Grand Rapids Public Museum can’t
help wondering what a dish or
chandelier retrieved from that watery grave in the North Atlantic
would be worth.
Mark Sellers III wonders, too.
Only it’s more than idle curiosity.
Sellers, 45, a
successful restaurateur and
bar owner in
Grand Rapids,
has taken on the
task of finding a
buyer for about
5,500
artifacts
brought up by
deep-sea expediSellers
tions of the Titanic. As the unpaid chairman of
the board of Atlanta-based Premier
Exhibitions Inc. (Nasdaq: PRXI), part
of his job is to maximize sharehold-
er value by scouting for potential
buyers and assessing what they are
willing to pay for the one-of-a-kind
collection.
Very likely candidates include
the Mariners’ Museum in Newport
News, Va.; the Titanic Belfast museum in Northern Ireland; the Luxor
hotel in Las Vegas; or even
wealthy individuals such as “Titanic” movie director James
Cameron or philanthropist Phil
Anschutz. Or it could be a combination of any of the above.
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tiny piece of the Titanic collection
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now by purchasing a share of PRXI,
which traded in a range of $1.65 to
$1.75 last week. Depending on the
value that they assign to the Titanic
artifacts, some investors said the
stock may be worth more than $4.25
a share. But others have sold their
positions in the stock after years of
waiting for the deal to be done.
That has a whole host of people
— investment fund managers, executives, museum curators, attorneys — all asking the same thing:
What is it worth? The response
seems simple enough: It’s worth
what someone is willing to pay.
“I think one of the caveats of all
of this is the scientific and historical value of the Titanic assets,”
said Chris DeMuth Jr., the founder
and portfolio manager of Rangeley
Capital Partners in New Canaan,
Conn., who visited Sellers in
Grand Rapids to make an evaluation of PRXI stock as an investment. “That’s not my area of expertise, but I believe that people in
that area would say that it has
modest scientific and historical
value. We know the history, and
there isn’t anything untested.
“But the Titanic assets have immense cultural value. It may have
the same kind of cultural value of,
say, the cultural value in a baseball
stadium that is going to be razed.
There may be small historic or scientific value to the stadium, but the
cultural value can be immense —
perhaps worth more than when the
structure was built.”
Sellers has become a celebrity of
sorts in West Michigan for adding
to the nightlife of downtown
Grand Rapids over the past six
years by launching the HopCat,
Grand Rapids Brewing Co. and Stella’s Lounge from scratch with his
wife, Michele.
Along with another pub called
McFadden’s, all of which are owned
by the Sellers’ BarFly Ventures LLC,
the restaurants and bars are all
within a stone’s throw of one another in the city’s entertainment
district that surrounds Van Andel
Arena. In addition, BarFly Ventures expects to open at the end of
the month its first operation outside of Grand Rapids: the HopCat
East Lansing, in the hometown of
Michigan State University, where
Sellers received a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1998.
He credits the success of his
restaurants to keeping true to what
he himself likes and is good at.
“The reason that the HopCat concept works is that it’s a beer bar
started by beer lovers,” Sellers said.
“I started it with my wife, and we basically cater to people who love beer.
“We don’t try to compromise to
please everyone,” Sellers said of the
HopCat East Lansing, which Sellers says will feature the most beers
on tap of any in Michigan — 100.
When the East Lansing location
opens Aug. 22, HopCat and Short’s
Brewing Co. of Bellaire will try to
host the most brews on tap at one
bar from a single brewery.
“For most businesses, particularly a beer bar,” he said, “if you
try to please everyone, you can end
up pleasing no one.”
Sellers said he never aspired to
taking control of a company that
See Next Page
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From Previous Page
eventually would be declared savior-in-possession of actual artifacts from the Titanic — the ocean
liner that sank in 1912 in the North
Atlantic, taking more than 1,500
souls with it. He took a minor position in Premier Exhibitions several years ago as a manager of Sellers
Capital LLC, then waged and won a
proxy battle that allowed his fund
to install its own board of directors
and management after being disappointed by the progress of prior
management.
Since that time, the company has
improved financially. At the end of
fiscal 2013, which ended Feb. 28,
PRXI posted net income of $1.95 million, or 4 cents per share, on revenue of $39.5 million — the first profitable fiscal year of the past four.
That compares with a loss of $5.78
million, or 12 cents a share, on revenue of $31.7 million in fiscal 2012.
The primary revenue source of
PRXI is developing and operating
museum-quality exhibitions that
include self-operated venues in Atlanta; Las Vegas; Orlando, Fla.;
and one that opened at the beginning of August at the former
Movieland Wax Museum site in
the Buena Park, Calif.
Investors who analyze the valuation of PRXI stock generally discuss its breakup value by looking
at two aspects: the sale value of the
Titanic artifacts and the company’s ongoing exhibition business.
In a number of court documents
and a nonbinding letter of intent,
experts have bandied about the
$189 million figure for the artifacts.
One organization that may be involved in negotiations to buy the
Titanic artifacts would be the
Mariners’ Museum. In his comments to investors, PRXI President
and CEO Samuel Weiser referred to
a “consortium based in the Hampton Roads area of Southeast Virginia” that had signed a nonbinding letter of intent with PRXI in
October to buy the Titanic assets.
“We still believe that the Hampton Roads location contemplated
by this consortium remains a suitable and desirable destination and
an ideal permanent home for the
asset,” a transcript of the call said.
The Mariners’ Museum, considered among the foremost marinethemed museums in North America, has exhibited Titanic artifacts
and holds events regarding the
tragedy. Museum officials did not
respond to requests from Crain’sas
to whether the organization was involved in a consortium to buy the
Titanic assets.
Sellers said he understands that
some investors are impatient
about the sale of the Titanic assets,
but the company has decided that
it isn’t going to sell the artifacts “at
a discount just to get a fast sale.”
“It’s very important that people
realize that there is a trade-off between value and time, and we evaluate that trade-off all the time,” he
said. “There is some pressure on
us to do it quicker, but I don’t believe that’s in the best interest of
the shareholders.”
Sellers wouldn’t comment beyond what is reported in public filings but said: “I’m not selling any
shares. We have a lot of optimism
about the future of this company.”
Matthew Gryczan: (616) 916-8158,
[email protected].
Twitter:
@mattgryczan
PHOTOS COURTESY OF GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC MUSEUM
Among the attractions of the Titanic exhibit are ship artifacts and blueprints (left) and
complete lists (above) of surviving and lost passengers. Each visitor is given a name of a
passenger, and that name can be checked against the list to learn the person’s fate.
Continuity
y
Trusted for 70 years.
We’ll be here for generations.
Personal life insurance consulting
in a non-salesy environment.
Reducing estate and income taxes
Enhancing fixed income yields
Solving family and retirement issues
Optimizing existing life insurance policies
Business succession planning
and corporate benefits
BIRMINGHAM, MI | NEW YORK, NY
248.731.9500 | WWW.SCHECHTERWEALTH.COM
20130812-NEWS--0026-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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3:57 PM
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August 12, 2013
Consolidation sensation? Urge to merge easier said than done
BY ROD KACKLEY
SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S MICHIGAN BUSINESS
For more than two years, Gov.
Rick Snyder has tried to make it easier for communities to consolidate
services or merge governments.
So now, when Detroit leads the
parade of Michigan communities
that could face financial calamity,
why aren’t more cities, villages and
townships getting into that line?
Terry Stafford, a Michigan Department of Treasury spokesman,
said that in the 2012 and 2013 fiscal
years, 74 communities off the list
of 83 counties, 533 municipal governments and 1,242 townships in
Michigan applied for Competitive
Grant Assistance program money
to help pay the bills for consultants, lawyers, surveyors, tax experts and everyone else who is
needed to make consolidations and
mergers happen.
While it is within the power of
Snyder and the Michigan Legislature to trim bureaucracy standing
in the way of municipal marriages,
they can do nothing to make it emotionally easier to join hands.
Those emotions are evident in
Grand Rapids, Kentwood and
Wyoming, where officials in those
cities are talking about consolidating their police and fire departments, and in Saugatuck and Dou-
glas, where residents will vote on
consolidating the two governments
in November.
In his monthly video blog recorded July 22, Grand Rapids Mayor
George Heartwell said he is confident that officials in his city
and the two suburban communities would come
up with a way to
merge their six
police and fire
departments
into two regional
departments.
Heartwell
“However, to
say it is possible and to say there is
the political will to do it are two different things,” he said.
The political will to merge Kent
County and the city of Grand Rapids
into a single government in 2011 —
as proposed by Dick DeVos, the son
of one of the founders of Amway Corp.
and a former Republican candidate
for governor — was lacking. The
idea died for a lack of support from
most everyone involved in Kent
County and Grand Rapids government, including Heartwell.
Yet the past two years of financial strife faced by many cities in
Michigan has changed some minds.
The Grand Rapids and Kentwood
city commissions and the Wyoming
City Council met July 18 — the same
day Detroit filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy — to discuss a police and fire
consolidation plan offered by
Leonard Matarese, director of research and project development for
the International City/County Management Association, an organization
that provides technical and management assistance to local government professionals.
Matarese told the officials that
they were not asking an important
question: What we have now is
working, but how long can it last?
Even with that in mind, and although the consolidation plan
would cut spending by $10 million a
year among the three cities, only
Grand Rapids city commissioners
grudgingly said they were willing
to keep talking. Most Wyoming and
Kentwood officials hated it.
Yet it’s not as if these three communities haven’t consolidated.
They share The Rapid mass transit
system with three other communities and are members of the Grand
Valley BioSolids Regional Authority.
Heartwell is not giving up. He
said the conversations will continue and expects the three cities to
hold public hearings on consolidating police and fire.
Another emotional debate is being heard 40 miles southwest of
millercanfield.com
Grand Rapids in the village of Douglas and the city of Saugatuck. On
Nov. 5, residents there will be
asked to approve a merger of the
communities’ governments.
Saugatuck and Douglas have
done what Grand Rapids, Kentwood
and Wyoming may be unwilling to
do — they share police and fire departments. However, the next step
— bringing these two communities
under a common name with one
government for all — is turning out
to be a more contentious debate.
They would not be the first
Michigan communities to merge.
Iron River, Stambaugh and Mineral Hills took that honor in 2000 after
a November 1999 vote.
Like the Upper Peninsula communities that became the “new”
Iron River, Saugatuck and Douglas
are small. They don’t spend more
than $3.3 million a year between
them to serve the 1,232 people in
Douglas and the 925 full-time residents of Saugatuck. Studies done by
Plante Moran PLLC and the Citizens
Research Council of Michigan indicate
that the communities would share
annual savings of about $500,000 if
the merger were approved.
Yet Eric Lupher, director of local
affairs for the Citizens Research
Council, understands money isn’t
always the most important factor.
“It’s easy to say from the outside,
‘It just makes sense,’ ” he said.
“What we have seen, though, is that
community identity tends to mean
a lot to the people who are actually
involved.”
Jim Storey, an adviser to the
committee that has been pushing a
Saugatuck-Douglas merger for
more than three years, would
rather talk about saving $500,000
and improving the efficiency of
government.
To him, it makes no sense for a
Saugatuck city snow plow to have
to “lift its blade when it enters the
portion of Douglas that it has to run
through to get to the other side of
Saugatuck,” then put it back down.
However, he understands the
emotions of the debate.
“There are too many people in
office who say, ‘If consolidation occurs, what is going to happen to
me?’ ” Storey said.
Saugatuck Mayor William Hess
opposes the merger. He believes
the $500,000 savings figure is too
high. But he also will be the first to
say that this debate is not about
money. It is about Saugatuck being Saugatuck.
“Whether you would call the
new city Saugatuck-Douglas or
Doug-a-tuck,” Hess said, “it’s just
not the same.”
20130812-NEWS--0027-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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August 12, 2013
Monthly
Page 27
Germany
WHERE MICHIGAN DOES BUSINESS
Autoliv Inc.
Based: Auburn Hills
Operations: Technical centers are in
Elmshorn and Dachau. Production plants
are in Braunschweig and Döbeln. Development center is in Schweinfurt.
Employees: 2,100
Products: Seatbelts, front and side airbags
and radar systems
Clients: All automotive OEMs in Germany
Top executives: Franck Roussel, Jens Eisfeld and Frank Kohrs, managing directors
Belfor Holdings Inc.
Based: Birmingham
Operations: German headquarters in Duisburg with 29 offices throughout Germany
Employees: About 500
Products: Building restoration after fire and
water damage; property restoration, machinery restoration and document drying.
Clients: Anyone who suffers property
damage ranging from large corporations to
private customers.
Top executive: Elvir Kolak, managing director
Compuware Corp.
Based: Detroit
Operations: German headquarters in
Neulsenburg; satellite locations in Hamburg, Ratingen and Munich
Employees: 84
Products: IT software and services such as
application performance management solutions, which helps with identifying and resolving IT performance issues; Uniface, a development language for apps; Covisint,
which connects people through the cloud;
and Changepoint, software for professional
services and portfolio management. Compuware also provides products and services
for developing and maintaining mainframes.
Clients: Commerzbank, Allianz, Generali, ImmobilienScout24
Top executives: Tim Van Baars, director of
application performance assurance for the
region composed of Germany, Austria and
Switzerland; Herbert Gettert, director of
mainframe, also for the region including
Germany; and Mareike Jacobshagen, director of Europe, Middle East and Africa field
marketing
Con-way Inc.
Based: Ann Arbor
Operations: Menlo Worldwide Logistics, a
Con-way subsidiary, has three warehouses
for automotive and high-tech customers.
Employees: 50
Products: Warehousing, transportation
management and third-party logistics solutions
Top executive: Tony Gunn, managing director, Menlo Europe
Cooper-Standard Automotive
Based: Novi
Operations: German headquarters in
Mannheim and five plants throughout Germany
Employees: About 2,100
Products: Sealing and trim systems, fuel
and brake delivery systems, fluid transfer
systems, thermal and emissions systems and
technical rubber for industrial applications
Clients: Many automobile manufacturers
including Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co.,
G
ermany has weathered the aftereffects
of the most recent economic recession
much better than most of its European
counterparts. That helps explain why EU fiscal and monetary policies often hinge on the
decisions of German politicians.
Germany has the world’s fifth-largest economy with GDP of $3.1 trillion in 2012. It makes
up about one-fifth of the total EU’s GDP of
$15.6 trillion.
Germany’s biggest exports include motor vehicles, machinery, chemicals, metals and pharmaceuticals. Big imports include machinery,
data processing equipment and vehicles. Germany’s top trading partners include France, the
United States and the United Kingdom.
Crain’s World Watch Monthly seeks
to showcase Michigan companies that
are already international business
leaders — and those that are making
plans for expansion in emerging markets.
Each month features a different
country or group of countries. If you
know of a Michigan company that exports, manufactures abroad or has facilities abroad, email Jennette Smith,
managing editor, at
[email protected].
COMING UP
September: France
October: India
Chrysler Group LLC, Audi AG, BMW AG, Ferrari
SpA, Land Rover brand of Tata Motors Ltd.,
Porsche AG, Nissan Motor Co., Fiat SpA, Volkswagen AG and others
Top executive: Fernando de Miguel, president Europe
Domino’s Pizza Inc.
Based: Ann Arbor
Operations: Seven pizza stores in Germany
Employees: 100
Products: Pizza, pasta, wings, breadsticks
Clients: Retail customers
Top executive: Lance Batchelor, CEO of
Domino’s Pizza Group
Dow Chemical Co.
Elmshorn
Hamburg
Bremen
Berlin
GERMANY
Bochum
Braunschweig
Dusseldorf
Cologne Eisenach
Böhlen
Döbeln
Koblenz Frankfurt
Schweinfurt
Rüsselsheim
Mannheim
Nürnberg
Heidelberg
Saarlouis
Stuttgart
Baden
Baltringen
Dachau
Munich
Based: Midland
Germany operations: Plants in Ahlen, Baltringen, Bitterfeld, Böhlen, Bomlitz, Leuna,
Rheinmünster, Schkopau and Stade
Products: Base and specialty chemicals
Top executive: Ralf Brinkmann, president
and CEO of Dow Germany
Clients: Industry leaders in natural resources, high tech and life sciences as well
as midsized companies
Top executives: Leif Agneus, senior vice
president of Europe, Middle East, Africa and
Asia Pacific; Stefano Giorgetti, vice president and general manager for Germany
Dow Corning Corp.
Key Safety Inc.
Based: Midland
Operations: Manufacturing plant in Wiesbaden
Products: Specialty lubricants, power additives, liquid silicones, high consistency
rubber, curing agents for silicone adhesives, mold-making silicones and other silicones and gels for electronics
Top executive: Karl Koob, site manager
Based: Sterling Heights
Operations: Technical Center in Raunheim
and satellite facility in Munich
Employees: 250
Products: Development and testing of safety restraint systems including airbags,
steering wheels and seatbelts. The GmbH
technical center also supports administration, finance, program management, and
sales functions for Key Safety Systems European facilities in Italy and Romania.
Clients: Audi AG, BMW AG, Fiat SpA, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Hyundai Motor Co.,
Peugeot S.A., Toyota Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG
Top Germany executive: Joachim Verheugen, vice president and managing director KSS Deutschland GmbH
General Motors Co.
Based: Detroit
Operations: Adam Opel AG, a wholly owned
GM subsidiary, is based in Rüsselsheim.
There are also production plants in
Bochum, Kaiserslautern and Eisenach.
Products: Insignia, Astra, Zafira, Mokka,
Meriva, Adam, Cascada and Corsa vehicles
Top executive: Karl-Thomas Neumann,
chairman of the board
Kelly Services Inc.
Based: Troy
Operations: Headquarters in Hamburg and
17 offices throughout the country
Products: Staffing services for management positions, vendors and leasing
Metaldyne LLC
Based: Plymouth
Operations: Technology center in Dieburg;
manufacturing plants in Zell am Harmerbasch and Nürnberg
Employees: 618
Products: The manufacturing plants specialize in forged components and advanced
machining operations. The technology center
focuses on vibration damper applications.
Clients: Audi AG, BMW AG, Robert Bosch
GmbH, Dana Corp., Daimler AG, Getrag, Magna
Powertrain, Schaeffler Group, TRW Automotive
Holdings Corp., Volkswagen AG and ZF Group.
Top executives: Christoph Guhe, vice president and general manager, forged products division, and Juergen Depp, vice president/engineering and business development.
MSX International Inc.
Based: Warren
Operations: European headquarters in
Cologne; hotline centers in Dietzenbach,
Cologne and Flörsheim
Products: MSX provides staffing services
for automotive, industrial, transportation
and consumer packaged goods companies.
Its retail network unit manages warranty
programs, parts and accessories sales optimization, and service and technical training for auto dealers.
Clients: Ford Motor Co., Jaguar Land Rover
Ltd., Peugeot Citroën, BMW AG, Kia Motors, Fiat
SpA, Mondelez International Inc. and Volvo Car
Corp.
Top executives: Dirk Bott, retail network
solutions managing director of Germany,
Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Denmark,
Norway, Finland and the Baltics
TI Automotive Ltd.
Based: Auburn Hills
Operations: 12 manufacturing plants and
three tech centers
Employees: 1,800
Products: Fuel tank systems, brake and
fuel lines, fluid carrying systems bundles,
fuel pumps and modules, powertrain components, HVAC systems, steel and plastic
automotive tubing
Clients: Daimler AG, Audi AB, Volkswagen AG,
BMW AG, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co.,
Jaguar Land Rover Ltd., MAN, Porsche AG, Lamborghini SpA, Volvo Car Corp, Renault-Nissan,
Kautex Textron GMBH & Co., Inergy Automotive
Systems LLC, TI Automotive LLC and Magna International Inc.
Top executives: Bogdan Mieszczak, managing director, FCS Europe; Albert Boecker,
global product and advanced engineering
director, tank systems
TRW PHOTO
TRW’s braking technical center and production
site in Koblenz, Germany.
TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.
Based: Livonia
Operations: 17 manufacturing plants; at
least six research and development and engineering centers; aftermarket headquarters is in Neuwied.
Products: Steering systems, brake parts,
chassis modules and other auto parts.
Top executive: Alex Ashmore, vice president, TRW Automotive aftermarket, Europe
and Asia Pacific.
More information: The bulk of TRW’s 2012
sales — $7 billion, or 43 percent — is in Europe. TRW’s biggest customer is Volkswagen
AG.
— Compiled by Ross Benes
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20130812-NEWS--0029-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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August 12, 2013
Page 29
CRAIN'S LIST: GREATER MICHIGAN PRIVATELY HELD Ranked by 2012 revenue
Rank
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
Company
Address
Phone, website
Top executive(s)
Revenue
($000,000)
2012
Revenue
($000,000)
2011
Percent
change
Worldwide
employees
Jan. 2013
$14,600.0 B
$14,400.0 B
1.4%
NA
Type of business
Meijer Inc.
Hank Meijer
co-chairman and co-CEO
Mark Murray
vice chairman and
co-CEO
Alticor Inc. (Amway)
Steve Van Andel
chairman and co-CEO
Doug DeVos
president and co-CEO
11,300.0
10,900.0
3.7
21,000
7575 Fulton St. E., Ada 49355-0001
(616) 787-1000; www.alticor.com
Gordon Food Service Inc.
Dan Gordon
chairman
9,200.0
8,600.0
7.0
NA
Dow Corning Corp.
Robert Hansen
president and CEO
6,120.0
6,430.0
-4.8
12,000
Silicon-based materials and technology
Auto-Owners Insurance Co. Inc.
Jeffrey Harrold
chairman and CEO
5,247.8
5,172.5
1.5
3,966
Property, casualty and life insurance
Jackson National Life Insurance Co.
Michael Wells
president and CEO
5,106.9
4,184.8
22.0
NA
Life insurance and retirement planning
Dart Container Corp.
Kenneth Dart
president
3,000.0 C
1,500.0
100.0
NA
Foam cups and containers
Alro Steel Corp.
Alvin Glick
chairman and CEO
1,350.0 D
1,350.0 E
0.0
NA
Metal servicing
Haworth Inc.
Franco Bianchi
president and CEO
1,310.0
1,380.0
-5.1
5,589
Diplomat Pharmacy Inc.
Phil Hagerman
CEO
1,126.9
772.0
46.0
779
Specialty pharmacy
Serra Automotive Inc.
Joseph Serra
president
1,119.6 F
992.1
12.9
NA
Auto dealerships
Accident Fund Holdings Inc.
Elizabeth Haar
president and CEO
755.4
701.0
7.8
NA
Workers' compensation insurer
Garber Management Group Inc.
Richard Garber
president
577.8 F
NA
NA
NA
Auto dealerships
Mill Steel Co.
David Samrick
chairman, president and
CEO
565.0 G
510.0 E
10.8
NA
Steel processor
Fox Motor Group LLC
Daniel Devos
president and CEO
523.8 F
489.4 F
7.0
NA
Auto dealer
Frankenmuth Mutual Insurance Co.
John Benson
president and CEO
492.2 H
NA
NA
NA
Mutual insurance
Lacks Enterprises Inc.
Richard Lacks Jr.
president and CEO
475.0
430.0
10.5
2,700
Fabri-Kal Corp.
Mike Roeder
president and COO
350.0 I
300.0 I
16.7
NA
Thermoformer
JSJ Corp.
Nelson Jacobson
chairman, president and
CEO
330.0
300.0
10.0
NA
Durable goods and services
Cascade Engineering Inc.
Fred Keller
chairman and CEO
300.0 I
285.0 I
5.3
1,100
Plastics systems and components
Autocam Corp./Autocam Medical
John Kennedy
president and CEO
292.0
215.0
35.8
1,878
Global manufacturing companies that produce high-precision components
Request Foods Inc.
Jack Dewitt
president
278.0
256.0
8.6
650
Manufacturer of frozen prepared foods
Magic Steel Sales LLC
Joseph Maggini
president
275.0 G
265.0 E
3.8
NA
Steel servicing
Two Men and a Truck International Inc.
Brig Sorber, CEO
Jon Sorber, executive
vice president
Melanie Bergeron, chair
Mary Ellen Sheets,
founder
261.2
220.0
18.7
4,277
Clark Construction Co.
Charles Clark
CEO
230.0
150.0
53.3
106
2929 Walker Ave. NW, Grand Rapids 49544
(616) 453-6711; www.meijer.com
1300 Gezon Parkway SW, Wyoming 49509
(888) 437-3663; gfs.com
2200 W. Salzburg Road, Midland 48686
(989) 496-4000; www.dowcorning.com
6101 Anacapri Blvd., Lansing 48917
(517) 323-1200; www.auto-owners.com
1 Corporate Way, Lansing 48951
(517) 381-5500; www.jackson.com
500 Hogsback Road, Mason 48854
(517) 676-3800; www.dartcontainer.com
3100 E. High St., Jackson 49204
(517) 787-5500; www.alro.com
1 Haworth Center, Holland 49423
(616) 393-3000; www.haworth.com
4100 S. Saginaw St., Flint 48507
(888) 720-4450; www.diplomatpharmacy.com
3118 E. Hill Road, Grand Blanc 48439
(810) 694-1720; www.serrausa.com
200 N. Grand Ave., Lansing 48901-7990
(517) 342-4200; www.afhi.com
999 S. Washington Ave., Saginaw 48601
(989) 790-9090; www.garberauto.com
5116 36th St., Grand Rapids 49512
(616) 949-6700; www.millsteel.com
3060 Broadmoor Ave. SE, Grand Rapids 49512
(616) 942-5000; www.foxmotors.com
1 Mutual Ave., Frankenmuth 48787-0001
(989) 652-6121; www.fmins.com
5460 Cascade Road SE, Grand Rapids 49546
(616) 949-6570; www.lacksenterprises.com
600 Plastics Place, Kalamazoo 49001
(269) 385-5050; www.f-k.com
700 Robbins Road, Grand Haven 49417
(616) 842-6350; www.jsjcorp.com
3400 Innovation Court SE, Grand Rapids 49512
(616) 975-4800; www.cascadeng.com
4436 Broadmoor SE, Kentwood 49512
(616) 698-0707; www.autocam.com
3460 John F. Donnelly Drive, Holland 49424
(616) 786-0900; www.requestfoods.com
4242 Clay Ave. SW, Grand Rapids 49548
(616) 532-4071; www.magicsteelsales.com
3400 Belle Chase Way, Lansing 48911
(800) 345-1070; www.twomenandatruck.com
3535 Moores River Drive, Lansing 48911
(517) 372-0940; www.clarkcc.com
Supercenters and grocery stores
Consumer products and business opportunities supported by a global
agribusiness, manufacturing and logistics supply chain
Food service distributor and grocery retailer
Furniture, interior architecture and technology solutions
Injection molding, assembly, painting and plating
Home moving and corporate relocation services, packing and unpacking
services
Commercial construction, general contractor, construction manager, design
builder
This list of privately held companies is an approximate compilation of the largest companies headquartered in Michigan outside of metro Detroit that do not have stock traded on a public exchange. It is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available.
Crain's estimates are based on industry analyses and benchmarks, news reports and a wide range of other sources. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Actual revenue figures may vary. NA = not available.
B Supermarket News estimate.
C Plastics News estimate. Dart Container Corp. purchased Solo Cup Co. in May 2012.
D Crain's estimate.
E Metal Center News.
F Automotive News.
G Metal Center News estimate.
H From the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
I Plastics News.
LIST RESEARCHED BY BRIANNA REILLY
20130812-NEWS--0030-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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11:17 AM
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August 12, 2013
Groupon pins turnaround on controversial co-founder
Other candidates
BY DOUGLAS MACMILLAN
BLOOMBERG NEWS
Groupon Inc.’s choice of Eric
Lefkofsky as permanent CEO entrusts the daily deals site’s turnaround plans to a controversial
Chicago billionaire with a history
of failed endeavors.
Lefkofsky — one constant at a
company that has cycled through
executives and dabbled in new
business models to make up for
waning demand in its main
coupon business — has shored up
control after jostling with his cofounder Andrew Mason, whom he
helped oust from the CEO role in
February.
The move puts Chicago-based
Groupon in the hands of a known
quantity, who as interim co-CEO
helped oversee a 79 percent stock
rally this year, but it also dashed
optimism that the board would tap
an outsider with experience leading corporate overhauls.
In May, the company said the
search for a new chief was underway and it was talking with recruiting firms. Lefkofsky was born
in Detroit, grew up in Southfield
and graduated from the University
of Michigan. He and fellow UM grad
Brad Keywell invested the first
$1 million in Groupon.
Last week, newly appointed
Chairman Ted Leonsis said that in
the end Groupon looked no further
than Lefkofsky, who provides continuity as the company reshapes
itself.
“We have too much to do to take
a transition right now,” Leonsis
said in an e-mailed statement
BLOOMBERG NEWS PHOTO
Detroit-born Eric Lefkofsky has
increased his control over Groupon
since ousting its CEO in February.
Wednesday.
“The next few years are critical,
and we’re confident that Eric is
the right leader for this stage of
Groupon’s evolution.”
Lefkofsky, 43, owns 17 percent of
the company’s common stock and
controls 26 percent of shareholder
votes, and his influence over the
board
may
have
hindered
Groupon’s ability to attract qualified candidates, said Adam Charlson, executive vice president of
Chicago-based recruiting firm DHR
International Inc.
“That degree of ownership that
Lefkofsky has, coupled with his
serving in an operating capacity,
probably made it next to impossible to get an outside CEO to take a
look at actually joining,” Charlson
said.
Leonsis was approached by numerous qualified candidates who
were interested in taking the job,
said Paul Taaffe, a spokesman for
Groupon.
Lefkofsky takes over the deals
business as it works to stay relevant in the age of smartphones and
tablet computers. Started in 2008
as a service for distributing discounts to spas, restaurants and
other local services via once-a-day
emails, the company now focuses
on offering thousands of deals at
once, available any time on the
Web or mobile applications,
Lefkofsky said in an interview.
“Our primary vision is to build
out a marketplace which people
can come to when they have a
need,” he said. “We’re fortunate
that Groupon is inherently mobile
by nature. We’re very focused on
that. We’re also focused on this
fundamental shift in consumer behavior.”
‘Day One’
“They certainly picked someone
who’s been there since Day One,”
Tom Forte, an analyst at Telsey Advisory Group in New York City, said
in an interview. “He’s extremely
familiar with the business.”
Lefkofsky’s stake in Groupon is
worth more than $951 million, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg. He also owns shares of
Echo Global Logistics Inc. and InnerWorkings Inc., two other Chicago
companies he co-founded, worth
$97.6 million.
Lefkofsky got the daily deal
provider off the ground with a
$1 million investment in The
Point, the predecessor to Groupon,
and in 2008 prodded Mason into focusing on the e-commerce startup.
In 2011, Lefkofsky caused a stir
and attracted the attention of the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when he told Bloomberg
News just after Groupon filed its
prospectus for an initial public offering that he expected the company to be “wildly profitable.”
Groupon later updated its IPO filing, telling investors to disregard
the comments.
Varied ventures
Lefkofsky’s
investment
in
Groupon followed a series of past
ventures, some of which stumbled.
In the 1990s, Lefkofsky and his
business partner, Keywell, bought
children’s clothing company Brandon Apparel Group. It later faltered
after taking on too much debt and
a shift in fashion trends, Lefkofsky
explained on his blog.
Lefkofsky also co-founded Starbelly.com, an online promotionalmerchandise seller, in 1999 and
then sold it to Ha-Lo Industries Inc.
for $240 million. Ha-Lo filed for
bankruptcy protection from creditors in July 2001 after writing
down the acquisition.
In 2001, he founded printing-service provider InnerWorkings Inc.,
which went public in 2006. He also
helped found Echo Global Logistics Inc., a shipping-technology
company, in 2005. That company
held its IPO in 2009.
Progress report
Groupon’s second-quarter earnings report gave a glimpse of the
early progress in Lefkofky’s efforts
to jump-start growth by targeting
smartphone and tablet users. Almost 50 percent of North American
transactions in June came from
mobile devices, up from about a
third a year earlier, the company
said in a statement. More than 50
million people have downloaded
Groupon’s apps globally.
Third-quarter revenue is forecast to rise to $585 million to
$635 million, Groupon said. That
compares with an average analyst
estimate of $621.5 million, according
to
data
compiled
by
Bloomberg.
On top of keeping the company
growing in mobile, Lefkofsky faces
the challenge of wooing users outside the U.S. Even after Groupon
invested heavily in an overseas expansion, international sales declined in the second quarter, with
revenue dropping 24 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa,
and falling 26 percent in other international markets.
“There’s a handful of countries
we need to turn to and focus on,”
Lefkofsky said in the interview. “It’s
a matter of focusing on those markets that are underperforming.”
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The importance of having a long-term vision was the overriding message
from the keynote panelists at the Crain’s Salute to Entrepreneurs awards
breakfast last week at the Somerset Inn in Troy.
“For us, it’s always about vision, not just about strategy,” said Ari
Weinzweig, president of Ann Arbor-based Zingerman’s Deli. “Don’t expend
energy on ideas that are not part of your vision.”
Weinzweig and Michael McFall, president of Biggby Coffee, spoke at
Tuesday’s event about their organizations’ corporate evolutions.
Zingerman’s has expanded its deli into food service, catering, mail order
and even a Zingtrain corporate training program. Lansing-based Biggby
seeks to become the largest coffee franchisor in Michigan and then expand
in the Midwest. It has more than 150 locations.
Zingerman’s stays on mission by operating within 10-year plans. For
example, it is not interested in opening restaurants elsewhere, even when
Walt Disney World called. Similarly, Biggby realized early on that it wanted
franchisees to operate its stores instead of getting bogged down in the dayto-day management of company-owned stores. Biggby’s role is to give them
a business model to duplicate.
The keynote panel, moderated by Dan Duggan, Crain’s managing editor of
custom and special projects, followed an awards presentation to the Crain’s
2013 Salute to Entepreneurs award winners. To read stories and see photos
of the winners and from the event, see crainsdetroit.com/salute.
20130812-NEWS--0031-NAT-CCI-CD_--
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11:53 AM
Page 1
August 12, 2013
Page 31
Sale of Detroit firehouse gives nudge to hotel plan
BY SHERRI WELCH
Gov. Rick Snyder last week
signed off on the $1.25 million sale
of the historic firehouse across
from Detroit’s Cobo Center, moving
forward a boutique hotel planned
for the site.
Local developer Walter Cohen,
owner of 21 Century Holdings LLC,
said he and Chicago developer
Aparium Hotel Group have lined up
much of the $23 million needed for
the 75-80-room hotel.
They plan to also seek historic
preservation and brownfield tax
credits to convert the five-story
building at Washington Boulevard
and Larned Street into a hotel that
will emphasize the earliest days of
Detroit, from its French roots to its
days as a timber capital, to a manufacturing history ranging from
bicycles to pharmaceuticals to automobiles, he said.
Cohen is no stranger to historic
renovation. Among other projects,
he co-developed the Stroh River
Place apartments and townhouses
in historically renovated buildings
in Detroit with the late Peter Stroh
and was general partner in the redevelopment and renovation of the
Park Shelton, a hotel transformed
into residential units.
Cohen is developing the Detroit
firehouse into a hotel with Aparium, a company formed by three
veterans of the hotel industry: Tim
Dixon, Mario Tricoci and Kevin
Robinson. The three have ties to
Milwaukee’s acclaimed Iron Horse
Hotel, a motorcycle-themed luxury
hotel in a 100-year-old warehouse
along a river; and the Elysian Hotel
Chicago, now operating as the Waldorf Astoria Chicago after its sale in
November to billionaire Sam Zell
for $95 million.
When Crain’s broke news of the
plan for the boutique hotel in the
historic Detroit firehouse in
March, Cohen, who also owns
Southfield-based Arco Construction,
said the developers hoped to have
the hotel open in time for the 2015
North American International Auto
Show.
But the longer approvals process,
with signoffs from not only the
mayor and Detroit City Council but
also the emergency manager, governor and state treasurer — needed
because Detroit is operating under
an emergency manager — delayed
the project three to four months,
Cohen said.
“Now we’re moving forward as
fast as we can,” he said. “I would
hope we’d be open by the spring of
2015, if not before.”
Per the state’s emergency manager law, any asset sale of more
than $50,000 not included in the
emergency manager’s financial
and operating plan requires state
approval, Sara Wurfel, press secretary for the governor, wrote in
an email. The state treasurer
signed off on the sale before Snyder did.
But the sale was driven locally,
as the firehouse no longer is needed because of the new public safety
headquarters in the city, Wurfel
said.
“We think it’s a good story and
smart use of the property,” she
said.
The firehouse sale transaction
ANDREW JAMESON/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
It took longer to sell the firehouse
because Detroit is operating under an
emergency manager.
was one of the first deals subject to
a multi-approval process by the
city, emergency manager and
state, confirmed Sonya Mays, senior adviser to Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, in an email.
The approvals process needed
for the sale of city-owned buildings
has since been refined and streamlined, she said.
Between now and the target
opening date for the hotel, much of
the foundation work will take
place, Cohen said.
Environmental studies have
turned up asbestos in the building,
Cohen said. The developers are
bidding out the work to remove it.
Soon, the project’s architect, Birmingham-based McIntosh Poris Asso-
ciates, will begin the tedious work
of checking every brick on the
building’s exterior to find out what
needs to be fixed or replaced, in
keeping with the building’s historic designations.
The renovation has to be approved by local, state and federal
historic preservation bodies to
qualify for federal historic preservation tax credits, Cohen said.
The developers will need to redo
all the plumbing in the 1929 firehouse, design new heating and
cooling systems and work with DTE
Energy Co. to run electricity to the
building since it’s currently pow-
ered by public lighting systems, he
said.
Cohen said the plan is to retain
the fire poles in the building. The
area where the fire engines are now
housed probably will be converted
into a hotel-operated restaurant
and small meeting rooms, Cohen
said.
“We think this area, which hasn’t had a lot of foot traffic outside
of events at Cobo, will have a lot
more between the Crowne Plaza and
(us) when we get open,” he said.
Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694,
[email protected].
Twitter:
@sherriwelch
Tuesday, Oct. 29
San Marino Club, Troy
7:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
Maureen Bisognano, CEO,
Institute for Healthcare Improvement,
Boston and author of Pursuing the
Triple Aim, shares examples of how
health care systems are lowering
costs and improving care at the
local level.
Be among the first
250 registrants and
get a FREE copy of
Pursuing the Triple Aim
by Maureen Bisognano
A luncheon program honors Crain’s
annual Health Care Heroes awardees.
To register, please visit www.crainsdetroit.com/events or call 313.446.0300
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20130812-NEWS--0032-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
10:25 AM
Page 1
Page 32
August 12, 2013
A lane opens to tackle
transportation funding
WORLD-CLASS INFORMATION
SERVICES FOR MICHIGAN BUSINESS
being and Medicaid is
Now that the state
close to being done.
budget is done, and, after
Rich Studley, presia great deal of debate, the
dent and CEO of the
Legislature
appears
Michigan Chamber of Compoised for a vote at the
merce, which supports
end of the month on MedSnyder’s plan, said if the
icaid expansion, where
Medicaid expansion vote
does that leave Gov. Rick
ends well, it could proSnyder’s transportation
vide the momentum and
plan?
trust needed to move forWhen Snyder unveiled
ward together and finish
his budget presentation
transportation.
in February, it included
Chris Gautz
“I still think there is a
an expansion of Medicwindow of opportunity,”
aid and an annual increase in transportation revenue he said.
to the tune of $1.2 billion.
And that window doesn’t extend
That revenue would come in much past this fall.
part from raising registration fees
With each day that passes, the
an average of 20 percent and elimi- roads get worse and the problem
nating the state’s 19 cents-per-gal- gets more expensive to fix, which
lon gas tax — and moving to a tax proponents of Snyder’s plan say is
at the wholesale level.
just one more reason why getting
By June, the budget was done, but it done now is so important.
Medicaid was a heavier lift than
But the 2014 election is also getwas expected and was given priority ting closer, and every seat in the
by Snyder over transportation be- House and Senate is up for grabs.
cause there were federal deadlines
For those running for re-electhe state needed to meet to make tion in 2014, Studley said, it may be
sure the expansion worked.
better to vote on the transportaSo in the final weeks of session tion package this fall so that voters
before the summer break, the fo- will see construction and improvecus was on Medicaid and contin- ment to the roads next fall before
ued there throughout the summer, going to the polls.
when the Senate left without votBut for some, a tax increase is still
ing on Medicaid expansion.
That took away focus and momentum from Snyder’s transportation plan, as did high gas prices —
the price for a gallon of gas
reached upward of $4 around the
time the House Transportation Committee was considering voting on
pieces of the plan.
Lawmakers already hesitant
about voting for a tax increase became even more reluctant given
the pain at the pump their constituents were already feeling.
The wide variety of fee increases
being contemplated, largely contained in HB 4632, also drew considerable opposition. During hearings
in June, a variety of groups testified
against the bill. While their testimony varied, they could largely be
boiled down to, “Don’t raise our fee,
raise the other guy’s.”
But what the House members
working on the issue have been
trying to do all along is come up
with a system of fee increases that
makes the system more equitable,
which means everyone is going to
pay more. That, of course, means
just about everyone is going to
have some level of opposition to it.
Then it becomes clear why lawmakers haven’t done a large-scale
revision to transportation funding
since 1997 — it’s hard.
But now there is hope, as gas
prices have stabilized for the time
Capitol
B r i e fi ng s
DATA CENTERS
FIBER TO YOUR BUSINESS
FIXED METRO WIRELESS
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Entry deadline: AUG. 16
crainsdetroit.com/nominate
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The following business filed for bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy
Court in Detroit Aug. 2-8. Under
Chapter 11, a company files for reorganization.
Raheel Foods Inc., 415 S. West St., Royal Oak, voluntary Chapter 11. Assets
and liabilities not available.
— Ross Benes
a tax increase, no matter when you
vote on it, and members know they
could be attacked for it.
This, in part, is why talk has been
surfacing again in Lansing about a
ballot proposal to help solve the
transportation funding issue.
It would be used to ask voters to
raise the sales tax to either 7 or 8
cents, from the 6-cent mark it is at
now. The increase would go to replenish education funds if the
sales tax customers pay at the
pump is eliminated. Much of the
sales tax people pay on their gas
purchases goes to education,
rather than to the roads.
Studley said the chamber still
prefers a solely legislative solution,
rather than going to the voters.
A statewide campaign to support
a ballot measure can cost anywhere
from $1 million to $5 million, if there
is not much in the way of an organized opposition. But if there is vocal or a well-financed opposition,
you can double or even triple that
amount, Studley said.
“The more complicated a ballot
proposal is, the easier it is to attack and the more likely it is to
fail,” Studley said.
Chris Gautz: (517) 403-4403,
[email protected].
Twitter:
@chrisgautz
20130812-NEWS--0033-NAT-CCI-CD_--
August 12, 2013
8/9/2013
10:16 AM
Page 1
BRIEFLY
Land near Metro Airport
available for commercial use
Prime land near the entrance of
Detroit Metropolitan Airport is being
made available for commercial development in an effort known as
the Gateway Project.
The Wayne County Airport Authority, which oversees Metro, said last
week it is seeking requests-forqualifications from companies potentially interested in turning the
two parcels into developments that
passengers could use.
The authority said it didn’t have
specifics on what it wants to see
developed there, but instead is
seeking ideas. Because the land is
away from airline use, it is expected to be commercial development
that could include food, retail, fuel
and other businesses.
Whatever is built would generate revenue for the authority by tobe-determined leases or other financial agreements. The land is all
within the airport’s footprint and
would remain owned by the authority.
One plot is 4 acres and the other
is 4.5 acres. They’re adjacent to
each other and located between
Rogell Drive (the airport’s main
entrance road from I-94’s Merriman Road exit) and Delta Air Lines
Inc.’s hangars and offices near the
North Terminal.
On the sites now are two warehouse/office facilities and a former post office that the authority
said will be demolished under a
separate engineering contract.
The RFQ deadline is Sept. 17.
Any project requires the sevenmember authority’s public approval.
Seventy-five percent of Metro’s
16 million passengers pass the two
parcels annually, the authority
said.
— Bill Shea
NOMINATIONS SOUGHT
FOR NONPROFIT CONTEST
was still waiting to see the lawsuit
and didn’t yet have a comment.
— Ross Benes
Regional Mattress World stores
converting to Art Van PureSleep
Art Van Furniture said it plans to
convert 31 Mattress World locations
in Michigan and Indianapolis to
Art Van PureSleep stores by the
end of the year.
The Warren-based furniture retailer acquired the Howell-based
Mattress World chain in May 2011,
gaining its first presence outside
of Michigan through the deal.
PureSleep stores use a diagnostic
system with customers to sell mattresses and pillows most comfortable for their sleeping preferences.
Specialty sleep stores are one of
the fastest growing retail categories, Art Van said in a press release.
The company began converting
Mattress
World
stores
to
PureSleep stores Aug. 1 and expects to complete the changeover,
which will retain all employees, by
year’s end.
Art Van operates PureSleep
stores inside all 35 of its furniture
stores and 10 freestanding
PureSleep stores in Michigan and
Ohio. Four more outlets are scheduled to open in Michigan before
the end of the year.
Art Van said the conversion will
give it a total of 76 PureSleep stores.
— Sherri Welch
This year’s Crain’s Best
Managed Nonprofit Contest is
focused on good management
practices of nonprofits with
budgets of $3 million or less.
Applicants are asked to give
examples of how they deploy their
mission and resources, among
other information.
Applications are due Aug. 26.
Finalists will be interviewed in
person by judges the morning of
Nov. 5.
Applicants for the award must be
a 501(c)(3) with headquarters in
Wayne, Washtenaw, Oakland,
Macomb or Livingston counties.
Applications must include an
entry form, a copy of the
organization’s code of ethics, a
copy of the most recent audited
financial statement and a copy of
the most recent IRS 990 form.
Previous first-place winners are
not eligible; neither are hospitals,
HMOs, medical clinics, business
and professional organizations,
schools, churches or
foundations.
The winners will be profiled in the
Nov. 25 issue, receive a special
“best-managed” logo from
Crain’s for use in promotional
material and will be recognized at
the Crain’s Newsmaker of the
Year lunch early next year.
For an application form, please
email YahNica Crawford at
[email protected] or visit
www.crainsdetroit.com/nonprofit
contest. For information about
the contest itself, email Executive
Editor Cindy Goodaker at
[email protected] or call
(313) 446-0460.
Employment Law Experience
In Your Corner.
®
Silverdome owner sues insurance
company after storm damage
The owner of the Pontiac Silverdome filed a $23 million lawsuit
last week against its insurance
company for denying coverage after the Silverdome’s roof developed a hole during a storm last
winter.
Triple Properties, the Torontobased owner of the Silverdome, is
suing Connecticut-based The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co. for more than $23 million for denying the building
coverage, said David Shea, attorney at Southfield-based Shea, Aiello
& Doxsie PLLC, who represents
Triple Investment Group in the
lawsuit.
“The insurance company denied
coverage without substantive investigation,” Shea said.
The roof repair will cost $22 million and the cleanup will cost
$300,000, Shea said. There is no estimate yet on the damages to be
sought for lost business income
since the roof damage, he said.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit. The suit is
before Judge Gershwin Drain in
federal court, Shea said.
Dennis O’Shea, vice president of
communications for Hartford
Steam Boiler, said the company
Page 33
Labor relations, state/federal agency work,
employment litigation, union election campaigns,
unemployment insurance taxation matters, and
arbitration of employment disputes
■ Facilitative mediator for the U.S. District Court,
Western District of Michigan and the Michigan Courts
■ Arbitrator and mediator with National Arbitration
and Mediation, Inc., the American Settlement Centers
and the National Arbitration Forum
■
125 Y E A R S
CELEBRATING
First Tier Ranking in
Labor Law – Management
■
Metro Detroit
■
Grand Rapids
■
Kalamazoo
■
Grand Haven
■
Lansing
Richard A. Hooker
[email protected]
20130812-NEWS--0034-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
10:24 AM
Page 1
Page 34
August 12, 2013
CALENDAR
TUESDAY
Kyle Sasena, VP, International Banking Specialist
Fred Fordon, SVP, Commercial Banking Manager
The Entrepreneurial Bank.
Level One Bank makes international
trade easy. Import and export, safe
and efficient.
Level One, your international bank,
right here at home.
Call us.
Contact Greg Wernette
Entrepreneur and Chief Lending Officer
248-737-0300
AUG. 13
Ann Arbor Open Coffee. 8-9:30 a.m. Ann
Arbor Spark. Networking event for entrepreneurs, investors and those in innovation businesses, particularly in
IT, clean tech and life sciences. Ann
Arbor Spark, Ann Arbor. Free. Contact: Alissa Carpenter, (734) 372-4071;
email: [email protected]; website: www.annarborusa.org.
Inside the CEO
Mind. 8-10 a.m. Detroit
Regional
Chamber. With
Gene Michalski,
president
and
CEO, Beaumont
Health System.
Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak.
$20
members,
$50 nonmembers.
Contact:
MariMichalski
anne Alabastro,
(313) 596-0479; email: malabast@de
troitchamber.com; website: www.de
troitchamber.com.
Marketing Roundtable Summer Workshop. 5-7 p.m. Ann Arbor Spark. Con-
32991 Hamilton Court Farmington Hills, MI 48334 levelonebank.com
Commercial Banking Retail Banking Mortgage Services
sult with experts in marketing strategy, search engine optimization,
blogging and other topics. Ann Arbor
Spark, Ann Arbor. Free. Contact: Alissa Carpenter, (734) 372-4071; email:
[email protected];
website:
www.annarborusa.org.
WEDNESDAY
AUG. 14
Microloan Orientation. 9-11 a.m. Center
CRAIN’S EVENT HONORS
FAST-GROWING COMPANIES
Join Crain’s Detroit Business from
5 to 9 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Colony
Club, Detroit, to salute Crain’s
Fastest Growing Companies.
The July 15 CDB issue showcased
the profiles of companies from
Crain’s annual list of fastestgrowing companies. At the event,
hear the stories on what’s driving
their growth. All companies on the
list will be invited, and some will
provide speakers.
Tickets are $60 for subscribers,
$99 for nonsubscribers, $85 with
an offer that includes a one-year
subscription to Crain’s, and $10
for guests in groups of 10 or more.
For tickets and more information,
contact Kasey Anderson at
(313) 446-0300, or visit
www.crainsdetroit.com/events.
for Empowerment and Economic Development. Learn how to secure alternative financing for your small business. Oakland County Business
Center, Waterford Township. Free.
Contact: Karen Lear, (248) 858-0783;
email: [email protected];
website: www.advantageoakland.com.
Business After Hours. 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Michigan Association for Female Entrepreneurs. Networking. BlackFinn,
Royal Oak. $15 members, $20 nonmembers, $25 at the door. Contact:
Tonya McNeal-Weary, (866) 490-6233;
email: [email protected]; website:
www.mafedetroit.org.
THURSDAY
AUG. 15
Coffee, News and Networking. 8:4510:30 a.m. Troy Chamber. Open to
chamber members from all communities. Rehmann, Troy. Free. Contact:
Troy Chamber, (248) 641-8151; email:
[email protected]; website:
www.troychamber.com.
Informal Networking Event. 5:30-8 p.m.
Asian Pacific American Chamber of
Commerce, Philippine Chamber of
Commerce of Michigan. Chrysan Industries, Plymouth. APACC enterprise and corporate members free; $10
other APACC members; $20 nonmembers. Contact: Sarah Lalone, (248) 4305855; email: [email protected]; website: www.apacc.net.
CALENDAR GUIDELINES
If you want to ensure listing online
and be considered for print
publication in Crain’s Detroit
Business, please use the online
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From the Crain’s home page, click
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20130812-NEWS--0035-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
10:14 AM
Page 1
August 12, 2013
$30+ MILLION AVAILABLE IN APPROVED TAX CREDITS
BUSINESS DIARY
ACQUISITIONS
Computing Source, Southfield, a fullservice legal support firm, acquired
Evidence Express, a demonstrative evidence and trial graphics firm with offices in Detroit and Birmingham.
Website: www.computingsource.com,
www.evidenceexpress.com.
CONTRACTS
Jekyll & Hyde Advertising and Marketing, Redford Township, was selected
as the agency of record for UrgentRx,
Denver. Website:
agency.com.
www.jekyllhyde
Dietz Trott Sports & Entertainment
Management, Farmington Hills, a
marketing and advertising firm, was
selected as the agency of record for Detroit Opera House, Detroit; Michigan
Rehabilitation Specialists LLC, Hamburg Township; and Midway Corban
Dental Supply, Farmington Hills. Telephone: (248) 207-3312.
Altair Engineering Inc., Troy, announced that Frewer & Co. Engineers
Ltd., an aerospace and composites design and analysis consultancy in the
United Kingdom, invested in and is
employing HyperMesh, Altair’s meshing tool included in the HyperWorks
suite, to prepare and design large fineelement analysis models for aerospace
components to investigate the structural integrity of composite material.
Websites: www.altair.com, www.frew
er-engineering.com.
Burroughs Inc., Plymouth, a provider
of technology services, entered into a
software distributor agreement with
Jaguar Software Development Inc.,
Sullivan, Ill., a software engineering
company in the financial industry.
Burroughs will sell and distribute
Jaguar’s MirrorImage suite of application modules. The Jaguar Software
suite will be available to Burroughs’
end clients in conjunction with ATM
product and service sales, and allows
customers to enable their ATMs
to mirror a teller line transaction.
Websites:
www.burroughs.com,
www.jaguarsoftware.com.
Scleroderma Foundation Michigan
Chapter, Southfield, named Brogan &
Partners Advertising Consultancy Inc.,
Birmingham, as its agency to manage
integrated marketing communications, including brand strategy, creative production, public relations and
social media. Websites: www.sclero
derma.org, www.brogan.com.
Technical Writing Solutions LLC,
Rochester, was selected by Acromag
Inc., Wixom, to develop and write the
user manuals for an upcoming line
of computer-based input/output devices. Websites: www.twsinfo.com,
www.acromag.com.
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, Southfield, was selected by Times Equities
Inc., New York, as the exclusive leasing and management agent for Travelers Towers I & II in Southfield. Website: www.ngkf.com.
Brendy Barr Communications LLC,
Rochester, was chosen to handle
public relations initiatives for the expected September opening of Huerto
Restaurant & Tequila Bar, West
Bloomfield
Township.
Websites: www.barrcommunications.com,
www.huertotequilabar.com.
Fraunhofer USA Inc., Plymouth, with
the University of Connecticut, Storrs,
Conn., established the Fraunhofer
Center for Energy Innovation to develop advanced technologies related to
energy storage, fuel cells, in-stream
hydro, power management and distribution through contract research. The
center will closely cooperate with the
Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems in Boston. Website:
www.fraunhofer.org.
Hirschmann Car Communication Inc.,
Auburn Hills, worked together with
Freightliner Trucks, a division of
Daimler Trucks North America LLC,
Portland, Ore., to improve aerodynamics. A film antenna package developed by Hirschmann eliminates cab
and roof antennas that cause air resistance on large trucks, protecting antennas during operation. Website:
www.hirschmann-car.com.
Auto Club Group, Dearborn, signed a
multiyear contract with United Shore
Financial Services LLC, Troy, to sell
AAA-branded home loan products to
AAA members in Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Websites: www.michigan.aaa.com.
www.unitedshore.com.
PKC Group plc, a Finnish company
with an office in Farmington Hills,
was awarded a $16 million contract for
wiring harnesses from Deutz Corp.,
Norcross, Ga., the world’s largest independent diesel engine manufacturer. Website: www.pkcgroup.com.
ImageSoft Inc., Southfield, was selected by the California First District
Court of Appeal, San Francisco, to implement TrueFiling, an electronic filing solution, as the court’s e-filing system. Website: www.imagesoftinc.com.
Meritor Inc., Troy, completed the sale
of its 50 percent ownership interest in
Suspensys Sistemas Automotivos
Ltda., Brazil, to its joint venture partner Randon S.A. Implementos e Participacoes. The purchase price closing
for Meritor’s ownership interest was
$195 million in cash and other considerations. Website: www.meritor.com.
Royal Park Hotel, Rochester, is now affiliated with Worldhotels’ Deluxe
Collection, an exclusive collection
of independent hotels. Websites:
www.worldhotels.com, www.royal
parkhotel.net.
EXPANSIONS
Creative Circle LLC, Los Angeles, a
specialized staffing agency representing advertising, creative marketing,
visual communication and interactive
professionals, opened an office at 2000
Town Center, Suite 1900, Southfield.
Website: www.creativecircle.com.
SHW Group LLP, Berkley, an architecture and engineering and planning
firm, completed a 13,480-square-foot
expansion that doubles the size of its
office. Website: www.shwgroup.com.
Consumers Energy Co., Jackson, completed a $175 million natural gas system upgrade at its Ray Compressor
Station, Armada Township. The main
focus was the installation of five engines to drive compressors so that natural gas can be stored underground
for delivery to the transmission system
and
customers.
Website:
www.consumersenergy.com.
Parks Title Co., Royal Oak, opened an
office at 17197 N. Laurel Park Drive,
Suite 273, Livonia. Telephone:
(734) 838-3910. Website: www.parksti
tle.com.
Art Van Furniture, Warren, signed an
agreement with Erickson Appliance &
Furniture to open a franchise store
called Art Van Furniture & Erickson
Appliance, 3889 I-75 Business Spur,
Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. The store, located in the former Shunk Furniture
building, is being renovated and is
scheduled to open later this year.
Website: www.artvan.com.
Sachs Waldman PC, Detroit, is opening an additional office at 1423 E. 12
Mile Road, Madison Heights. The location will be home to the law firm’s employee benefits practice. Website:
www.sachswaldman.com.
MERGERS
Versa Development, Southfield, a privately owned real estate development
company, and Helm Realty Partners
LLC, Beverly Hills, merged and retained the name Versa Development.
Website: www.versacos.com.
Bliss McGlynn PC, Troy, joined
Howard & Howard Attorneys PLC, Royal Oak. Founded in 1994, Bliss McGlynn PC will carry on under the
Howard & Howard name. Website:
www.howardandhoward.com.
MOVES
Continuity Programs Inc., a provider
of customer relationship marketing
and client retention strategies, moved
its headquarters from 4375 Pineview
Drive to 8451 Boulder Court, Walled
Lake. Telephone: (800) 521-0026. Website: www.continuityprograms.com.
Field Service Engineering, Troy, is
moving its corporate headquarters to
Page 35
Hart County, Ga. Website: www.fse
qualityimprovement.com.
Sachs Waldman PC from 1000 Farmer
St., to the UAW-Chrysler National
Training Center Building, 2211 E. Jefferson Ave., Suite 200, Detroit. Telephone: (313) 965-3464. Website:
www.sachswaldman.com.
ABSOLUTE AUCTION
Ryan Snoek
Lic. No.: 6501366711
(248) 720-7898
[email protected]
NEW PRODUCTS
Preh Inc., Novi, a control system specialist and subsidiary of Joyson Electronics, Ningbo, China, developed a
solution for the rear climate control
system for the new Mercedes-Benz
S-Class. Website: www.preh.com.
Eloquest Healthcare, Ferndale, a subsidiary of Ferndale Pharma Group
Inc., launched the ReliaFit male
urinary device, an external catheter
that minimizes the risk of urinary
tract infections often associated with
indwelling
catheters.
Website:
www.eloquesthealthcare.com.
PSI Repair Services Inc., Livonia, a
subsidiary of Phillips Service Industries Inc., Livonia, introduced a costeffective drop-in replacement for obsolete Xantrex Matrix Inverters found
in GE 1.5 MW S Series wind turbines.
PSI also offers repair services for
Xantrex Matrix Inverters from GE
1.5MW S Series wind turbines. Website: www.psi-repair.com.
Marley Beverage Co., created in partnership with the family of late reggae
musician Bob Marley and a joint partnership with Viva Beverages LLC,
Southfield, launched Marley’s One
Drop, a ready-to-drink iced coffee
made with Jamaican coffee. The company’s line of Marley drinks is available at convenience, grocery and mass
merchandise retailers nationwide.
Website: www.drinkmarley.com.
Comcast Corp., Philadelphia, announced the launch in Michigan of
Xfinity Home Control, which offers
video monitoring, real-time alerts and
the ability to schedule or remotely access lighting and thermostat controls.
Website: comcastcorporation.com.
xfinity.com/home.
Starting Bid: $0
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BID ONLINE SEPT 9-11
SEARCH CODE: B113-100
Detroit, MI
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The Detroit Free Press building features over 289,000 SF of downtown development opportunity. The
project is an extremely rare and unique opportunity due to its approval for over $30 million in local, state
and federal tax credits and incentives.
VIEW DETAILS AT WWW.AUCTION.COM/DETROITFREEPRESS
BROKERS AND OWNERS, SELL YOUR COMMERCIAL OR RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY
Brokers retain your commission. No auction listing fees. Call 888-774-3852 or visit www.auction.com/sell
USE THE SEARCH CODE TO EASILY FIND A FEATURED ASSET.
Simply enter the code in the Auction.com search bar
WWW.AUCTION.COM
EXAMPLE:
B113-100
The nation’s leading online
real estate marketplace.
Up to $30+ million in approved tax credits available, subject to special terms and conditions. Auction.com, LLC, 1 Mauchly, Irvine, CA 92618, (800) 499-6199. MI Auction.com RE Brkr
6505355610. The information being provided in connection with the auction is for informational purposes only. No representations or warranties are being made as to the accuracy or
completeness of any information provided. Documents and pictures may not represent the current condition of the property at the time of sale. All properties, notes and/or loan pools are
being sold “AS IS, WHERE IS, WITH ALL FAULTS AND LIMITATIONS” and all sales are “FINAL.” Prospective bidders are encouraged to conduct their own due diligence and investigate all matters
relating to the properties, notes and/or loan pool that they are interested in purchasing. No prospective bidder may trespass on any property, disturb the occupants, or contact the borrowers, if
any. It is recommended that prospective bidders seek independent advice, including legal advice, to perform due diligence and to fully understand the auction process in general. Subject to
auction terms and conditions as may be posted for the event.
NEW SERVICES
Henkel Corp., Madison Heights, and
its longtime partner Cavist Corp.,
Reno, Nev., announced the ability to
provide local prototyping for low-pressure injection molding at Henkel’s automotive headquarters in Madison
Heights. Website: www.henkel.com/
automotive.
Hino Trucks U.S.A., Novi, announced
HinoCare, a two-year or 60,000-mile
preventative service care program
available free on all 2013 and 2014
model year 915 and 195 double-cab
trucks delivered between July 1,
2013, and March 31, 2014. Website:
www.hino.com.
STARTUPS
S.E.T. Products Inc., designer and
manufacturer of the S.E.T. system of
patented steel covers used to protect
the door and window openings of vacant, foreclosed and abandoned properties, opened at 3631 Parkinson St.,
Detroit. Telephone: (248) 914-0138.
Website: www.set-products.com.
Schock, Solaiman, Ramdayal PLLC, a
law firm formed by attorneys Benjamin Schock, Erin Solaiman and Farrah Ramdayal, opened at 37060
Garfield Road, Suite C-1, Clinton
Township. Telephone: (586) 239-0871.
Website: www.ssrlawoffice.com.
DIARY GUIDELINES
Send news releases for Business
Diary to Departments, Crain’s
Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot
Ave., Detroit, MI 48207-2997 or
send e-mail to cdbdepartments@
crain.com. Use any Business Diary
item as a model for your release,
and look for the appropriate
category. Without complete
information, your item will not run.
Photos are welcome, but we cannot
guarantee they will be used.
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20130812-NEWS--0036-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
10:15 AM
Page 1
Page 36
August 12, 2013
PEOPLE
ARCHITECTURE
CONSULTING
Kent Hatcher to director of business
development, Humantech Inc., Ann
Arbor, from managing consultant/
ergonomics engineer.
EDUCATION
John Satkowski to
vice president of
financial
services, Henry Ford
Henderson
Community College, Dearborn,
Pinterpe
Satkowski
from vice president of finance
and administration, Owens Community College,
Toledo.
FINANCE
Stockwell
Valeri
Advantage One Federal Credit
Union,
Brownstown
Township, has
named Jessica
Barefoot COO.
She succeeds
Dwight
Emanuel, who
left the
company.
Barefoot, 31,
most recently
Barefoot
was the credit
union’s vice president of marketing
and communications.
She earned an associate degree in
fine arts/graphic design from
Henry Ford Community College,
Dearborn, and a Bachelor of
Business Administration with a
major in marketing from Davenport
University, Dearborn.
program director,
Michigan
Area
Health Education
Center, Detroit, a
Wayne State University program.
He is an assistant
professor and director of patient
safety in the Department of FamiTsilimingras
ly Medicine and
Public Health Sciences at Wayne
State University School of Medicine.
INSURANCE
Rosanne Genise to director of credit
and billing services, Amerisure Mutual Insurance Co., Farmington Hills,
from control assessment lead, strategic process design and controls department.
LAW
Daniel Bliss to
partner, Howard
and Howard Attorneys PLLC, Royal
Oak, from founding shareholder,
Bliss
McGlynn
PC, Troy. Also,
from accountant.
GOVERNMENT
Madland
Joseph Colaianne
Miller
Heather Madland to vice president of
deal origination, Huron Capital Partners LLC, Detroit, from SPP Capital
Partners LLC, San Francisco. Also,
Mark Miller to vice president, transaction team, from senior associate, Glencoe Capital LLC, Birmingham.
Jeff Grad to senior accountant, Baker
Colaianne
to corporate counsel, Huron-Clinton
Metroparks, Brighton, from attorney
and insurance administrator, Oakland County Water
Resources
Commission, Waterford Township.
MEDIA
Dennis Tsilimingras, M.D., to co-
Tilly Virchow Krause LLP, Southfield,
from accountant. Also, Nicole Kuhn,
Kirstyn Reinholm, Nick Theis and
Kevin Welch to senior accountant,
Dwayne Henderson to technology service group leader, SHW Group,
Berkley, from technology designer,
Heapy Engineering, Dayton, Ohio.
Also, Beth Pinterpe to associate and
senior project manager, from associate, senior architect, Integrated Design Solutions Inc., Troy; Troy Stockto
engineering
building
well
information modeling coordinator,
from lead building information modeling drafter/Revit standards coordinator, Wightman & Associates Inc.,
Portage; and Joseph Valeri to project
manager, from facilities project manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Detroit.
HEALTH CARE
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Gerald McGlynn
III to partner,
Bliss
from
founding
shareholder, Bliss
McGlynn PC.
MANUFACTURING
Leonard Fox to director of operations,
Integrated Manufacturing and Assembly LLC, Detroit, from plant manager.
McCann
Jake McCann to director of sales,
Greater Media Detroit, Ferndale, from
general sales manager, 97.5 The Fanatic/950 ESPN, Greater Media Philadelphia, Bala Cynwyd, Penn.
Jim Boyle to senior consultant, New
Economy Initiative, The Community
Foundation for Southeast Michigan,
Detroit, from vice president of integrated marketing for Lovio George
Communications and Design, Detroit.
PEOPLE GUIDELINES
Announcements are limited to
management positions. Send
submissions to Departments,
Crain’s Detroit Business, 1155
Gratiot Ave., Detroit, MI 482072997, or send email to
[email protected].
Releases must contain the person’s
name, new title, company, city in
which the person will work, former
title, former company (if not
promoted from within) and former
city in which the person worked.
Photos are welcome, but we cannot
guarantee they will be used.
What would you do with an
extra $350 for your business?
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all sizes, right here in your area.
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Offer expires August 31, 2013.
Boyle
brighthouse.com/business
20130812-NEWS--0037-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
4:36 PM
Page 1
August 12, 2013
Page 37
Troy: Ownership dispute goes on as construction continues
■ From Page 3
taking place.
The city asked the Michigan
Supreme Court to take up the case a
few weeks ago, but has also requested an assessment on the
property from an outside consultant, which is expected soon. The
assessment would be a precursor
to a possible condemnation case
in court against Grand/Sakwa to
retake the site if the courts continue to side with the developer.
“We expect a grand opening for
the center to be around Sept. 1, assuming no unforeseen circumstances,” said Troy City Attorney
Lori Grigg Bluhm. “And we have a
last support, which would be condemnation, that we have to initiate
if we don’t get relief in the courts.”
Meanwhile, Grand/Sakwa recently made its own offer to resolve the dispute with Troy, but
city officials haven’t responded to
it other than by asking the
Supreme Court to take up the
court case, said Alan Greene, partner at Dykema Gossett PLLC in Detroit and attorney for Grand/Sakwa. He declined to elaborate on the
offer.
“It’s a proposal to resolve the
whole thing, but really there are
other issues for us besides the
ownership of the property,”
Greene said. “Even if they achieve
ownership, their only real access
to the site is by way of our private
road.
“So we’ve been asking about
traffic loads, liability insurance,
and how they plan to control traffic and parking so people don’t
park on our property.”
Grand/Sakwa agreed to sell a
portion of its 77-acre development
for $1 to develop the transit center,
which broke ground last November. It transferred title to 2.7 acres
to Troy in 2001, but the terms of the
sale called for the land to revert to
MARKET PLACE
AUCTIONS
Court-Ordered
Auction
Absolute Auction
Wednesday
Oct27
24 10
11am
am
Tuesday Aug
71,250 SF Commercial Bldg
1782 O’Rourke, Gaylord, MI
BUSINESSES FOR SALE
AUCTIONS
LICENSED PLANNING FIRM
Looking for licensed planning individual,
company and/or law firm with expert
knowledge in municipal ordinances and
zoning law. We are creating an innovative
company. Serious responses only. Those
qualified
please
send
name
and
qualifications to: [email protected]
Seeing Green!
Unique, Established, Profitable Retail
Business for Sale
Landmark Macomb County Location.
Inventory, fixtures & goodwill equal multiples of
asking price. Video tells all, view it at:
www.ownitnow.net and call (586)506-5311
HIDDEN HORNS GAME Ranch
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Grosse Pointe Woods Retail Business
(855) 353-1100
Call Us For Personalized
Service: (313) 446-6068
FAX: (313) 446-1757
E-MAIL: [email protected]
INTERNET:
www.crainsdetroit.com/section/classifieds
See
Crainsdetroit.com/Section/Classifieds
for more classified advertisements
Continous Operation Since 1971
WAYNE COUNTY AIRPORT
AUTHORITY DETROIT METRO
AIRPORT PROCUREMENT
(734) 247-7900
Solicitation information available at:
www.mitn.info
RFQ 130098
Landside Airport Real Estate Development
Pre-Response
8/21/13 10:00 AM
Bid Deadline:
9/17/13 2:00 PM
Call or email today for information
on a custom advertising plan!
[email protected]
313.446.6068
149± Acres, High-Fenced
Hidden Horns Game Ranch specializes in
trophy hunting adventures. The ranch is
currently booking hunts for this upcoming
season and has several hunts already
scheduled that the new buyer will honor.
POSITIONS AVAILABLE
State Administrative Manager
15-Chief of Southern Field
Operations
The Michigan Department of Natural
Resources, Parks and Recreation Division is
seeking to hire a Chief of Southern Field
Operations responsible for assisting the
Parks and Recreation Division Chief in the
administration and supervision of the
Southern field operations for the Parks and
Recreation Division. This position is also
responsible for management and operation
of Southern Michigan state parks and
recreation areas, trails, boating facilities, and
partnerships.
Please visit the State of Michigan Civil
Service website at www.michigan.gov/mdcs
and click on "State Jobs". Select the State
Administrative Manager 15 position within
Natural Resources.
In order to be considered for this position
you must follow the directions on the Civil
Service website and submit required
information and college transcripts as noted.
TECHNICAL
HP Enterprise Services, LLC
is accepting resumes for the position of
Business Consultant in Novi, MI (Ref.
#TESNOVRPA1). Provide business
domain solution, process, strategy,
business case and change consulting to
client at various levels up to senior
management. The business domain
includes industry specific business
processes and function specific business
process such as HR, accounting and IT.
Telecommuting permitted. Mail resume to
HP Enterprise Services, LLC, 5400 Legacy
Drive, MS H1-6F-61, Plano, TX 75024.
Resume must include Ref. #, full name,
email address & mailing address. No
phone calls please. Must be legally
authorized to work in the U.S. without
sponsorship. EOE.
Advertise your
Products and Services in
Crain’s Detroit Business
AVAILABLE NOW
Taylor/Romulus Area Near Detroit Metro Airport
4,000 to 80,000 sq. ft.
Ideal for logistics, mfg., service co., distribution,
office warehouse etc. Call for Availability
Yvon Rea 734-946-8730 or
visit our website www.reaconstruction.net
INVESTMENT PROPERTY
SOUTH HAVEN, MI REAL ESTATE AUCTION
22440 Cutler Road, Howard City, MI
$250,000.00
ONLINE AUCTION
MARINA & HOMESITES IN RESORT
COMMUNITY HARBOR CLUB - BULK SALE
ONLINE BIDDING ENDS AT 2PM
LOT 1: Approx 110 MARINA SLIPS plus newly
Friday, September 6th
Upscale Coffee Café for Sale
Excellent South Oakland County location. Café
is only two years old and everything was
purchased new. Includes micro coffee roaster.
Owner is retiring. Call for details:
(248)770-1065
(517) 676-9800
www.SheridanAuctionService.com
renovated clubhouse & swimming pool.
TO BE SOLD IN BULK.
Previously Valued Up to $4,250,000
SOLD SUBJECT TO A MINIMUM BID OF $1,250,000
LOT 2: Approx 200 IMPROVED HOMESITES ON 40
ACRES TO BE SOLD IN BULK. Previously Valued
Up to $20,000,000 Suggested Open Bid:
$3,500,000
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
Online Bidding: Sept 2 - 10, 2013
ENTREPRENEUR LOOKING TO BUY
ATTENTION MARKETING
COMPANY OWNERS!
RICK LEVIN & ASSOCIATES INC.
Are you trying to figure out your exit
strategy? What will become of your
company, your staff, and your customers?
A privately held, international marketing
company is looking to expand through
acquisition. If you are looking to sell your
marketing firm, let’s talk and find out if
there are any synergies. Contact the owner
directly, 100% confidential and private,
email:[email protected] or
(248)891-2020
FOR SALE
(312) 440-2000
Class-A - 5,500 SF - Office Condo
6745 Daly Road, West Bloomfield, MI
WWW.RICKLEVIN.COM
•Priced to Sell - $675,000
•Upgraded Finishes Throughout
•Plug & Play with Workstation & Phone System
•Lower Level Storage
•Fall Availability
•Abundant Surface Parking
JOB FRONT
INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY
Positive 6-figure earnings
Serious Inquiries; Bob 313-715-6767
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
If the Supreme Court refuses to
hear the case, or sides with
Grand/Sawka, the city would
have to make a good-faith offer on
the property backed by an assessment.
If the company rejects that offer, Troy can take Grand/Sakwa
to court and seek a judge’s order
taking back possession of the center.
The Supreme Court could consider Troy’s request to appeal as
early as Sept. 17.
Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796,
[email protected].
Twitter:
@chadhalcom
REAL ESTATE
BUSINESS SERVICES
6.43 AC • 100% Air Conditioned &
Sprinklered • Zoned M-1 • Adjacent to
Airport • Steel Building • Easy Access
to I-75 • Paved Parking • 32’ x 40’
Maintenance Bldg. • Air, Water, & Gas
Lines Throughout • 3 Phase 440v
Inspection: Fri, Aug 16, 10 am-12 pm
See Website for Full Terms and Conditions
Seller: Kimball 10% Buyer’s Premium
Jim Vander Veen: 317-473-2291
Grand/Sawka in 10 years if the
city hadn’t funded a transit center
project by that time.
Troy and neighboring Birmingham had secured several funding
commitments from federal and
other sources for the center, with
a preliminary estimated cost of
$8.4 million that the City Council
later reduced to about $6.4 million.
But Grand/Sakwa contended
that the project didn’t reach full
funding in time as the consent
judgment requires and sought to
revert the property. Birmingham
withdrew from the project in 2011.
The Crain’s reader:
26.5% influence the
purchase of office/industrial
and commercial space.
Help them find you by
advertising in Crain’s Real
Estate section.
313.446.6068 • FAX: 313.446.1757
E-Mail: [email protected]
WATERFRONT PROPERTY
CROOKED LAKE
PETOSKEY WATERFONT
Contact: (248)540-1000
[email protected]
[email protected]
2 Corporate Drive, Suite 300
Southfield, MI 48076
www.Colliers.com
10,843sf Retail Building &
6,014±sf Greenhouse on 6.98± Acres
901 North State Road (M-15), Davison, MI
Open House: Wednesday, August 14th (1-3pm)
6 Vacant Subdivision Lots
Waters Edge Ln., Fenton, MI
1± Acre Corner Commercial Lot
N. State Rd. (M-15) & Stanley Rd., Davison
3.67± Acres with 30x48 Pole Barn
M-57 (Vienna Rd) & McKinley Rd, Montrose
1.77± Acre Corner Commercial Lot
Dort Hwy. & E. Stanley Rd., Mt. Morris
1.88± Acre Corner Commercial Lot
E. Atherton Rd. & S. Irish Rd., Davison, MI
2.91± Acre Commercial Lot
Lapeer Rd., Davison, MI
7 ONLINE-ONLY AUCTIONS
Wednesday, August 28th
See website for individual bid deadlines!
(517) 676-9800
www.SheridanAuctionService.com
bCrooked Lake Inland Waterway
b202 Feet on Water
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20130812-NEWS--0038-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
5:44 PM
Page 1
Page 38
Telemus: Client-centric
■ From Page 3
Quicken pitches ARMs as rates creep up
BY JODY SHENN AND HEATHER PERLBERG
as marketing, technology and
growth-oriented operations, said
Chairman and Partner Gary Ran.
Being able to remain an independent
firm
while tapping
Focus’ expertise and new investment made
the deal attractive for Telemus, he said.
Telemus
plans to use the
new capital to
Ran
pursue acquisitions of other registered investment advisers in Michigan, among
other things.
“We want to be a consolidator.
There are a lot of (registered investment advisers) we want to talk
to,” Ran said.
Telemus is also looking for opportunities to add asset managers
to improve its clients’ experience,
said Partner and Senior Adviser
Lyle Wolberg. Specific headcount
increases aren’t yet known.
Ran, Wolberg and Partner/Senior Adviser Bob Stone, all former Merrill Lynch and UBS Financial
Services executives, were among
the founders of Telemus when it
launched in 2005, with about $1.2
billion in assets under either advisement or in active management.
Today, Telemus also counts
Mary Bakhaus and Joshua Levine
as partners, employs 10 advisers,
and manages more than $2.2 billion in assets for high-net-worth
individual clients and institutions,
Wolberg said.
Telemus declined to release revenue, but Ran said fees in the
wealth management industry average 1 percent. That would put
revenue for the company at
around $23 million.
Focus CEO Rudy Adolph said
his group was attracted by Telemus’ position as one of the leading
wealth management firms in the
country, along with its client-centric focus.
“We believe it’s a very scaleable
model,” he said.
Focus, which has invested in 25
other independent, U.S. wealth
management companies and one
in Manchester, England, did not
pursue majority control in the
Telemus deal, Adolph said.
“The golden rule in the partnership model is you never turn an
entrepreneur into an employee,”
he said. “We invest, ultimately, in
the people who run the business.”
The companies aligned with Focus collectively manage well over
$60 billion in assets. Crain’s New
York Business reported 2011 revenue of $179.6 million. They provide wealth management services,
and benefit and investment consulting services, to individuals,
families, employers and institutions. The deal between Telemus
and Focus was more than seven
years in the making. Focus first
approached Telemus in the fall of
2005, Ran said, but Focus’ model
wasn’t fully developed at that
point, and Telemus was just starting out.
What finally spurred Telemus to
agree to align with Focus?
Finding capital has been more
and more difficult since 2008, Wolberg said.
Telemus’ partners also got the
chance to watch how Focus developed its business, Ran said.
“It was an unproven formula;
now it’s proven,” he said.
Focus’ investment in Telemus
shows not only a vote of confidence in the local company itself,
but in the growth potential for the
Midwest and Michigan, said David
Sowerby, portfolio managerin the
Bloomfield Hills office of asset
manager Loomis Sayles & Co. LP.
The metro Detroit financial services and investment market is a
potential growth industry relative
to where it was 20 years ago, he
said, adding that the market is
“more fragmented than not.”
“There’s growth potential via
acquisitions (and) via individuals
wanting to do business with people
they see at the local grocery store
... or run into at a baseball game,
instead of someone who parachutes in from New York,” Sowerby said.
Sherri Welch: (313) 446-1694,
[email protected].
Twitter:
@sherriwelch
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BLOOMBERG NEWS
Detroit-based Quicken Loans Inc., the online home
lender that jumped last year to No. 3 in U.S. originations, is pitching more adjustable rate mortgages as
rising rates put an end to the refinancing boom.
About 20 percent of Quicken applications are for adjustable rates, up from 5 percent earlier this year, said
Bob Walters, vice president of its capital markets
group. The loans, which typically have fixed rates for
set periods before adjusting, are now a better option
than 30-year fixed mortgages for many borrowers, including people refinancing fixed loans, since they
probably won’t own a home for three decades, he said.
“People on average move every seven to 10 years,”
said Walters, who is also Quicken’s chief economist.
“All that security they’re paying for with a higher
rate generally isn’t used.”
Mortgage lenders are looking for ways to keep
borrowers coming as rising rates choke off demand,
especially for refinancing, where applications have
dropped 57 percent from this year’s high in May.
Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. home lender, expects volume to slide the rest of this year, and J.P.
Morgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon predicted “a
dramatic reduction in profits.”
Borrowing costs are climbing because of speculation the Federal Reserve will scale back its effort to
stimulate the economy with low interest rates. The
impact on mortgage securities has been uneven,
widening the gap in June between five-year ad-
justable mortgages and 30-year traditional loans to
the biggest since at least 2004.
Nationally, rates on 30-year fixed mortgages have
climbed to 4.4 percent, from a near-record low 3.35
percent in early May. Five-year ARMs climbed to 3.19
percent, from 2.56 percent, according to Freddie Mac
surveys. The difference between the two reached 1.38
percentage points in the last week of June.
That gap is where Quicken sees an opportunity,
Walters said. This company last week was offering
five-year ARMs at 2.88 percent and 30-year fixed loans
for 4.25 percent, according to its website. The pitch
for the ARMs, which it calls “Amazing 5 Mortgages,”
was anchored in the center of the lender’s home page.
At the same time, “there are certain risks inherent in ARMs that aren’t in fixed-rate” mortgages,
said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com, a
Riverdale, N.J.-based mortgage data firm. Adjustments are tied to short-term interest rate benchmarks, which the Fed has held near zero since 2008.
The trick for borrowers is whether they can move or
refinance before those rates head back toward their
historic levels, which exceeded 5 percent as recently
as 2007, or save enough in the meantime.
There are challenges of ARMs to borrowers, some of
who may have been turned down previously, to respond to solicitations, Walters said. Quicken goes after
them with general advertising, and also has relationships with loan servicers — firms that do billing and
collections on existing mortgages — that don’t have
the ability to originate new ones on their own, he said.
Map: Plotting a cooperative course
■ From Page 1
but those zones don’t necessarily line up with those
used by other departments. The same is true with
the environmental permitting process, which requires different permits from different departments
with different service areas.
Aligning those service areas will take time, but is
fairly straightforward. Less so is the consolidation
of the state’s 14 existing planning and development
regions in the state into 10 that also encompass various other entities, such as the Michigan Works
agencies.
Donald Stypula, executive director of the Michigan
Association of Regions, said eventually the 14 existing
planning and development regions in the state that
make up his organization could consolidate and
mirror the new 10-region map. The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments is one of those.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” he said. “We
are trying to deal as best we can.”
The program is voluntary, but Stypula said most
regions understand they can be stronger if they
combine operations.
SEMCOG, for example, would grow under the new
system, encompassing two of the 10 new regions. It
would lose St. Clair County, but pick up Lenawee,
Jackson and Hillsdale counties, said SEMCOG Executive Director Paul Tait.
SEMCOG also encompasses Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston, Monroe and Washtenaw counties.
The Region II Planning Commission represents Jackson, Lenawee and Hillsdale counties now, and
would have to begin discussions with SEMCOG if
the two were to consolidate. Region II’s executive director, Steve Duke, did not return a message seeking
comment.
The counties involved would also have to vote for
the change, because they pay dues to Region II and
would be switching to SEMCOG, Stypula said.
The initiative provides a voluntary competitive
grant process that aims to help regions create a common economic vision.
Funding for the new $2.5 million program comes
from a proposal that was included in the 2014 budget
as part of Snyder’s executive office budget.
Snyder’s initiative sets up three increasingly integrated ways for how state-designated planning regions or metropolitan planning organizations can
receive funding.
All three require participation from representatives from business and nonprofits, as well as representatives from local and regional economic development organizations, workforce boards, adult
education providers and higher education.
A regional prosperity collaborative can receive
up to $250,000 to create a five-year regional “prosperity” economic development plan.
The next level would be a regional prosperity
council, which can receive up to $375,000 and would
have various economic development related agencies shared administrative services through a formal designated agreement. There would be an executive governing entity and a prioritized list of
regional projects.
The most integrated level would be a regional
prosperity board that can receive up to $500,000 and
would have consolidated its regional metropolitan
planning organization board, state-designated regional planning agency board, workforce development board and federally designated economic development district.
In SEMCOG’s case, it is already the regional metropolitan planning organization, the state-designated regional planning agency and the federally designated economic development district for the seven
counties it covers. But workforce, for example, is
separate.
In the new nine-county region that SEMCOG
would eventually represent, there are seven workforce agencies.
Christine Quinn, director of Michigan’s Workforce
Development Agency, said there are 25 Michigan
Works agencies in the state that will now begin to
work more collaboratively.
She said she does not foresee any consolidation of
those 25, but has been encouraging the directors of
those agencies to start reaching out to nearby directors inside the new region with whom they may
have not previously had much interaction.
There are about a half-dozen Michigan Works
agencies that cover multiple counties, which overlap into more than one of the new regions. In those
instances, Quinn has told those directors to either
work with both regions, or pick one or the other.
Tait said SEMCOG plans to apply for the regional
prosperity collaborative funding.
Stypula said the changes will take a number of
years, in part because organizations need to complete current grants and contracts.
Tait agrees, but said it will take a few years before
everything is phased in.
“But I think we can make some pretty substantial
strides in the next few months,” he said.
For more information, visit michigan.gov/
regionalprosperity.
Chris Gautz: (517) 403-4403, [email protected].
Twitter: @chrisgautz
20130812-NEWS--0039-NAT-CCI-CD_--
August 12, 2013
8/9/2013
4:35 PM
Page 1
Page 39
Bistros: Small is big in Birmingham
■ From Page 3
be appealing to a lot of people,”
Chapman said. “I think that if you
look at other trends in the nation,
formality has been toned down. It
makes sense that dining is following suit.”
She said another reason for the
change is the higher education level of diners and their desire to consume higher-quality ingredients.
“Customers are focusing on what
a pig eats rather than the ways it
has been manipulated to make it
taste better,” Chapman said. “This
is not an overnight sensation. This
is part of a long-term trend.”
But the success of Birmingham’s
restaurants has as much to do with
their layout as their cuisine.
Size does matter
Jeremy Sasson, owner of Townhouse Bistro at 180 Pierce St., says
the economies of scale are too unbalanced for large restaurants to
make it in downtown Birmingham. They are too big to fill in the
summer and have an even harder
time staying busy in the winter.
And the market is showing as
much. Since 2010, three of Birmingham’s largest restaurants
closed their doors.
When Zazios was open, it had a
dining room that could seat
around 210. Bistros top out at 65 indoor seats, plus seasonal outdoor
seating.
Sasson said the success shared
by bistros over their larger counterparts is partly attributed to
their ability to provide preferable
seating outside or near a window,
which gives them a competitive
advantage during nice weather.
“No one wants to sit 80 feet away
from a window in a 10,000-squarefoot restaurant during the spring or
summer, Sasson said. “I wouldn’t
open a restaurant in Birmingham
that didn’t have outdoor seating.
We are a four-season market; people
want to experience all of them.”
When winter comes, Sasson
said, large restaurants suffer because there isn’t enough foot traffic to fill them.
“This is not New York City,
where bundles of people stand on
the corners looking for restaurants,” he said. “It’s not that big
restaurants can’t be successful
here; I just don’t think they are designed to be successful.”
Sasson said diners, whether on a
date or in a group, want to be in a
room full of people and energy.
“At 8,000 or 10,000 square feet,
it’s hard to create a small-restaurant feel,” Sasson said. “How do
you make a big, half-empty room
feel electric?”
Sasson, who spent $500,000 to
open the 1,200-square-foot Townhouse Bistro in 2011, said its smaller footprint allows him to fill the
restaurant more often during the
summer, subsidizing lower traffic
in the winter.
He said Townhouse Bistro turns
about four tables per night during
the spring and summer months,
about an hour and 10 minutes per
meal.
But “the real question is how
much money a single seat generates over the course of a year,” he
said. “What kind of dollars-per-seat
does a bistro gross versus a large
restaurant with more overhead?
BIRMINGHAM BISTROS
The city of Birmingham defines a
bistro as a restaurant with a fullservice kitchen, interior seating for
no more than 65 people and
additional seating for outdoor
dining. There are currently 15
bistros open in Birmingham and
another is slated to open this year.
Here is a list of Birmingham bistros
arranged by date of their bistro
license approval, not the opening
date.
䡲 Elie’s (2007)
䡲 Salvatore Scallopini (2007)
䡲 Cosi (2007)
䡲 Bistro Joe’s (2007)
䡲 Forest Grill (2007)
䡲 Café Via (2007)
䡲 Toast (2008)
䡲 Luxe Bar & Grill (2009)
䡲 Tallulah’s (2009)
䡲 Bella Piatti (2010)
䡲 Churchill’s (2011)
䡲 Townhouse (2011)
䡲 Social Kitchen & Bar (2012)
䡲 Birmingham Sushi Cafe (2013)
䡲 What Crepe? (2013)
䡲 Market (2013), not yet open
That is going to be the difference.”
Sasson said the trick to running
a successful restaurant is finding
the balance between table-turns
and check averages.
“There is a break-even point for
every chair in every restaurant,
from fine dining to fast casual,” he
said.
Dressing down
Zack Sklar, owner of Social
Kitchen, says another reason for the
movement away from large-scale
restaurants is a change in customer
tastes.
People want
“
casual, approachable
food, and that is
exactly what a bistro
is supposed to be.
”
Brian Polcyn, Forest Grill
The menu at Social Kitchen, at
225 E. Maple Road, is wide-ranging, from burgers to falafel, but
nothing is priced above $28.
Sklar said he spent about $1 million opening Social Kitchen, the
largest of all of the bistros in Birmingham at 5,000 square feet, including the patio and rooftop.
“The era of the white tablecloth
is over,” Sklar said. “Even the bigname chefs in New York are saying the restaurants that make
money are their bistros, not the
three-star Michelin restaurants.”
Brian Polcyn, owner of Forest
Grill, at 735 Forest Ave., agrees.
Polcyn and Nick Janutol, Polcyn’s new chef de cuisine, recently
dressed down Forest Grill to make
it more appealing to casual diners.
Gone are the white tablecloths
and the black-clad servers, a product of the dining public’s changing
taste.
“We are 5 years old this August.
You have to evolve,” Polcyn said.
“A chef is more than a cook; you
have to push the envelope. When I
see someone on my coattails, I
move on to the next thing. I say
bring it on.”
He said the region is finally
catching on to European-style dining, in which simple food served in
a relaxed setting is most desirable.
“People want casual, approachable food, and that is exactly what a
bistro is supposed to be: a neighborhood restaurant,” Polcyn said.
“Food and restaurants in Birmingham have to be approachable now.”
Playing catch-up
Hubert Yaro says he took what
he learned from his time in New
York City and Los Angeles and
brought it to Birmingham when he
opened Commonwealth Café at 300
Hamilton Row in 2010.
But, he said, it took two years for
the public to catch on to the cuisine
at the breakfast and lunch café.
“The first year was a struggle,”
Yaro said. “But I think there was
pent-up demand for locally sourced,
organic cuisine.”
Now, it’s difficult to get a table
at the 44-seat restaurant without a
wait.
“The challenge is that you might
not instantly get the crowd, and it
may take a little while,” Yaro said.
“There has been a movement in
food; it’s not revolutionary. It’s a
back-to-basics movement that a lot
of people are interested in.”
Commonwealth is open for
breakfast and lunch from 7:30 a.m.
to 4 p.m.
On the east side of Woodward
Avenue, Anthony Curtis, owner of
Papa Joe’s Gourmet Market & Catering LLC, spent just less than $1 million to open Bistro Joe’s overlooking his Papa Joe’s grocery store.
Curtis said he and Jacques Van
Staden, the Michelin-rated executive chef of Bistro Joe’s, doubled
the sales projection they set for the
restaurant’s first year to $4 million
from $2 million.
“People here were ready for a
change, and they are showing it,”
said Curtis, who obtained a bistro
license in 2007 but took several
years to open the restaurant. “Typically the restaurants that have been
opening in Birmingham, other than
Italian and Mediterranean, are all
the same with typical stuff on the
menus.”
Business has been so good at
Bistro Joe’s that Curtis recently
brought in a professional wait-staff
trainer to teach his employees to
handle the crush of customers.
“We have filled up every single
day,” Curtis said. “It doesn’t matter what day it is.”
Curtis said the 3,600-square-foot
restaurant opened in late June and
seats 65 inside and another 70 on
its outdoor patio.
He said its biggest sellers are the
spicy tuna tacushi at $11, salade
nicoise at $16, and the lamb sandwich at $16.
“People are ready for a change,”
Curtis said. “I’ve had people come
to me that travel the world and say
that finally restaurants in Michigan are catching up to the ones in
New York and Los Angeles.”
Nathan Skid: (313) 446-1654,
[email protected].
Twitter:
@NateSkid
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20130812-NEWS--0040-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
4:31 PM
Page 1
Page 40
August 12, 2013
Houses: Inventory is down, prices up in, of all places, Detroit
■ From Page 3
home price at $9,734, reported RealComp, the Michigan Multiple Listing Service.
But even that doesn’t show the
true price inflation in tiny pockets
of the city.
In June, when Detroit’s median
home price hit $10,500 — the highest
level since 2007 — Midtown clocked
in at $150,000, downtown at $265,000,
Corktown/Hubbard Farms at
$104,000 and New Center area at
$95,000.
But according to Trulia, home
prices are still very low. “Prices are
most undervalued today in Las Vegas and Detroit, even after their
price gains in the past year,” read
the report on spotting bubble markets.
In fact, it’s still 70 percent cheaper to buy in the Motor City than to
rent, making Detroit the nation’s
top city where “buying a home is a
no-brainer,” according to the real
estate website.
Pushing prices higher is a severe
lack of inventory: There were just
2,131 properties for sale in June, a
34.2 percent decline from the previous year, according to RealComp.
That’s primarily because the tide
of foreclosures is slowing. The number of homes in foreclosure dropped
50 percent in June, compared to last
year, to just 448, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketer of these
homes. And properties in foreclosure made up 12.6 percent of the onmarket inventory that month, according to RealComp.
“This is the closest I’ve seen to a
normal real estate market, what
you would see in
another
large
city,” said Ryan
Cooley, owner of
O’Connor Real Estate in Corktown. “This is
the busiest we’ve
ever been. It’s
just tough because of the lack
Cooley
of inventory; we
have a lot of frustrated buyers. …
Even though everybody is much
busier than they have been, sales
are up just a tiny bit from last year.”
Cooley’s phone rings daily with
new residents looking to buy in Detroit — and they are no longer just
investors looking to snap up the
city’s infamous $1,000 homes. Mostly, he said, they are people from out
of town who are looking to move.
“I’m dealing with a lot of people
who are moving here because they
want to move here,” he said. “And
that kind of demand, well, I’ve never had it in the eight years I’ve
been doing real estate.”
The number of occupied housing
units — a measure of how many
people are moving into an area —
has risen in these few pockets of the
urban core. In downtown, home to
many of Detroit’s new tech workers, the rate of occupied homes was
up 5.6 percent in March, to 3,667
households, reported Jed Kolko,
chief economist for Trulia.
In Midtown, the rate ticked up 2.6
percent, to 7,166 households; and in
the ZIP code that primarily encompasses Corktown and a tiny part of
Hubbard Farms, occupied housing
units are up 0.4 percent, to 2,234.
“The fact that Midtown had population growth, that’s a big deal,”
Kolko said. But, he added, things are
Loss of state tax credit hurts redevelopment
BY AMANDA LEWAN
SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
It’s been nearly two years since the state’s
historic preservation tax credit was cut from
the budget, and the loss of the incentive has
hurt residential and commercial redevelopment in Detroit, where almost 19,000 homes are
estimated to head into foreclosure this year.
“The loss of the credit made real estate development and redevelopment more difficult
in an already challenging market,” said David
Howell, managing director for Legacy Advisors
LLC, a Detroit-based real estate advisory firm.
The credit had incentivized homeowners
and commercial developers to rehabilitate
real estate in Detroit’s historic districts. For
commercial developers, it paired the federal
historic tax credit of up to 20 percent of a project’s cost with an additional 5 percent from
the state. For homeowners, the state tax credit
could mean a refund of up to 25 percent of
qualified renovation expenses.
During the state tax credit’s shelf life —
from January 1999 through December 2011 —
nearly 200 projects in the city of Detroit were
approved. It played a role in such high-level
still digging out of a deep trough:
“Although prices continue to rebound, the housing market is far
from healthy. Metro Detroit’s vacancy rate remains the highest, by
far, of all large metros in the U.S.”
Much of the limited improvement has been fueled by an employer-incentive program for
homebuyers and renters in central
neighborhoods such as Midtown,
downtown, Corktown and Woodbridge. Through the Live Downtown and Live Midtown programs,
administered by Midtown Detroit
Inc., participating businesses will
lend employees $20,000 for a down
payment — and forgive the loan if
they stay for at least five years.
“In these incentive areas, prices
have pretty much doubled — or
the appraisal values, at least — in
the last 12-18 months,” Cooley said.
Buying in Detroit was never a
hard sell for Bowman. As an associate professor at the University of
Michigan School of Public Health, she
wanted to be where her research
and work could make a difference.
“There are 200,000 people who
are underinsured here; Detroit has
the second-worst health status of
any major metro in the U.S.,” she
explained. “So I can do a lot more
in a city like Detroit than in Ann
Arbor. I wanted to be there and get
an idea on a day-to-day basis of
what people need and how to help.
That was a key motivator.”
She began house hunting last December and was initially shocked
by the home prices.
“I would scan the lists from Trulia and Zillow every day, and for the
first few weeks, and I was just
laughing,” she said. “I could not
fathom even thinking of buying a
house for under $30,000.”
After three months, she finally
settled for a 1,700-square-foot home
built in 1895. She eventually paid
$80,000 and expects to invest another $60,000 in updates.
She saw the house as a deal — despite its sale price being significantly above the area’s median price of
just less than $25,000 at the time —
because of its character and move-
projects such as the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit
hotel and the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design
Education, formerly the Argonaut building, as
well as numerous local homes.
The largest investments by value occurred in
commercial projects, while the largest number
of investments came on the residential side, according to Robbert McKay, a historic architect
with the State Historic Preservation Office. Overall,
he said, $42.3 million in state historic tax credits
were approved, helping to leverage $122.7 million in federal credits for local developers.
“It was an incredibly popular program,”
McKay said. “The program has helped not
only the commercial core but also encouraged
substantial investment in personal and residential properties, and that was really unique
to the state credit.”
Ryan Cooley, owner of Detroit-based O’Connor Real Estate, sees residential renovation efforts drying up in the city since the state historic tax credit disappeared.
He used the credit in 2005 to renovate his
home in Detroit’s Brush Park neighborhood.
But when he looked at rehabbing a second
property, the repair costs were too high without the benefit of the tax credit.
MEDIAN WELL
June median home prices for
Detroit overall compared with
sections of the city:
䡲 Detroit: $10,500
䡲 Midtown: $150,000
䡲 Downtown: $265,000
䡲 Corktown/Hubbard Farms:
$104,000
䡲 New Center: $95,000
in-ready condition, a rarity in many
of Detroit’s neighborhoods.
“I was prepared to pay a little
more,” Bowman said. “I don’t have
the time or expertise to do a full
renovation. And living in a state of
constant renovation has no appeal
to me.”
Less than six months later, the
median home price for her ZIP
code, which encompasses prime
Corktown and a slice of Hubbard
Farms, is now $104,000.
Quality single-family homes such
as those are fewer in these core
neighborhoods. There is almost no
inventory for sale, and when something in good condition is listed, it
is snapped up almost immediately.
Cooley, for example, recently
showed a house in Indian Village
listed for more than $200,000. The
first viewer on the first day bought
the house for full price.
With the lower inventory and
slowing foreclosures, buyers are
facing bidding wars — and all-cash
deals — to get into them.
“Clients ask us all the time,
‘Should I be overbidding?’ ” said
Dan Elsea, president of brokerage
services for Real Estate One, which
his grandfather started in Detroit
in 1929. “It’s not scientific, but the
rule of thumb we tell them is,
‘What was the house worth at
peak?’ If you’re still buying below
peak, you’re probably still OK.”
The metro area’s average time on
market is now just 66 days — on par
with the six to eight weeks the National Association of Realtors calls a
normal, healthy market — but it
can be even quicker in the city’s hot
neighborhoods. The Corktown
“I ended up having to put $125,000 into my
house,” Cooley said. “It needed all new windows, electric and air conditioning. The credit
was definitely an incentive for me to capture
some of the costs back.”
In place of the state historic tax credit, many
commercial developers are seeking loans and
grants from the state’s Community Revitalization Program, which targets revitalization efforts in areas with historically declining values.
“The Community Revitalization Program
picks up the projects that would have used the
historic tax credit,” says Richard Hosey, a
partner in Capitol Park Partnership LLC, which is
part of the redevelopment of Detroit’s downtown Capitol Park. “The state wanted to have
much better accountability with projects, and
they achieved it. They are at the table day by
day with our projects.”
However, the program offers no relief to
homeowners rehabbing residential properties.
That is where there is a gap left in the market.
“For residential property, it would be a really big help to bring the credit back,” Cooley
said. “It’s so hard to get construction financing in the city, and there are so many houses
that could benefit from rehabilitation.”
area, for example, posted just 30
days in June.
“There’s no haggling room,” said
Tom Ball, a realtor with Real Estate
One. “Last year, I listed a property
on Burns Street in Indian Village
for $174,900. It sold for $150,000. This
year, I listed another similar house
on Burns for $165,000. It sold for
$197,000. It was on the market for 40
days.”
Those sales were both traditional mortgages, but for many buyers,
finding financing is a struggle. Setting aside tight credit markets, the
issue in Detroit is that few lenders
will write mortgages for less than
$50,000 — a price many homes still
fall far below — or for homes that
need significant rehabilitation.
That means cash is king, and 56
percent of all sales in Detroit during June were of the cold-hard variety, according to RealtyTrac.
The lack of financing is “stalling
the markets,” said David Leclerc,
manager of lending at Detroit-based
Michigan Lending Solutions. “Unfortunately, the only product out there
that is really viable is FHA 203k
loan. However, it is really expensive, and many lenders don’t want
to offer it because it is really tedious. We’ve been trying for two
years to develop our own program.”
Buyers — such as Bowman, who
was financed by Quicken Loans —
who can get a mortgage still face
one more hurdle: appraisal. Home
prices are still so depressed that it
can be hard to get the valuation to
match what people are actually
willing to pay.
But, Leclerc explained, it’s not
just Detroit. He is finding appraisal
issues all over the metro area.
“Last month, I had a problem in
Royal Oak and Dearborn,” he said.
“The issue in Detroit is maybe a little greater than in other areas.”
That wasn’t an issue for Dave
Mancini, owner of Supino Pizzeria
in Eastern Market. He recently
traded up from a Corktown condo
to a single-family home in the
neighborhood.
“I wanted an actual house with a
backyard,” said Mancini. “Since I
own a pizzeria, I wanted to be able
to make pizza in my backyard.”
He knew he wanted to stay in the
area even though the historic district is one of the city’s tightest real
estate markets. So when a completely renovated four-bedroom house
was listed for $139,900, he jumped.
Mancini just wishes the rebound he’s enjoying would spread
farther out into the rest of his city.
He recognizes that the rising
prices are only happening in small
pockets and that just blocks away
from his house are burned-out
shells and overgrown lots. That his
city is not recovering equally.
“As somebody who has lived in
this city for 20 years, I love this
city,” he said. “There are rebounds
in certain neighborhoods. But it
has a lot of warts, and there are
people who are still struggling.
The revitalization is too limited. I
really wish there was some way to
send this citywide.”
There may be good news coming.
As prices in these first-wave neighborhoods are rising, other areas
are acting as release valves. Cooley,
Leclerc and Ball are all seeing increased interest in Grandmont
Rosedale, Palmer Park, Boston Edison and the southwest side.
“Grandmont Rosedale is seeing
great escalation of values — 15 percent over the past year,” Leclerc
said. “Palmer Park. Boston Edison.
There are phenomenal deals to be
had. Same with East English Village.”
Ball is seeing activity in those
areas as well as Sherwood Forest
and even farther out.
“I don’t know if it’s the hipster
effect, but people are starting to
buy at Michigan Avenue and I-96,”
he said. “They are buying the far
southwest. The housing stock is
fantastic; there are great houses
for not a lot of money.
“People want to be in the city of
Detroit. They see it turning
around. They are being really attracted with what’s happening.”
Amy Haimerl: (313) 446-0416,
[email protected].
Twitter:
@haimerlad
20130812-NEWS--0041-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
5:05 PM
Page 1
August 12, 2013
Page 41
Snyder makes plans for post-bankrupt Detroit
BY DUSTIN WALSH
TRAVERSE CITY — In a wideranging interview with Crain’s at
the Center for Automotive Research
Management Briefing Seminars
last week, Gov. Rick Snyder
opined on Detroit’s bankruptcy
and the results of the city’s mayoral primary election.
Snyder said
the state is in
early-stage planning for a postbankrupt
Detroit, including
the creation of
an
oversight
committee.
The state is
looking to New
Snyder
York
City’s
brush with bankruptcy in 1975, he
said. That city avoided bankruptcy
with the help of a state-facilitated
committee of business leaders
called the Municipal Assistance Corp.
The committee — which Snyder
said will be established next summer — is permitted under PA 436
and the consent agreement the
state has with the city.
What is officially called the Receivership Transition Advisory
Board would consist of the state
treasurer or his or her designee
and the director of the Department
of Technology, Management and
Budget or his or her designee. The
governor can also appoint to the
board one or more people with relevant professional experience, including one or more residents of
the city.
The board, which serves at the
pleasure of the governor, can require the city to provide monthly
cash-flow projections and approve
proposed budgets and budget
amendments, among other things.
The governor can also receive a
report from that board at a time of
his choosing, and if that report
shows the financial conditions of
the city have not improved, the
governor can appoint a new emergency manager.
“People don’t know that the
MAC was around for 20 years, and
it shows how we can have oversight (post-bankruptcy),” he said.
“I don’t want people to think we’ll
be around for 20 years, but this
will take place.”
Snyder said the committee’s
makeup is unknown at this time,
but will rely on economist projections of city tax revenues to help
generate budgets.
Snyder also said he was impressed with the write-in voter
turnout in the city of Detroit’s primary mayoral election — although
he remains agnostic on the candidates.
“That’s the message here, to say
that that many people would do
write-ins is impressive,” he said.
“That’s very difficult to do.”
On financial markets
Regarding Battle Creek’s delayed municipal bond sale this
week — the delay was affected by
Detroit’s filing — Snyder said he
expects these delays to continue
throughout the state and the Midwest as financial markets get a
grip on the Chapter 9 filing’s ripple
effects.
Snyder said he’s pleased with
the timeline U.S. Bankruptcy
Judge Steven Rhodes has laid out
for getting Detroit out of bankruptcy in the fall of 2014.
“The judge is moving fairly fast,
and it shows that if you have the
right team in place and lay the
right groundwork, we can get this
resolved quickly,” he said.
Snyder said the review of the
city’s assets, including the decision to review art of the Detroit Institute of Arts, is overblown and
common practice in any bankruptcy filing.
“It (the review) is just beginning, and we shouldn’t really focus
on the assets of one organization,”
he said. “The city gets to present
its plan (for exit), and it has to
know its assets and liabilities, just
like any bankruptcy.”
Snyder said while the filing has
further tarnished Detroit’s perception, especially in the national and
international media, it provides an
opportunity to talk about the city’s
positive aspects.
“This is an opportunity to talk
about the facts,” he said. “That’s
where we can talk about the auto
industry … and talk about the
great things companies are doing
in the city.”
Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042,
[email protected].
Twitter:
@dustinewalsh
Crain’s reporter Chris Gautz
contributed to this report.
Election: Write-in’s done; time for final 2 to retool
■ From Page 1
Strategy shifts
Napoleon, who came in a distant second place to write-in candidate Duggan in Tuesday’s primary, “needs to be prepared to
talk to labor and the corporate
community that support him and
say, ‘I need checks now,’ ” said
Eric Foster, president of Troybased political consulting firm
Foster McCollum White & Associates,
which advised unsuccessful mayoral candidate Fred Durhal Jr. in
the campaign.
As for Duggan, the former Detroit
Medical Center president and CEO
can ride momentum from Tuesday’s election into November but is
expected to shift from the primary
election voter education on the
write-in process to his specific policy agenda.
Duggan’s efforts to raise more
campaign cash will be “a bit simpler” post-primary now that he has
“evidence of Detroiters’ overwhelming support,” said his campaign manager, Bryan Barnhill.
“We are going to be aggressively
approaching all potential donors,
and the only selective criteria we
will have is people whose donations won’t raise any red flags for
our organization.”
Duggan finished the primary unofficially with 44,395 votes (45.9 percent), setting up a November faceoff with Napoleon. Napoleon
finished second with 28,352 votes
(29.6 percent).
Napoleon and the political action committee supporting him,
Detroit Forward, need to raise $1.50
for every $1 Duggan and the PAC
supporting him, Turnaround Detroit,
do to counteract Duggan’s momentum and fundraising lead heading
into the general election, said Detroit political consultant Steve
Hood.
While Duggan has widespread
financial support and endorsements from the business community, including the Detroit Regional
Chamber and corporate leaders,
Napoleon isn’t “a little sister of the
poor, either,” Foster said.
Napoleon has a valuable ally —
“and that is Greg Mathis and his
network,” Hood said, referring to
the former Wayne County Circuit
Court judge and host of the syndicated “Judge Mathis” television
show.
Mathis has the ability to court
out-of-state donors for Napoleon’s
campaign, Hood said. Mathis, who
could not be reached for comment
Friday morning, also contributed
$3,000 to Napoleon’s candidate
committee, as did his wife, Linda,
according to campaign finance reports filed last month.
Napoleon raised $606,000, and
Detroit Forward raised about
$70,000, during the pre-primary
election reporting period, which
ran Jan. 1 until July 21. Duggan
and Turnaround Detroit reported
raising about $2.4 million before
the primary election.
Bryan Peckinpaugh, Napoleon’s
spokesman, said the campaign will
roll out a more detailed economic
development plan in the coming
weeks as a selling point for
prospective donors.
Barnhill said Duggan’s campaign will focus on how he will turn
the city around as mayor and “who
has the best plan for Detroit.”
Barnhill said he has created a
week-by-week campaign strategy,
but he declined to provide
specifics on what it entails.
“Whatever they were doing,
they should continue doing because it works,” said Joe DiSano,
CEO of the Lansing-based political
advocacy firm Main Street Strategies LLC.
Media blitz?
Both candidates will spend considerable amounts from their campaign war chests for advertising
on television and radio, although
political experts disagree about
when that should begin in earnest.
Some expect the campaigns to
wait until around Labor Day to
start making significant ad buys,
while others say they should start
advertising immediately.
Duggan’s advertising needs to
“be aggressive now and finish this
off,” Foster said.
“Wear Benny out. Force them to
spend everything they got right
now so they have no more money
left,” he said.
Napoleon’s
campaign
also
should be aggressive with his advertising after falling at least 16,000
votes behind Duggan on Tuesday,
political observers said.
“Napoleon has to go hard or go
home,” Hood said. “He’s got to
highlight his platform, and then he
has to go nuclear on Duggan.”
Expect
the
Napoleon camp
to look for anything negative
to
highlight
within Duggan’s
resume at the
DMC and in
Wayne County
government,
Hood said.
Hood
Duggan,
55,
was president and CEO of the DMC
from 2004-12. He was Wayne County
prosecutor from 2001-03, co-chairman of the Detroit-Wayne County
Stadium Authority from 1996-2002,
deputy Wayne County executive
from 1987 from 1987-2000, and general manager of the Suburban Mobility
Authority for Regional Transportation
from 1992-95.
Napoleon, 57, has been Wayne
County sheriff since 2009. He was
assistant Wayne County executive
from 2004-09, vice president of
business development and outreach for Capri Capital Partners LLC
from 2001-04, and Detroit police
chief from 1995-2001.
But Peckinpaugh said Napoleon’s advertising will focus on
Napoleon’s message.
“We have no plans to focus on
the other candidate,” Peckinpaugh
said. “We want to focus on Benny’s
vision on the city and how we can
increase our broader coalition of
supporters that we started.”
How will the mayoral ad blitz
compare to other recent campaigns?
According to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, a Lansingbased campaign finance watchdog,
PACs for six ballot issues raised
more than $154 million combined
in 2012. PACs flooded Michigan airwaves and mailboxes with ads and
direct-mail pieces in 2012 both supporting and decrying several
statewide ballot proposals. But
nothing close to the $25 million
mark is expected on the mayoral
race spending.
Adrian Hemond, partner at
Grassroots Midwest LLC, a Lansingbased political organizing and advocacy firm, said he does not expect the same kind of advertising
onslaught because the candidates
and the PACs supporting them
will raise only a small fraction of
what the ballot committees raised.
“There isn’t going to be a gazillion dollars in PAC funds for advertising” as in 2012, said Harvey Rabinowitz, owner of Bloomfield
Hills-based media buying agency
Media … Period Inc.
Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412,
[email protected].
Twitter:
@kirkpinhoCDB
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20130812-NEWS--0042-NAT-CCI-CD_--
8/9/2013
4:30 PM
Page 1
Page 42
August 12, 2013
RUMBLINGS
WEEK ON THE WEB
FROM WWW.CRAINSDETROIT.COM, WEEK OF AUG. 3-9
Crowdfunding
takes tactics …
beer doesn’t hurt
S
tephen Roginson talks
about crowdfunding
the way some people
talk about their lifelong careers.
Roginson, along with Jason Williams and Anthony
O’Donnell, met their $25,800
crowdfunding goal through
indiegogo.com to open Batch
Brewing Co. in a 100-year-old
building at 1444 Michigan
Ave. in Corktown.
They say they still need
about $75,000 to finish the
project. But $25,800 is nothing to scoff at.
Roginson, who spent
eight years as an experiential marketer for Vitamin Water, says that to be successful, you have to treat your
crowdfunding effort like a
real 40-hour-a-week job.
“You have to plan crowdfunding as a campaign. It’s
not just making a video,
putting it on a platform and
posting a couple of comments,” he said. “You have
to build a broader strategy
and know who your advocates are and know your network and its limitations.”
Roginson started the way
many would-be brewers
did: Making beer at home.
“My education is similar to
a vast majority of home
brewers, searching message
boards and having friends
over for tastings. You start
with a kit, then work your
way up to 10-gallon all-grain
batches.”
Renovations are well underway at the fledgling
brewery. If all goes according to plan, Batch Brewing
will open by the end of the
year, Roginson said.
“That might be a little aggressive,” he said, “but
that’s how we’ve been operating this whole time.”
Michigan football to have
new radio voice in 2014
The University of Michigan
said it will work with its
third-party broadcast rights
firm, IMG Audio, to find a replacement for radio voice
Frank Beckmann, who is retiring after the 2013 football
season.
IMG said on Friday that
Beckmann was calling it
quits after broadcasting UM
football games since 1981.
Beckmann, who apologized in May for a Detroit
News column rebuked by
the university and others as
racially offensive, calls
Michigan football games on
the school’s flagship station, WWJ 950.
Beckmann, who began
his radio career in 1969, will
continue to host his daily
weekday talk show on WJR
760 AM, which he has done
since 2004, IMG said.
He replaced Bob Ufer as
UM’s play-by-play announcer in 1981.
Sports gala aids charities
Business, nonprofit and
sports leaders plan a 2013
Michigan All Star Hoops Festival Gala on Aug. 23 to raise
money for Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan, the Children’s
Hospital of Michigan Foundation and Detroit PAL.
The athlete business
management firm Compass
Management Group LLC is
planning the event as an effort to “give back in a
unique way,” said Compass
founder Daniel Sillman.
The event at the
Townsend Hotel is expected
to attract about 400 people
and include speakers such
as Joe Dumars, president of
basketball operations for
the Detroit Pistons. Bernie
Smilovitz, sports anchor for
WDIV-Channel 4, will emcee
the event, and Les Gold of cable’s “Hardcore Pawn” will
host a live auction.
Tickets range from $750
for the event plus a private
VIP reception to $100 for a
strolling dinner for attendees under age 35.
Find details and tickets at
AllStarHoopsFestival.com.
More classics on the roads
The 2013 Woodward Dream
Cruise officially takes place
Saturday, but gorgeous
summer weather and new
legislation in Michigan
have classics rolling down
M-1 all this month. Enthusiasts in lawn chairs and impromptu car shows line the
road on weekend evenings,
especially through the communities of Berkley, Royal
Oak and Birmingham.
A recent change to Michigan law allows cars registered as historic to be driven without restriction
during August. Before the
change, historic-plated vehicles were limited to driving to and from club
events, in parades and
while participating in other
sanctioned collector-car activities.
Crain’s sibling publication for auto enthusiasts,
AutoWeek, plans extensive
Woodward Dream Cruise
coverage starting Thursday at AutoWeek.com/
woodward-dream-cruise.
Included will be looks at
coverage from past years
and news updates. There
will be Dream Cruise photos,
a bit of Woodward Dream
Cruise history and recommended hotels and restaurants near Woodward Avenue.
Meritor names
Ivor Evans
chairman, CEO
roy-based commercial truck supplier
Meritor Inc. named
Ivor Evans as chairman of
the board, CEO and president. Evans, 70, held the positions on an interim basis
since May after the departure of former CEO Charles
“Chip” McClure.
T
ON THE MOVE
䡲 The Miami-based John
S. and James
L. Knight
Foundation
named Hudson-Webber
Foundation
Vice President Katy
Locker its
new Detroit
Locker
program director, effective Sept. 16.
Locker, 39, succeeds Rishi
Jaitly, who left to lead
Twitter’s efforts in India.
䡲 Michael Mazzeo, a professor and former chairman
of the department of finance
at Michigan State University’s
Eli Broad College of Business,
was named dean at the Oakland University School of Business Administration.
䡲 Royal Oak-based Michigan Youth Arts named Marianne Dorais as executive director. Dorais, 48, was
foundation and government relations officer for
the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She succeeds Candy
Nguyen Smirnow, who left to
become business manager
and registrar at the Colburn
School in Los Angeles.
䡲 Patricia Mooradian, president of The Henry Ford in
Dearborn, was named to the
Central Michigan University
board of trustees. She replaces Patricia Maryland, who
resigned, in an eight-year
term expiring Dec. 31, 2018.
COMPANY NEWS
BEST FROM THE BLOGS
READ THESE POSTS AND MORE AT WWW.CRAINSDETROIT.COM/BLOGS
Detroit voter turnout typical
“
Less than one in
five qualified Detroiters
bothered to vote on
Tuesday despite it being
what many said was one
of the most important
citywide elections in
generations.
”
Chris Gautz’s “Capitol Briefings” blog on Lansing
subjects is at www.crainsdetroit.com/gautz
Look inside Cheesecake Factory
“
Superficial as it
may seem, there are two
types of cities: those
with a Cheesecake
Factory and those
without. Maybe that’s
why a restaurant
opening in a mall has
become a Detroit media
magnet.
”
Nathan Skid’s Detroit-area restaurant blog, “Table
Talk,” can be found at www.crainsdetroit.com/skid
䡲 H.W. Kaufman Financial
Group, a Farmington Hillsbased specialty insurance
line broker, acquired ISI Insurance Services for an unspecified amount, Kaufman
officials said. Uniontown,
Pa.-based ISI will become
part of US-Reports Inc., a
Kaufman company that offers premium audits, loss
control inspections and
risk management services.
䡲 Auburn Hills-based TI
Automotive is working with
Deutsche Bank AG on finding
bidders for a sale that could
fetch $1.5 billion,
Bloomberg reported.
䡲 Warren-based Asset Acceptance Capital Corp.,
‘EAT ’EM UP’ PHOTO A WINNER AND A TRIBUTE
Peter Catalanotte
Jr.’s photo, “Eat
’Em Up, Tigers,”
the winner in Week
5 of the Summer in
the City photo
contest, is a tribute
to two homeless
men, James Van
Horn and Dreadlock
Mike, who recently
were killed by a hitand-run driver. Both were known by Tigers fans, and Van
Horn in particular was often seen outside Comerica Park
chanting “Eat ’Em Up, Tigers.” Additionally, Catalanotte said
he dedicated the photo to a friend who was killed in a hitand-run accident in 2001.
Catalanotte’s image was chosen by the three judges this
week without knowledge of this personal story. They said
they loved the symbolism and perspective.
His prize is a set of tickets for tours by D:hive Detroit. He
also is eligible for one of the two grand prizes, to be awarded
to the overall Summer in the City photo contest winner after
Labor Day, when the contest ends. This week’s prize: Two
Serta gel memory foam contour pillows. To enter the contest
or to see the photos, go to crainsdetroit.com/photocontest.
Entries are due by noon Monday.
which in June became a
subsidiary of San Diegobased Encore Capital Group
Inc., will lay off 110 people,
including 73 in Macomb
County, to eliminate redundant positions.
䡲 Southfield military vehicle and energy systems
engineering firm Badenoch
LLC received $1.4 million in
federal funds for a more
cost-effective form of vehicle blast testing and a new
matching grant via the
Michigan Strategic Fund.
䡲 Ann Arbor-based book
printer Edwards Brothers Malloy Inc. said a need to invest
in digital prompted the sale
of its State Street plant.
Equipment will be moved to
plants in Ann Arbor and
Lillington, N.C. The company cut 47 of about 600 Ann
Arbor employees and plans
to cut another 40-50 jobs.
OTHER NEWS
䡲 Metro Detroit’s new
Regional Transit Authority
said it offered its CEO job
to John Hertel, long instrumental in the creation of
many of the area’s ongoing
major transit projects. Hertel has been general manager of the Suburban Mobility
Authority for Regional Transportation bus system since
2010.
䡲 Farid Fata, founder of
the Rochester Hills-based
Michigan Hematology Oncology Centers PC and the nonprofit Swan for Life Cancer
Foundation, was charged
with health care fraud at
U.S. District Court in Detroit
for his role in an alleged $35
million Medicare billing
scheme.
䡲 Wayne County has
seen the extra yield investors demand to own its
debt soar to a record,
Bloomberg reported.
Moody’s Investors Service
dropped Wayne’s grade to
Baa3, one step above junk,
with a negative outlook.
䡲 Seventy percent of
Allen Park voters cast
votes for a tax proposal to
maintain public safety services, and Flint-area voters
narrowed the field for a
Michigan House of Representatives seat to Democrat Phil
Phelps and Republican Don
Pfeiffer, who will face off in
a special general election in
November, AP reported.
䡲 Gov. Rick Snyder confirmed the findings of a state
review team that the Pontiac
Public Schools are in a financial emergency, which could
lead to the appointment of
an emergency manager. The
district has until Aug. 13 to
request a hearing.
䡲 The Atlantic Coast Conference signed a six-year
deal to play in a college football bowl game at Ford Field,
the Detroit Lions, organizers
of the bowl, announced.
䡲 A federal judge refused
to acquit or grant new trials to former Detroit Mayor
Kwame Kilpatrick, his father,
Bernard Kilpatrick, and former city contractor Bobby
Ferguson, the AP reported.
䡲 State Rep. Phil
Cavanagh, D-Redford Township, said he is “strongly
considering” running to replace Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano next year.
䡲 Detroit City Council incumbents fared well, as did
former state representatives, in historic primary
elections Aug. 6, as voters
chose their members by
district for the first time in
nearly 100 years. Council
President Saunteel Jenkins
was the top vote-getter
among all candidates.
䡲 An Ingham County Circuit
Court judge ruled that no one
— including Michigan
House Speaker Jase Bolger
— will be indicted for participating in a scheme by former State Rep. Roy Schmidt
to switch parties at the last
minute and pay a novice to
run against him in a fake
campaign, the AP reported.
DBpageAD_DBpageAD.qxd 8/6/2013 12:42 PM Page 1
REINVEST. REDISCOVER. REVIVE.
We believe that people can live, work and play in one
vibrant area. That’s what we call placemaking. It’s an effort
that we’re part of, and that’s why we’re proud supporters
of &UDLQ·V 'HWURLW+RXVH3DUW\. Experience the urban
lifestyle for yourself and rediscover the potential of place.
DETROIT
SEPT 26, 2013
REGISTER AT CRAINSDETROIT.COM

A money game for mayor A money game for mayor

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