focus: pga championship - Crain`s Detroit Business

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DETROIT BUSINESS MAIN 08-04-08 A 1 CDB
8/1/2008
6:41 PM
Page 1
®
www.crainsdetroit.com Vol. 24, No. 31
AUGUST 4 – 10, 2008
$2 a copy; $59 a year
©Entire contents copyright 2008 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved
THIS JUST IN
Olympics may give gold
to state businesses
The
2008
Summer
Olympics in Beijing has
proven to be a source of
new business leads for
Michigan businesses.
C. Peter Theut, a partner
at Detroit-based Butzel
Long, said the firm plans to
open a new office in Beijing by early January.
Theut says the Olympics at
least in part made the city
a more attractive choice
for the firm.
“Had China not been
putting on the Olympics,
and therefore really improved the infrastructure
of Beijing, we may have
looked more at Shanghai,”
he said. “(Beijing is) making tremendous strides in
terms of trying to clean up
air pollution, traffic control, updating buildings infrastructure, and most importantly they have one of
the most modern airports
in the world.”
Theut heads Butzel
Long’s China initiative
and said the concentration
of government and regulatory power in the city was
another draw.
In Beijing, the firm can
better assist clients doing
business in the country
with government regulation issues.
Meanwhile, media attention brought to Beijing in
connection
with
the
Olympics, specifically reports lambasting the city’s
air quality, could help secure new work for Michigan environmental technology firms.
The Wayne County-Butzel
Long Environmental Initiative,
a joint project between the
offices of Wayne County
Executive Robert Ficano,
Wayne County Department
of Energy Director Kurt
Heise and Butzel Long, is
working to get contracts
for local environmental
See This Just In, Page 2
CRAIN’S SEEKS BESTMANAGED NONPROFITS
State scrambles to fund roads
Local taxes, fees among options
BY AMY LANE
CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT
PHOTO COURTESY OF M-DOT
Bridge work at I-96 and Wixom Road is among the many projects
under way in the region.
Birdie or bogey
Some nonprofits
score with PGA
Championship, others
can’t get off the tee
Groups seek
funds to raise
high school
grad rates
BY SHERRI BEGIN
BY SHERRI BEGIN
While some local nonprofits have already brought in extra revenue from
the 2008 PGA Championship, other programs are still looking for diamonds in the rough.
The PGA of America expects
the PGA Championship to
bring in an estimated
Stories on Michigan's PGA
$400,000 for nonprofits.
As of last week, the 120 heritage, other tournaments
and the small businesses
local nonprofits that were
working the fairways
given a total of about 1,000
begin on Page 17.
tickets by the PGA to auction
off have collectively brought in
between $175,000 and $200,000, said
Earnie Ellison, director of business and
community relations. Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township hosts
the tournament today through Sunday.
Twelve of those charities, chosen
through surveys of nonprofits that Oakland Hills members support, were given
access to the championship with a block
MORE
ON THE PGA
See Nonprofits, Page 38
See Roads, Page 39
CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
For details, see Page 38.
NEWSPAPER
LANSING – A long-targeted piece in a
patchwork of solutions to fund Michigan roads has dropped into the Legislature.
And it’s none too soon, as state and local road agencies juggle budgets
strained by reduced gas-tax revenue, escalating construction costs and continuing road needs.
State House bills introduced in late
July would give counties a host of local
funding options, including a 3-cent pergallon gas tax, a 1 percent sales tax, a
real-estate transfer tax based on a
home’s value, and local driver’s license
and vehicle-registration taxes. The taxes are subject to local voter approval.
Oakland County and many businesses are among longtime proponents. Local options are a way to fund some $1.5
billion to $2 billion in Oakland County
projects needed over a 10-year period to
alleviate congestion, said Craig Bryson,
public information officer at the Road
Commission for Oakland County.
He said a half-percent local sales tax
in Oakland County, if approved by vot-
JOHN F. MARTIN
Tony Rubino and his brother leased a home near the course to host a
fundraiser for the MS Society, but ticket sales have been slow.
Mayor-council dispute holds
nonprofit grants hostage,
Page 6
United Way for Southeastern Michigan has launched an effort to raise
$10 million to help low-performing
high schools in the region improve
their graduation rates.
The agency and the Detroit-based
Skillman Foundation have contributed $1.5 million each.
The AT&T Foundation today is to
announce another $1 million grant
to the Greater Detroit Education Venture Fund, bringing the total investment to $4 million.
The three organizations
plan
jointly to pursue
additional grants
to reach the $10
million
mark,
said United Way
CEO
Michael
Brennan.
Torreano
“If we are going to compete as a country in this
global society, we have to have a
workforce that’s ready,” said AT&T
Michigan President Gail Torreano, a
See Funds, Page 41
CRAIN’S LIST
Largest Oakland employers,
Page 14
8/1/2008
6:39 PM
Page 1
Page 2
August 4, 2008
IT firm Sircon Corp. sold
THIS JUST IN
■ From Page 1
companies to help clean up China’s air.
Theut, who is part of the initiative, said they have identified
eight technologies in China that
need to improve air quality and
at least three Michigan companies that can provide the technology, including Ann Arbor-based
firm Atwell-Hicks.
Theut declined to identify other Michigan firms, but he said
there will be a trade mission organized by the initiative to China
in November to make deals.
— Ryan Beene
Preservation Wayne seeks
new executive director
The
Detroit
architecture
preservation group Preservation
Wayne is conducting a search for
a new executive director after
Francis Grunow resigned from the
position in July.
Grunow was executive director
for nearly four years and resigned to pursue other interests,
said board president Karen
Nagher. She said the search is under way, though there is no set
timeline. “It’s a big job, so we
have to find the right person,”
she said.
— Daniel Duggan
Sircon Corp., an Okemos-based
information-technology company
with Detroit-area companies as
investors, has been sold to Seattle-based Vertafore Inc. Terms
were not disclosed but benefitted
venture-capital firms that helped
launch and grow the company
that provides software services to
the insurance industry. Local
firms that invested included: Ann
Arbor-based EDF Ventures, Ann
Arbor-based Avalon Technology
L.L.C., Ann Arbor-based Arbor Partners L.L.C., and Grosse Pointe
Park-based Ralph Wilson Equity
Fund L.L.C.
—Tom Henderson
New degree at Madonna
Officials at Madonna University
in Livonia announced a new doctor of nursing practice degree on
Friday.
The program will be the university’s first Ph.D. program It is
a 36 semester-hour curriculum
and will take about two years to
complete, said the university’s
marketing director, Karen Sanborn. Application begins Oct. 1,
and classes start in May 2009.
— Christiana Schmitz
Reid makes WSU promotions
Wayne State University’s outgoing president promoted two university executives on Friday, his
last day in office. Irvin Reid named
Police Chief Anthony Holt to associate vice president and chief of
police, while Director of Special
Events Jeffrey Block was named
assistant vice president of special
events. Both appointments were
to take effect Friday.
Jay Noren, 63, officially became
WSU president on Friday with a
swearing-in ceremony. He succeeds Reid, who stepped down to
become the Eugene Applebaum
chairman of community engagement at Wayne State.
— Chad Halcom
State beverage group
names executive director
The Michigan Licensed Beverage
Association has named Lance Binoniemi, previously the group’s
director of government affairs, to
be executive director. Binoniemi
replaces Cathy Pavick, who left the
Lansing-based association of
liquor licensees in February. Binoniemi had been interim executive director.
— Amy Lane
FormTech faces court battle
with Canadian customer
A Royal Oak manufacturer
may be forced by court order to
continue producing forgings for a
Canadian auto supplier under an
injunction request at U.S. District
Court in Detroit.
Linamar Corp. of Guelph, Ontario, Friday filed a request for injunction to block Royal Oak-based
FormTech Industries L.L.C. from its
alleged threats to suspend shipment of steel forgings for Linamar. Linamar is a tier-one auto
supplier making transmission
components for Ford Motor Co.,
General Motors Corp., Chrysler L.L.C.
and American Honda Motor Co. Inc
At issue in a lawsuit filed
Thursday is a dispute over rawmaterial
surcharges
in
FormTech’s 2006 supplier contract with Linamar. The case is
assigned to U.S. District Judge
John Corbett O’Meara.
— Chad Halcom
Crain’s names Web editor
Christine Lasek has joined
Crain’s Detroit Business as Web
editor.
Lasek, 27, was previously an
online news producer for
mlive.com in Ann Arbor, where
she was responsible for managing Web content for several
Michigan
newspapers.
Before
that,
Lasek was a
Web content
producer for
WXYZ-Channel 7
television in
Southfield.
Lasek
As Web editor at www.crainsdetroit.com,
Lasek will write and post Web
stories, improve the design and
function of the site, and create
custom content to complement
print coverage.
A native of Troy, Lasek earned
her bachelor’s degree in English
from the University of Michigan.
She can be reached at (313) 4460473 or at [email protected].
CORRECTIONS
The first name of Oakland Community College board Chairwoman
Anna Zimmerman was misspelled in a Page 1 story of the July 28 edition.
The list of publicly held companies published July 28 should have
listed the end of the fiscal year as Feb. 2, 2008, for Borders Group Inc. and
Jan. 31, 2008, for Hayes Lemmerz International Inc.
A story on Page 3 of the July 28 edition incorrectly stated that officials at William Beaumont Hospitals in Royal Oak indicated that 80 percent of the projected 1,500 patients to be treated at Beaumont’s planned
proton beam therapy cancer center would be treated for prostate cancer. Beaumont officials told Crain’s the actual number is 20 percent to
25 percent.
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8/1/2008
6:40 PM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Care for poor
grows heavier
for downtown
hospitals
BY JAY GREENE
When it comes to the national problem of caring for the rising numbers
of uninsured, Detroit is the canary in
the coal mine.
High unemployment, large numbers of uninsured, a sicker-than-average population, the lack of a public
hospital and a low proportion of federally qualified health centers are
among the reasons most experts believe Detroit has one of the biggest
challenges in the nation to fix its
overwhelmed primary care delivery
system.
Three of the bigger canaries in Detroit are the downtown hospitals: Detroit Medical Center, Henry Ford Hospital
and St. John Hospital and Medical
Center.
All three hospitals reported nearly
record-high levels of charity care and
uncompensated care in 2007, along
with lower operating profits than in
the previous several years, according
to the latest financial reports and interviews with top executives.
“We sit in the epicenter of an extremely vulnerable population with
200,000 people without any insurance
in our catchment area, that is underrepresented in primary care physicians and does not provide sufficient
reimbursement,” said Dr. Padraic
Sweeny, chief of emergency medicine
at DMC’s Detroit Receiving Hospital.
As Wayne County’s unemployment
Page 3
Loss of lease deals
jolts auto dealers
Many hope
incentives will get
customers to buy
BY NANCY KAFFER
See Hospitals, Page 40
See Dealers, Page 41
INDEX
Taking Stock: Masco
Corp. chairman expects
housing crisis to get
worse. Page 4.
Real deal: “Virtual pros”
bring in real money for
StaffPro
America.
President
Lesley
Delgado
expects
revenue to
be up 19
percent
this year.
Page 16. Delgado
Move ’em out: Land
Bank Authority to help
move Detroit’s many
vacant parcels. Page 35.
Blues in fight:
TheraMatrix Physical
Therapy expected to file a
$10 million lawsuit
against the Blues over
contracts. Page 36.
With the Detroit 3 automakers
ending, restricting or re-evaluating
lease programs, the future looks
rocky for some area auto dealers.
Chrysler Financial L.L.C., the financial arm of Chrysler L.L.C., rocked the
auto industry last month when it announced it would end its North
American leasing program Aug. 1.
General Motors Corp. quickly followed suit, with GMAC Financial Services saying it would work to reduce
the number of U.S. leases offered at
below-standard rates. Ford Motor
Credit Co. L.L.C. said buyers should
expect lease prices to increase.
With leasing on the skids, much
rests on the value of incentive packages designed to interest former lease
customers in buying, dealers say.
GM and Chrysler announced
sweeping new packages last week,
relying heavily on cash incentives
and discounts to entice former lease
customers to purchase vehicles.
GMAC plans to offer cash incentives on GMC trucks and on some
CRAIN’S
These organizations appear in this
week’s Crain’s Detroit Business:
AT&T Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Band of Angels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Biggby Coffee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Birmingham Country Club . . . . . . . 22
Blaze Contracting Inc. . . . . . . . . . 24
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan 36
Bluewater Technology Group Inc. . 24
Brighton Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Cannella Patisserie and Creperie . . 37
Center Line Electric . . . . . . . . . . . .24
Charter One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25
Chrysler L.L.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Detroit Medical Center . . . . . . . . . . 3
Detroit Wayne County
Health Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
Ford Motor Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
General Motors Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Golling Chrysler Jeep Dodge . . . . . 41
Greater Detroit Health Council . . . . 34
Henry Ford Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Highland DDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
WILLIAM PUGLIANO
Tony Viviano, chairman of Sterling Heights Dodge, says leasing ranged from 90
percent to 95 percent of monthly business.
Indianwood Golf & Country Club . . 19
Inforum Center for Leadership . . . 35
John Bailey & Associates Inc. . . . . 17
Junior League of Birmingham . . . . 38
Kelly Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Land Bank Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Les Stanford Chevrolet Cadillac . . 41
A hotel for ‘can-do’ Moten
Lighthouse of Oakland County . . . . 38
Masco Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Meadowbrook Country Club . . . . . 22
Oakland Hills Country Club . . . . . . . 1
Orchard Lake Country Club . . . . . . 19
PGA of America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Plum Hollow Country Club . . . . . . . 22
Pick-Fort Shelby is longtime developer’s latest achievement
Emmett Moten Jr.’s list of
achievements in Detroit
include GM’s Poletown
plant, Chrysler’s Jefferson
Avenue plants, an
expansion of Cobo Center
and the Ilitch family’s
business headquarters.
Road Commission, Oakland County . 1
Rochester Hills Chrysler Dodge . . . 41
Runco Waste Industries Inc. . . . . . 24
Skillman Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
BY ROBERT ANKENY
‘COMING FULL CIRCLE’
St. John Hospital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Star Lincoln Mercury . . . . . . . . . . 41
StaffPro America . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The renovation of one of downtown Detroit’s most neglected buildings — the long-shuttered Pick-Fort Shelby
Hotel on Lafayette Boulevard at First Street — is in the
hands of one of the city’s most experienced developers.
Emmett Moten Jr., one-time development czar for former Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, is handling the
building’s transformation to the new Hilton Doubletree
Guest Suites Fort Shelby scheduled for completion in November.
Moten has had a hand in many of Detroit’s major development projects in the past 30 years.
Some say that without his efforts, Detroit
might not have had the General Motors Corp. Poletown or Chrysler L.L.C. Jefferson Avenue auto
plants, the last Cobo Center expansion, or the Ilitch family business headquarters in the Fox
Theatre building downtown.
Bella Marshall, Wayne County’s COO, worked
with Moten in the Young administration. She
said his talent for making people understand a vision for development is now “coming full circle”
with his hotel project.
See Moten, Page 40
ROBERT ANKENY/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
Sterling Heights Dodge . . . . . . . . . 41
TheraMatrix Physical Therapy . . . . 36
Trackspeed L.L.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
United Way
..................1
Voices of Detroit Initiative . . . . . . . 34
WSU School of Medicine . . . . . . . . 30
BANKRUPTCIES . . . . . . . . . 4
BUSINESS DIARY . . . . . . . 28
CALENDAR . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
CAPITOL BRIEFINGS . . . . . 37
CLASSIFIED ADS . . . . . . . . 34
KEITH CRAIN . . . . . . . . . . . 8
LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
OPINION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
OTHER VOICES . . . . . . . . . . 9
PEOPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
NATHAN SKID/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
The $80 million renovation of the PickFort Shelby, headed by Emmett Moten
Jr., is to be completed in November.
RUMBLINGS . . . . . . . . . . . 42
WEEK IN REVIEW . . . . . . . 42
8/1/2008
5:59 PM
Page 1
Page 4
August 4, 2008
TAKING STOCK
NEWS ABOUT DETROIT AREA PUBLIC COMPANIES
Masco plans for continued
slump in housing market
BY CHAD HALCOM
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www.friedmanrealestate.com
It doesn’t inspire confidence
when a company’s chairman says
the housing market might get so
bad the government will intervene.
But shares of Taylor-based Masco
Corp. rallied last week on news that
it cut more than 6,000 jobs in the
first six months of 2008 and took
other measures to cope with a $107
million drop in net income on a
weak home-construction market.
“I think things
are going to be so
bad that we will
see more positive action taken
by the (federal)
government, and
that might require a new president and new
administration,”
Manoogian
said executive
chairman Richard Manoogian during a conference call last week with
analysts on the company’s secondquarter earnings.
“But talking to people in Congress … I’d be very surprised if
things deteriorate (and) we don’t
see much more positive (government) action in 2009. And a lot of
that could be directed to the housing industry as one of the key areas
that needs help.”
A manufacturer of home fixtures, furnishings and paint products, Masco primarily cites a large
falloff in housing construction in
the U.S. and parts of Europe for its
slide in quarterly net income.
The company projects new U.S.
housing starts in 2008 at between
900,000 and 1 million, compared
with 1.3 million last year.
Still, the job cuts and other
moves may have restored investor
confidence. Masco shares rebounded from a five-year low of $13.92 in
mid-July and climbed another $1 after last week’s earnings release.
The stock closed at $16.62 Friday.
“These are very difficult decisions,” said Masco CEO Timothy
Wadhams. “But the (changes are)
very consistent with us trying to
right-size the business in a tough
economic climate.”
The company has also responded to market contraction by shifting executive compensation.
Wadhams and Sharon Rothwell,
Masco vice president of investor
relations, said the company this
year moved several top executives
to lower base pay and greater incentives to improve company performance — including Wadhams,
Executive Vice President and COO
Donald DeMarie, and Vice President and CFO John Sznewajs.
Peter Lisnic, senior analyst for
Robert W. Baird & Co. in Chicago,
noted the share-price improvement but predicted market weakness for housing builders will continue to dog Masco through the
remainder of the year.
“The stock could be approaching a bottom, (but) we believe riskreward potential remains balanced
until tangible signs of recovery in
housing markets appear,” he said
in a report last week.
Baird is among nine of 11 research analyst firms that continue
to give Masco a neutral or “hold”
rating after the second-quarter
performance.
The company reports net income of $82 million, or 23 cents a
share, on revenue of $2.64 billion
for the period ending June 30.
That’s off from $189 million, or 51
cents a share, on revenue of $3.09
billion for the year-ago quarter. In
the first six months of 2008, net income was $84 million, or 24 cents a
share, on revenue of $5.09 billion,
compared with $332 million, or 87
cents a share, on sales of $5.89 billion for the first half of last year.
Wadhams and Rothwell also
said Masco has closed 11 plants nationwide and eliminated 17,000 positions since early 2007, with 6,000
jobs cut thus far in 2008.
The company cut 80 or so positions from its corporate headquarters in Taylor and a research and
development lab it maintains a
few miles away, trimming the total
workforce from 630 to 550 at those
two buildings, she said.
North American sales in the second quarter were off 19 percent,
offset slightly by 6 percent growth
in the international segment, for a
15 percent decline in total revenue.
Sales were off 18 percent at $608
million for cabinets and related
products and 27 percent at $508 million for installation and other services, a segment Wadhams said is
“pretty much 100 percent” tied to
the residential market.
Debra Behring, vice president of
operations at JB Cutting Inc. in Mt.
Clemens, which makes cabinet
components for other businesses,
agreed with the Masco leadership
that the residential market isn’t
helping builders.
“We’ve definitely seen more of
the cabinet (parts) orders going to
commercial rather than residential
customers right now,” she said.
Manoogian told analysts last
week the company is planning for
a flat or slightly “deteriorating”
housing market through this year
and into next.
“There’s a good chance 2009
might increase from 2008, but
that’s going to take positive (government) action,” he said.
Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796,
[email protected]
BANKRUPTCIES
The following business filed for Chapter 7 or 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Detroit July 25-31. Under
Chapter 11, a company files for reorganization. Chapter 7 involves total
liquidation.
Healthy Hydration Corp., 8579 Oreview
Ave., Brighton, voluntary Chapter 7.
Assets: $8,763; liabilities: $68,172.
— Compiled by Christiana Schmitz
STREET TALK
THIS WEEK’S STOCK TOTALS: 26 GAINERS, 35 LOSERS, 8 UNCHANGED
CDB’S TOP PERFORMERS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Meadowbrook Insurance Group
Energy Conversion Devices Inc.
Kelly Services Inc.
ArvinMeritor Inc.
Ramco-Gershenson
TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.
Pulte Homes Inc.
Comerica Inc.
Somanetics Corp.
Masco Corp.
CDB’S LOW PERFORMERS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Valassis Communications Inc.
First Mercury Financial Corp.
Kaydon Corp.
General Motors Corp.
Amerigon Inc.
Lear Corp.
American Axle
Credit Acceptance Corp.
Caraco Pharmaceutical
FNBH Bancorp Inc.
8/01
CLOSE
7/25
CLOSE
PERCENT
CHANGE
$6.74
68.41
18.75
13.71
21.68
18.17
12.01
29.50
22.40
16.64
$5.80
62.87
17.43
12.78
20.32
17.05
11.31
27.86
21.17
15.83
16.21
8.81
7.57
7.28
6.69
6.57
6.19
5.89
5.81
5.12
8/01
CLOSE
7/25
CLOSE
PERCENT
CHANGE
$8.65
14.31
47.57
10.23
6.45
13.86
5.77
16.80
14.05
7.25
$11.33
17.25
55.60
11.90
7.47
15.83
6.51
18.92
15.60
8.00
-23.65
-17.04
-14.44
-14.03
-13.66
-12.45
-11.37
-11.21
-9.94
-9.38
Source: Bloomberg News. From a list of publicly owned companies with headquarters
in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw or Livingston counties. Note: Stocks trading
at less than $5 are not included.
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August 4, 2008
Mayor-council dispute holds up millions in block grants
BY SHERRI BEGIN
Nonprofits and the Detroit residents they serve are getting caught
in the crossfire between Detroit
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the
Detroit City Council.
A disagreement between the two
over who should allocate community development block grants this
year is holding up distribution of
more than $50 million in block
grant funding and other entitlement funds to the city and to local
nonprofits. Federal community-development block grant money
funds affordable housing, antipoverty programs, infrastructure
development and the like. The
grants are subject to less federal
oversight and are used largely at
the discretion of state and local
governments.
Detroit is in line to receive
about $36.7 million in block grant
funds in the coming fiscal year and
another $13 million or so in other
entitlement funds for housing and
emergency shelter.
But the lack of a jointly submitted spending plan for those funds
to the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development prompted
the federal agency last week to
give Detroit until Sept. 19 to submit a jointly approved plan or lay
out a timetable for doing so.
“Given … the very public nature
of the disagreements on the (block
grant funding) budget, our office
cannot approve this action plan
until we receive assurances that
the (block grant) portion is in accordance with the city budget procedures,” said Lana Vacha, HUD
field office director, in a July 29 letter to the City Council.
Vacha cautioned that timely
spending of the funds is a concern,
since the city is allowed to have no
more than 1.5 years of entitlement
funding at April 30, 2009. If it does
and is identified as an untimely
grantee for two years in a row, the
city forfeits its funding.
Delays also could have “serious
repercussions,” she said, on rent
payments and shelter operations
for projects that serve the homeless or those with special needs.
The delay in distribution and
notification of grant awards could
mean cuts in services many of
those agencies provide and the
loss of other funds leveraged by
the community block grant funds,
nonprofits say.
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“I’m worried that we’re going to
go into our new fiscal (year),
which starts Oct. 1, not knowing if
we’re going to get funding or how
much,”
said
Amy Good, CEO
of Alternatives for
Girls.
Her organization, which is
operating on a
$2.8 million budget,
received
$83,000 in block
grant funding
Good
this year and is
slated to receive $67,000 next year
under the allocations approved by
the City Council but not by the administration.
“We cannot count on the funding
unless this conflict is resolved,”
which means the agency would
have to cut about a third of its 30
emergency shelter beds for young
women ages 15-21, Good said.
Many nonprofits are fronting
the funds to provide services the
block grant funds pay for, and are
counting on reimbursement to
maintain them and remain financially sound, said Maggie DeSantis, president of the Warren-Conner
Development Coalition.
Additionally, the grants enable
Warren-Conner and other agencies such as United Community Housing Coalition to leverage more money.
Without the $151,000 block grant
in the City Council-approved budget, United Community Housing
would have a hard time coming up
with the 20 percent match required for an additional $611,000
grant through HUD’s Supportive
Housing Program, said Executive
Director Ted Phillips.
With general categories of appropriations, “There is no commitment by the mayor to fund any
nonprofit,” Phillips said.
General block grant appropriations in the budget “does not mean
that we will not go to contract with
those groups approved (through
the bid process),” said Thomacina
Tucker, executive manager of financial and resource management
for the planning and development
department.
“But we feel it’s the administration’s right to choose the groups we
allocate the money to. Council’s
role is to approve the contracts.”
Council’s allocation of block
grants in the budget “was agreed
upon by the administration and
City Council for the past 32
years,” said Marcell Todd, director of Detroit’s City Planning Commission.
The initial idea was that council
was more community oriented,
and therefore, more accessible to
the nonprofits providing services
in the city, Todd said. But both
sides recognize today that there’s a
need to fund fewer groups and
more targeted issues or areas in
order to have greater impact.
But the City Council and Planning Commission were included
as participants in the grant
process when the request for proposals went out, he said.
“How can you revoke that
halfway through the process?”
Sherri Begin: (313) 446-1694,
[email protected]
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August 4, 2008
OPINION
Help second-stage
companies with fund
ov. Granholm last week unveiled what could be one of
the strongest programs yet to strengthen and diversify
the state’s economy: The state of Michigan will tap a
tiny piece of the state’s $57 billion pension fund — $300 million
— to invest in Michigan-based companies. (See Amy Lane’s column, Page 37.)
In a state starved for investment capital, $300 million is a major infusion.
Roger Penske will chair the advisory board for the new
plan, and the board has many smart executives, including
Kalamazoo-based Stryker Corp. Chairman John Brown,
Quicken Loans Inc. Chairman Dan Gilbert, Thomas Kinnear
of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan,
and Sandra Pierce, CEO of Charter One Bank-Michigan.
To the governor and to Penske we beg: Keep as few strings
as possible on the money, and look for some successful secondstage companies based in Michigan that need capital to grow.
Second-stage companies are defined as 10 to 100 employees
and $1 million to $50 million in sales. These companies already
have a track record.
Michigan exceeds the national average in second-stage
companies based here, according to research by the Small
Business Association of Michigan. But they grow more slowly
than the national average.
Money and credit are tight. If successful, this effort could
lead to even larger government pension fund investments in this
state.
G
OK local taxes for fund roads
Michigan lawmakers may give local governments the option to create new taxes to help support road improvements.
Nobody likes higher taxes, but the local taxes would require voter approval. Many business leaders, notably Alan
Kiriluk of Troy-based Kirco Development Corp., support the
idea. (See story, Page 1.)
The idea makes a lot of sense. We like the House bills because
they’d allow local taxes for roads and public transit.
Michigan’s gas-tax revenue to fund roads is dropping as people drive fewer miles because of the high cost of fuel.
State gas taxes are leveraged to get matching dollars for
roads and bridges from the federal government. Dropping gas
tax revenue already may create a shortfall in federal funding
for road and bridge construction of a projected $750 million a
year from 2010 to 2015.
Our infrastructure is important to economic activity.
These bills should become law.
LETTERS
Ray Parker was a true leader
Editor:
Detroit has lost a true visionary
with the recent passing of Ray
Parker, founder of RFP Associates
in Detroit. (Week in Review, July
21.) However, what better way to
honor his legacy than to promote
the phenomenal potential that is
Detroit. As one who saw and acted
upon that opportunity, his vision
needs to be emulated by all Detroiters who can see beyond the current dilemmas we face.
While the July 14 column by
Mary Kramer indicated the sludge
is getting deeper here, (“The
‘sludge’ here is getting really
deep”) keep in mind that someone
had the imagination to see its potential, just as someone has put
forth the vision of urban farming
as reflected in a recent editorial
(“Urban farming a good, green
idea,” July 14). And, expanding on
that idea, one may question why
impoverished Detroiters don’t realize the potential of home gar-
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.
E-mail: [email protected]
dens to help alleviate hunger and
add to their and our resources.
And, with the greenest houses
being those already constructed, it
is hoped that Detroiters will see
the value in what they already
have title to. Even the huge
amount of home renovations that
need to occur here should be seen
as potential employment. And the
myriad number of vacant lots in
the city need to be viewed for the
opportunity they offer.
Every pastor of Detroit’s
churches should be leading Detroiters toward greater self-sufficiency by promoting inner-city
gardens rather than leading their
flocks in the victimization choir.
While we hear so much about liberation theology, those who put
action to words are the true leaders. Ray Parker was one of them.
He was about initiative.
Robert Thibodeau
Detroit
Thanks from Tenn.
Editor:
This message is to all the people
involved in drafting and signing
the new business tax law in Michigan (“Businesses decry ‘tax on
tax,’ ” June 16), Thank you!
Our company moved to Tennessee 10 years ago, so we appreciate the gaffe made just months before Volkswagen finalized its
decision on where to put its new
See Letters, Page 9
KEITH CRAIN: Thank goodness for sports and the zoo
This week, a whole bunch of folks
will be heading for Detroit to enjoy
golf on a championship level.
Oakland Hills Country Club is
hosting the PGA Championship.
We’ll have thousands of people and
millions of dollars spent in our region by folks who will enjoy our
community and some great golf.
It’s amazing how many times,
when we’ve been facing all sorts of
problems and troubles, that a major sporting event comes along to
take our minds off the catastrophe.
We can’t help but celebrate the
sporting event.
Last week, we were
celebrating the wonderful history of the automobile
at
Meadow
Brook with the world-famous Concours d’Elegance. Hundreds of cars
from the century of the
automobile were there.
And in a couple of
weeks over Labor Day,
we’ll be on Belle Isle to enjoy the excitement of Indy cars on the island.
And in between, we’ll root for
our Tigers as they finish
up their rather lengthy
road trip.
Hopefully, we’ve always got something to
cheer about in Detroit,
whether it’s a car race or
a pennant race. It gives
us a bit of diversion from
our political woes or
manufacturing
maladies.
We can count ourselves lucky
that we’ve got all these great events
— and many great organizations
and attractions in our community.
Certainly one of the most important is our Detroit Zoo. In the tricounty primary vote on Tuesday,
we have a chance to secure for our
zoo the funding that is vital for the
well-being of this institution. It’s a
modest millage proposal, and it deserves our support.
As we see a lot of hard times
among our corporate citizens, it’s
going to take a lot more from each
of us to help keep those nonprofit
institutions alive and well. All of
us will have to dig a little deeper
into our pockets. In spite of the
continuing increases in our cost of
living, we’re somehow going to
have to do more for our institutions as corporations do less.
Yet, we are luckier than most
parts of the country. In spite of our
economic woes, we’ve still got
more things to cheer about, go see
and participate in during our summer and winter months that most
any other city.
Every cloud has a silver lining,
and we’ve got more silver than
most.
8/1/2008
10:23 AM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Page 9
OTHER VOICES: Government must rein in spending
A perfect storm has
Food prices are skyrockemerged as the Federal Reeting. As the Fed omits
serve has reduced interest
food and energy to mearates, injected hundreds of
sure core inflation, the rebillions of dollars to relieve
alities of the marketplace
a solvency crisis, further
are ignored for the conveweakening the currency in
nience of classroom theothe process and increasing
ry. Combined with the inthe cost of goods, oil and
flationary impact of a $150
other commodities.
billion fiscal stimulus,
Transportation
costs David Breuhan prices are rising.
are rising, and shippers must pass
Manufacturing jobs have disapon the costs. Dow Chemical raised peared, but payrolls of government
prices by 20 percent, then an- and public-sector jobs have innounced another increase of 25 per- creased.
cent to combat the relentless rise of
Government must cut costs now,
commodity prices. United Airlines as inflation is a monetary phenomeis unable to make a profit.
non, and the government is simply
creating too much money.
The federal government needs
to initiate a hiring freeze at all levels, except for defense and public
safety. Where possible, assets need
to be sold to raise revenue. Governments need to begin layoffs,
just as the private sector is doing.
Officials must recognize that a
gold price of over $400 per ounce
signals inflationary market expectations. Gold nearing $1,000 per
ounce warns of great danger.
The federal budget must be
amended through a bill reducing
expenditures in fiscal year 2009. A
portion of FICA taxes, those funding Social Security, should be tem-
porarily halted for six months, for
both employers and employees.
This 6.2 percent pay increase for individuals and businesses will lessen
the burden through the end of the
year, without having inflationary
impact. The government reports
that Social Security is still solvent
and this temporary abatement
would not weaken the currency or
increase the national debt.
Longer term, the entire Federal
Reserve system should be reviewed by Congress. Since 1913, we
have witnessed the virtual destruction of the currency through
guesswork and debauchery. Inflation has been the result, with the
dollar now seriously in jeopardy of
permanently losing its place as the
world’s reserve currency.
The Fed has failed at maintaining
price stability. Congress must abolish the Federal Reserve’s authorization to buy treasury securities.
Short-term rates should be controlled by the market and gold
should be recognized as a signal of
inflation. Rather than adding to the
Federal Reserve’s tasks, as some
are advocating, responsibilities
should be removed.
David Breuhan is a vice president and portfolio manager with
Bloomfield Hills-based Gregory J.
Schwartz & Co.
LETTERS CONTINUED
■ From Page 8
plant (“VW taps Tennessee for US
plant,” crainsdetroit.com, July 15).
The message was loud and clear:
“We are run by incompetents that
don’t particularly like business.”
For those that actually wrote
that mess, in the future keep it
simple: Line 1: What was your federal taxable income? Line 2: Multiply line 1 by X percent; Line 3:
You’re done.
John Zardis
Lexington, Tenn.
Senate lacks courage
Editor:
Late on a Friday night not long
ago, our Michigan Senate, in an
act lacking in vision and courage,
voted out a package of energy bills
— pathetically weak and in sharp
contrast to the negotiated bills of
the Michigan House weeks before.
(“Utility companies to push shareholders for legislation,” May 12.)
The House included a 1 percent
per year energy-efficiency standard and a 10 percent renewable
portfolio standard by 2015, placing
Michigan in the middle of the 26
states who have such standards —
hardly exemplary, but a step in the
right direction.
The Senate’s version contains a
combined energy-efficiency and
renewable portfolio standard of 7
percent, placing Michigan at the
bottom of those states. Since
Michigan already gets 5 percent of
its electrical energy from renewables, no courage here.
The Senate bills also have the
audacity to include coal in its definition of “renewables.” Just which
planet are they living on?
One wonders: Whom do our Senators purport to represent? The
public, who want clean air and
mercury-free edible fish, children
without asthma and optimally
functioning brains? Or an industry fearful of change and eager to
perpetuate its reliance on the dirtiest, most destructive and most expensive of all energy sources?
Michigan is rich in alternative
resources, with the manpower,
skill and manufacturing capacity
to be a world leader in the delivery
of equipment for harnessing it.
Yet, our senators would continue
to spend billions annually to bring
in fuel from out of state.
Our Michigan Senate — clinging
to coal and the status quo!
Shirley Kallio
Rockford
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Experience More.
7/29/08 5:14:51 PM
8/1/2008
11:17 AM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK
Chad Halcom
covers services,
environment and
Oakland and
Macomb counties.
Call (313) 4466796 or write
chalcom
@crain.
com.
Page 11
County’s largest employers. Based on full-time workers.
1
2
3
4
5
Oakland County
General Motors Corp., 15,097.
Beaumont Hospitals, 14,610.
Chrysler L.L.C., 9,053.
Trinity Health Corp., 4,721.
EDS Corp., 4,334.
See Page 14 for the complete list.
Chad Halcom
Four-day week
nice idea ... but
Progress has been slow, but a few
private-sector employers are weighing four-day workweeks to help curb
employee fuel costs as proposed by
Oakland County Executive L. Brooks
Patterson. That’s according to recent
research by the American Society of
Employers.
Suneetha Giridhar, director of research services at the Southfieldbased organization, and human resources Research Analyst Hema
Mason said the four-day week was
the lead option under consideration
in a June survey of 116 regional employers. The other top options under
review: telecommuting and incentives for carpooling. A less-popular
idea was gas cards.
“For our customer-service employers, there’s some consideration of
how a four-day week affects availability to the customer, while for technology firms telecommuting looks like
an easy answer.” Giridhar said.
Employer strategies on fuel will be
focus of a “Gas Pains” discussion and
breakfast meeting Aug. 22 at ASE’s offices at 23815 Northwestern Highway.
Patterson first proposed in May offering a four-day workweek for county
employees, under a scheduling program that took effect in July, and challenged local private-sector employers
to follow suit.
Mason said it’s too early to tell what
the ultimate fuel cost strategy will be.
“About 60 percent of those responding said they would consider offering options for their employees,”
Mason said. “But only 35 of the 116
respondents gave any answer to that
question. It’s hard to tell how many are
looking at it.”
About 68 percent of all employers
told ASE that high gas prices are having an effect on employee productivity and workplace attitudes, while 32
percent said fuel did not appear to
have an effect. But another 68 percent of employees also said in June
they were not planning any immediate relief measures, such as raising
the mileage reimbursement rate for
on-the-job travel, before the IRS recommended a rate increase in July.
Giridhar said the ASE plans a
follow-up survey in September, in addition to the August meeting, to track
the shifting sentiments of employers.
“What we hear is that employers
may be looking at it, but not a lot of
people are willing to be the first to try
something new,” she said.
Troy-based WorkLife Financial
and IBM offices are pursuing the
four-day workweek idea.
In the public sector, besides Oakland County, the Macomb County
Commission personnel committee
has also taken up a proposal to offer
four-day workweeks or nine days
every two weeks, and Oakland University in Rochester Hills is testing
the four-day workweek option. It’s under review and a possible extension
into the 2007-08 academic year.
Health care grows
as auto industry slides
OAKLAND COUNTY HOSPITAL PROJECTS
Beaumont expected
to replace GM as
largest employer
Construction on the Beaumont Medical Center in Commerce
Township is to wrap up in 2010.
BY CHAD HALCOM
akland County’s rising reputation as a health care
destination is also making it a magnet for health care
jobs.
Before the end of this year, industry and local political
leaders predict, Royal Oak-based Beaumont Hospitals will displace General Motors Corp. as the largest employer in Oakland
County — marking the first time in recent history that an
automaker hasn’t held the No. 1 spot for all three metropolitan Detroit counties.
According to employment figures furnished to Crain’s,
GM claimed 15,097 employees within Oakland in January,
just 487 more than Beaumont’s 14,610. In 2007, GM outpaced
Beaumont by about 3,000
Oakland workers. GM
remains the top employer in Macomb County,
and Ford Motor Co. leads
for Wayne County excluding Detroit, where
GM is based.
But a role reversal
with Beaumont looks inevitable, as the No. 1 automaker announced in
July it would seek to
raise $15 billion in liquidity through a number
of measures, including a
20 percent reduction in
all costs connected to its
32,000 U.S. salaried
workers, by the end of
Mike Killian, Beaumont Hospitals
2008.
“We didn’t aspire to
become the number one employer. It’s our hope that the automakers recover and continue to do well,” said Mike Killian, vice president of marketing for Beaumont. “But having
said that, it does show that health care is at least a major
part of an overall economic catalyst for the region.”
The health care company expects to generate 100 new jobs
upon completion of the freestanding, $159 million protonbeam center at its Royal Oak hospital campus in 2010, and
up to 850 jobs when construction wraps the same year at the
$70 million Beaumont Medical Center complex in Commerce
Township.
“We’ve been tracking that trend as well, and it looks like
this is the year that (Beaumont-GM role reversal) is going to
O
Work on the proposed Crittenton-Karmanos Care Center in
Rochester Hills is expected to begin this summer.
didn’t aspire
“ We
to become the
The McLaren Health Care Village in Independence Township is in
the first phase of construction.
number one
employer. But ...
health care is at
least a major part of
an overall economic
catalyst for the
region.
”
The St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Urgent Care Lake Orion opened in
April.
See Oakland, Page 12
DETROIT BUSINESS MAIN 08-04-08 A 12,13 CDB
8/1/2008
11:19 AM
Page 12
Page 1
August 4, 2008
FOCUS: OAKLAND COUNTY
Oakland: Health careboosts e
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MICHIGAN s ILLINOIS s MASSACHUSETTS s NEW YORK s FLORIDA s CANADA s POLAND
happen,” said Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson.
Health care and related professions, which can include traditional practices as well as residential
and elderly care, psychiatry and
substance abuse counseling, accounted for 83,553 jobs in Oakland
County for 2006. That’s according
to the national County Business
Patterns index of data from the
U.S. Census Bureau. By comparison, the same professional segments accounted for 73,227 Oakland jobs in 2000.
By 2010, health care fields will
account for more than 87,000 Oakland jobs, according to data from
the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of
Michigan, which prepares an annual economic outlook for the
county. But county officials caution that UM and the Census Bureau data don’t necessarily categorize all specific career fields the
same way.
Not all medical organizations report job growth — several companies reported flat or falling employment numbers in Oakland,
including cash-strapped North Oakland Medical Centers in Pontiac and
Botsford Health Care in Farmington
Hills. But new investment in developing or converting office-medical space is on the rise in Oakland, said Gary Grochowski,
senior vice president of commercial real estate broker L. Mason
Capitani Inc. in Troy.
Grochowski said shuttered office buildings that once housed
suppliers and other automotiverelated industries make an appealing prospect for medical office conversion because of their
capacity.
“In a lot of the municipalities,
the (local ordinances or regulations) call for about twice the
available parking space to be
available for office medical as for
any other office space,” he said.
“And the best examples of buildings you can convert to that are old
engineering and research buildings where they tend to pack people into the cubicles and it was already high-density. So you have a
lot of parking already.”
L. Mason Capitani represented
both parties in a deal that closed
June 20 for Barclay of Rochester Investment Group L.L.C. to buy the former Budd Co. building in Rochester
Hills and convert it into a multitenant medical office building.
That building went on the market after ThyssenKrupp AG put its
Budd parts unit up for sale in 2006.
The asking price was $3.98 million.
A historic Ford dealership
building on South Main Street in
Royal Oak is also completing renovations this month to accommodate a combination medical office
and pharmacy. Santa Zawaideh,
president of Troy-based Direct RX
Inc., said the Royal Oak building
will become a second location for
her family’s pharmaceutical business and for Zawaideh Medical Center P.C., a family medical practice
also based in Troy. She is looking
to lease additional medical office
END OF THE BED BOOM?
One leading Oakland County health
care executive does not expect the
county’s health care boom to be
sustainable for the long run.
Not everything under development
in Oakland may be built to last,
according to Jack Weiner,
president and CEO of St. Joseph
Mercy Oakland Hospital in Pontiac.
Weiner notes that the state
Certificate of Need commission
has already determined that the
region including Oakland County is
over-bedded by more than 1,200
beds and population growth is
limited.
“This is not like a Phoenix, or a Las
Vegas, where you can build a
hospital with a certain number of
beds in a market with 5-10 percent
growth and expect that the new
hospital will be filled to capacity in
a certain number of years,” he
said. “And for many hospitals, the
costs of moving into new regions
drive the prices up that they charge
to insurers, and this also affects
competition.”
The most recent annual population
growth rate was less than 0.1
percent for Oakland County.
Larry Horvath, manager of
Certificate of Need programs for
the Michigan Department of
Community Health, confirmed that
Oakland has an excess of 1,202
hospital beds but is fairly near
capacity for psychiatric beds and
has a demonstrated need for 139
beds for nursing home care. But
local hospitals and nursing care
companies have already applied
for those beds and more.
“If you look at the numbers, we
have something like 139 nursing
home beds to give away, but all the
applications pending, if granted,
would total something more than
600 beds,” he said. “And those
people are ahead of whoever
wants to enter the application
process now.”
Weiner cautioned that an increase
in medical care professionals
without a substantial increase in
nearby patients for them to treat
creates a high-risk environment for
new ventures.
— Chad Halcom
space on the building’s second
floor.
New medical office buildings
are also part of the current construction at Beaumont Medical
Center in Commerce Township as
well as the first phase of the
McLaren Health Care Village under construction in Independence
Township.
Kevin Tompkins, vice president
of marketing at McLaren Health
Care Corp. in Flint, said the total
project when complete would add
about 3,000 employees to Independence Township, but not all would
be hospital system employees.
About 150 jobs will come from
Clarkston Medical Group P.C., which
is moving into the office-medical
building in phase one of the construction, which is set to wrap up
in early 2009.
“Something we continue to look
at is getting physicians involved,
not only as tenants in (the medical
office) building but partnering
with us for an equity stake in the
development,” he said.
8/1/2008
11:20 AM
Page 2
August 4, 2008
sts economy as auto industry slides
Also new to northern Oakland
will be the proposed CrittentonKarmanos Care Center, a tentative
name for a proposed 30,000-squarefoot building set for groundbreaking sometime this summer.
The building will be a project of
Crittenton-Karmanos Health Services, a joint venture company of
Rochester Hills-based Crittenton
Hospital and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. It
will open within
18 months about
three
miles
from the hospital, said Crittenton Chief Strategy
Officer
Michelle Hornberger.
“This project
Hornberger
will offer patients the whole range of specialization and services that Karmanos offers, without having to go
to downtown Detroit,” she said.
Jack Weiner, president and CEO
of St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital
in Pontiac, said its attention to
Oakland is nothing new. Trinity
Health’s overall employment has
“remained fairly static from one
year” to the next, and Weiner said
much of its recent Oakland development is meant to help St. Joseph
shore up its share of existing markets.
“We have always been working
to maintain our position in the region, as the urgent care provider
for what has suddenly become the
Promised Land to everyone else,”
he said.
St. Joseph, which maintains
about 2,400 employees companywide, recently added about 40 employees with the April opening of
the St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Urgent Care Lake Orion, where it
bought the former HealthFirst
Medical Center, plus up to 25 new
jobs at the Waterford Urgent Care
center, opened last year in Waterford Township.
A multiphase development in
White Lake Township, when fully built out, will mean another 80100 employees, Weiner said. St.
Joseph is going to rent space
within a medical building on the
White Lake site, while parent
company Trinity Health Corp. will
own and operate a separate nursing home.
But Weiner and Killian both noted that there is also evidence Oakland is becoming a health destination county for patients from
outside Southeast Michigan, helping to sustain local growth. In 2006,
Beaumont had patients from all 50
states and Canada in its inpatient
head count, and St. Joseph continues to draw patients from rural
northern Michigan through technological ventures like the Michigan Stroke Network of robotic teleconference treatment devices.
“That’s exactly what’s going on.
Oakland County is becoming an
area people are visiting (for treat-
ment) because it’s growing and developing in specialists and at the
same time we’re acquiring one-of-akind centers like proton-beam therapy,” he said.
“That’s going to continue as specialization grows, development
grows and technology grows.”
Patterson, for his part, echoed
that Oakland is on a path to carving out a regional health care reputation.
Health care is the single fastest
growing sector among the 10
“Emerging Sectors” that the county tracks in its program of the same
name to help drive growth and diversify the county economy.
While he concedes that population growth might be slow for all
the recent development, he insists
the current trend is “an aberration
that will correct itself after the local economy recovers from the
one-state recession” — sometime
in 2009-10.
Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796,
[email protected]
Page 13
Medical school planned for OU;
Beaumont Hospital collaborates
A new medical school for Oakland County is expected to be another part of local health care job
growth in the next few years.
The medical school at Oakland
University is planned as a privately
funded institution in collaboration with William Beaumont Hospital. Last week, the organizations
said $25 million out of a needed
$100 million in operating costs
was raised and Robert Folberg,
professor and head of pathology at
the University of Illinois at Chicago,
would be the school’s first dean.
Michelle Strunge Moser, assistant director of media relations
for Oakland University, said the
institution expects a fall 2010
opening. Students will work primarily at Beaumont sites for clinical rotations. She declined to say
how many jobs the school will add
to the university, but County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said
the county has obtained an estimate of 1,000 jobs for the proposal.
— Chad Halcom
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8/1/2008
10:24 AM
Page 1
Page 14
August 4, 2008
CRAIN'S LIST: OAKLAND COUNTY'S LARGEST EMPLOYERS Ranked by full-time employees
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.
Full-time
employees
Oakland County
Jan. 2008
Full-time
employees
Oakland County
Jan. 2007
Full-time
employees
Michigan
Jan. 2008
Full-time
employees
Michigan
Jan. 2007
Worldwide
employees
Jan. 2008
Worldwide
employees
Jan. 2007
G. Richard Wagoner
chairman and CEO
15,097
15,555
59,524
62,599
266,837
280,414
Automobile manufacturer
Beaumont Hospitals
Kenneth Matzick
CEO and president
14,610
12,588
16,432
12,638
NA
NA
Private, nonprofit hospital
Chrysler L.L.C.
Robert Nardelli
chairman and CEO
9,053
9,923
29,811
34,096
71,578
79,984 B
Automobile manufacturer
Trinity Health Corp.
Joseph Swedish
president and CEO
4,721
4,688
21,090
21,465
43,548
44,000
Health care system
Mike O'Hair
vice president and regional
general manager of GM account
4,334
4,396
7,796
8,456
135,500
119,000
Information-technology services
Kelly Sigmon
district manager, customer
service and sales
4,176
3,970
NA
NA
NA
NA
Postal service
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan/Blue
Care Network
Daniel Loepp
president and CEO
3,996
4,051
8,444
8,135
NA
NA
Health care insurer
St. John Health
Patricia Maryland
president and CEO
3,841
4,139
11,388
14,623
11,388
14,623
Health care organization
Oakland County
L. Brooks Patterson
county executive
3,699
3,714
3,699
3,714
3,699
3,714
Government
Gerson Cooper
CEO
2,351
2,442
2,351
2,442
2,351
2,442
Thomas Ogden
Michigan market president
2,240
2,185
6,518
6,716
10,187
10,129
Financial services provider
Rodney O'Neal
president and CEO
1,970 C
1,800
8,300 C
NA
163,500 C
NA
Automotive supplier
Rick Going
president, Michigan division
1,842
1,333
7,817
5,818
310,000
NA
Grocery retailer
Thomas Hammond
chairman
1,701
1,642
2,532
2,364
3,841
3,052
Banking
Dan Gilbert
chairman and founder
1,620
1,392
NA
3,942
3,702
4,247
Mortgage banking
Robert Rossiter
CEO, chairman and president
1,610
1,856
4,085
7,685
89,620
104,276
Supplier of automotive seating
systems, electrical distribution
systems and electronics products
Richard Wade
Michigan market president and
executive vice president of JP
Morgan Chase and Co.
1,525
1,480
4,800
4,900
178,000
171,000
Financial services provider
Crittenton Hospital Medical Center
Lynn Orfgen
president and CEO
1,500
1,500
1,500
1,500
1,500
1,500
Kelly Services Inc.
Carl Camden
president and CEO
1,484
1,373
1,630
1,521
750,000
700,000
Staffing services
Henry Ford Health System
Nancy Schlichting
president and CEO
1,376
1,855
16,611
15,143
16,663
15,212
Health care system
Gary Russi
president
1,359
1,414
1,359
1,414
1,359
1,414
Public university
State of Michigan
Jennifer Granholm
governor
1,114
1,086
48,420
50,029
48,465
50,084
State government
Detroit Medical Center
Michael Duggan
president and CEO
917
934
11,586
11,124
11,586
11,124
Health care system
North Oakland Medical Centers
John Graham
president and CEO
803
969
803
969
NA
NA
Plante & Moran P.L.L.C.
William Hermann
managing partner
728
727
1,172
1,191
1,472
1,509
Company
Address
Phone; Web site
General Motors Corp.
300 Renaissance Center, Detroit 48265
(313) 556-5000; www.gm.com
3601 W. 13 Mile Road, Royal Oak 48073
(248) 898-5000; www.beaumonthospitals.com
1000 Chrysler Drive, Auburn Hills 48326
(800) 334-9200; www.chryslerllc.com
27870 Cabot Drive, Novi 48377
(248) 489-5004; www.trinity-health.org
EDS Corp.
500 Renaissance Center, Detroit 48232
(313) 230-2664; www.eds.com
U.S. Postal Service
320 Martin St., Birmingham 48009-1485
(248) 594-4100; www.usps.gov
Top local executive
Type of business
600 E. Lafayette Blvd., Detroit 48226
(313) 225-9000; www.bcbsm.com
28000 Dequindre Road, Warren 48092
(888) 440-7325; www.stjohn.org
2100 Pontiac Lake Road, Waterford 48328
(248) 858-2581; www.oakgov.com
Botsford Health Care
28050 Grand River Ave., Farmington Hills 48336
(248) 471-8000; www.botsfordsystem.org
Comerica Bank
500 Woodward Ave., Detroit 48226
(248) 371-5000; www.comerica.com
Delphi Corp.
1441 W. Long Lake Road, Troy 48098-5090
(248) 267-8642; www.delphi.com
The Kroger Co. - Michigan Division
39810 Grand River Ave., Suite C-150, Novi 48375
(248) 957-2230; www.kroger.com
Flagstar Bancorp Inc.
5151 Corporate Drive, Troy 48098
(248) 312-2000; www.flagstar.com
Quicken Loans/Rock Financial Inc.
20555 Victor Parkway, Livonia 48152
(800) 226-6308; www.quickenloans.com and
www.rockfinancial.com
Lear Corp.
21557 Telegraph Road, Southfield 48033
(248) 447-1500; www.lear.com
Chase
611 Woodward Ave., Detroit 48226
(248) 680-2600; www.chase.com
1101 W. University Drive, Rochester Hills 48307
(248) 652-5000; www.crittenton.com
999 W. Big Beaver Road, Troy 48084
(248) 362-4444; www.kellyservices.com
1 Ford Place, Detroit 48202
(800) 436-7936; www.henryford.com
Oakland University
Squirrel Road, Rochester 48309
(248) 370-4346; www.oakland.edu
Cadillac Place, Detroit 48202
(313) 456-4400; www.michigan.gov
3990 John R Road, Detroit 48201
(313) 745-1250; www.dmc.org
461 W. Huron, Pontiac 48341
(248) 857-7200; www.nomc.org
27400 Northwestern Highway
P.O. Box 307, Southfield 48037
(248) 352-2500; www.plantemoran.com
Hospital
Accounting and consulting services
This list of Oakland County employers encompasses companies with headquarters in Livingston, Oakland, Wayne, Macomb or Washtenaw counties. Companies with headquarters elsewhere are listed with the address and top executive of their main Detroit-area
office. This is not a complete listing but the most comprehensive available. Unless otherwise noted, information was provided by the companies. Number of full-time employees may include full-time equivalents. NA means not available. Bank of Amercia, which
Crain's believes would qualify for this list, did not provide 2008 figures and a reliable estimate could not be made. For 2007, LaSalle Bank, now Bank of America, reported 2,326 full-time employee, to Crain's.
B As of June 2007.
C As of March 31, 2008.
LIST RESEARCHED BY ANNE MARKS, JOANNE SCHARICH AND CHRISTY SCHMITZ
8/1/2008
11:37 AM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Page 15
FOCUS: OAKLAND COUNTY
You get more than just theories and
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White Lake and Highland
townships see development
despite real estate slump
BY MIKE SCOTT
SPECIAL TO CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
White Lake and Highland townships along the M-59 corridor in
Oakland County are attracting
new retail and mixed-use development despite the residential real
estate slowdown.
White Lake Township, in particular, is actively looking for additional business tax revenue from
commercial projects to offset
falling residential tax funds.
The township’s Lakes Village
development will include a J.C.
Penney store by the end of August.
In addition, Marshalls has submitted plans to the township for a
store that likely will open in February, and the development has
other tenants such as Famous
Footwear, an AAA branch and a
100,000-square-foot St. Joseph’s Mercy medical facility. Total development value is around $58 million.
The development is a joint venture
of Troy-based Kirco and Farmington Hills-based Gershenson Realty.
The project increases the commercial tax base for the township,
whose 37.17 square miles are largely composed of residential lands,
farms and public lands. The development is part of the White Lake
Township downtown area or “village” area at Elizabeth Lake Road
near Highland Road.
The added tax base will be used
to pay for expanded residential
services, road construction, the library and public services, said
White Lake Township Supervisor
Mike Kowall.
A corridor development plan established by White Lake Township
also could include a bridge for
pedestrian crossing, buried power
lines and a pathway to connect with
White Lake Township businesses
and attractions and with the Oakland County trailway system.
That added tax base in White
Lake Township is needed because
the township lost about $84 million
in revenue tied to residential property values, Kowall said. The new
retail development will help fill
the tax revenue gap and offers a
walkable environment for residents and visitors, he said.
“This Lakes Village concept is
very advantageous to residents
and businesses,” Kowall said.
“The walkway system will allow
shoppers to walk or ride their
bike from one retail store to another without having to get in
their car and drive back down M59 or Elizabeth Lake Road.”
In 10 years, Kowall hopes to see
White Lake Township as an area
with significant commercial activity, but one which also retains
a rural feel.
“I want us to be an area where
other residents come to shop and
eat — and then they’ll go home,”
Kowall said. “We don’t have the
room or desire for massive residential developments.”
White Lake Township’s ongo-
ing developments benefit neighboring communities as well, said
Sharon Greene, a member of the
Highland Downtown Development
Authority and the Highland Equestrian Conservancy.
“There is such beauty in the
communities like Highland, Milford and White Lake (Township),
but it is important for us to add
tax base and a retail sector where
possible,” Greene said. “People
come visit our communities for
our parks and outdoors, and now
they will come to shop as well.”
The corridor still has additional room for growth. Further east
near the Waterford Township
border and adjacent to the Salvation Army store, is another array of
retail developments. Ground already has been broken by developer Rod Haddash, which will include a Chase bank scheduled to
open this September, a restaurant
and other retail stores, Kowall
said. That project totals $2 million in new investment.
Highland Township also is developing its downtown community on Milford Road just south of
Highland Road. One of the newest
developments by local developer
Larry Shew is the Highland
Station, a 26,000-square-foot commercial development that included a renovation of an historic
home and some additions to create a residential style structure
with room for eight commercial
units.
“The look of that development
really matches with what we are
trying to accomplish with that
downtown area,” Greene said. “It
has large windows that will be
perfect for attracting tenants and
shoppers to the downtown.”
Highland Station currently
houses medical
and real estate
offices, a retail
saddler and other equestrianrelated stores
that give credence to Highland
Township’s
Pilchowski
reputation as
the horse capital of Southeastern
Michigan.
Further developments are being encouraged by the township
but in a very limited, strategic
way, said Highland Township Supervisor Triscia Pilchowski.
LaFontaine Buick Pontiac GMC
Cadillac moved to a new location
in Highland Township, a $15 million “green” facility that nearly
tripled its size. It held its grand
opening in July. And, township
officials have joined Automation
Alley and are working with Oakland County to attract small, technology-related businesses to the
community, Pilchowski said.
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© 2008 ASE
Page 16
8/1/2008
11:05 AM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
‘Virtual pros’ make money for StaffPro, save money for clients
BY SHERRI BEGIN
Southfield-based StaffPro America expects
to boost revenue this year by 19 percent with
the start of its “virtual pros” subsidiary.
Launched in February, StaffPro Virtual pairs
small businesses with self-employed administrative assistants or professionals who work
from their home on a project-by-project basis.
“It’s still a staffing firm model, except that
I’m not the employer for the virtual pro,”
said StaffPro Founder and President Lesley
Delgado.
“Our
virtual
pros are independent contractors
On the Grow is a
or independent
feature that will
business owners
appear in most issues
… we are the link
highlighting growing
that brings the
companies, large and
right assistant to
small. Know of a
company you think
the right compaCrain’s should write
ny.”
about? Contact
Clients
pay
Managing Editor
StaffPro
an
Andrew Chapelle at
hourly rate for
[email protected].
the work that virtual assistants or
professionals do, she said. Typically, the
markup is 10 percent to 30 percent, depending on the project and the client.
StaffPro then pays the virtual pros.
Since the virtual pros are self-employed,
StaffPro does not have to pay employee taxes,
Delgado said. The model also lowers or eliminates client investments in direct employees,
office space and equipment, Delgado said.
At the same time, it helps get people who’ve
OntheGrow
PHOTO COURTESY OF STAFFPRO
Lesley Delgado wants to help people who’ve lost
their jobs get back to work.
lost their jobs get back to work, she said.
“We want to create a community of people who have lost their job because of corporate downsizing and help them create a
home-based business,” Delgado said.
StaffPro’s new subsidiary already has
brought in 10 to 12 new clients, she said,
which should add up to about $400,000 in
new revenue this year.
“We have no local competitors for this,”
Delgado said.
StaffPro’s revenue has increased steadily,
from $1.7 million in 2005 to $1.9 million in
2006 and $2.1 million last year, Delgado said.
The company provides contract administrative employees to industries and
fundraising professionals for nonprofits,
with seven direct employees and about 75
contract employees.
Cynthia Zimber has joined StaffPro as a
partner and COO of StaffPro Virtual.
A Detroit native and Michigan State University graduate, Zimber spent most of her 30year career in senior sales management,
business development and marketing positions for established and startup companies.
The virtual pro model is fairly prominent
in Canada but hasn’t really taken off yet in
the U.S., Delgado said.
“The reason virtual is so interesting today is that the business model has changed
so much,” Delgado said. More and more people affected by corporate downsizing are creating their own small businesses.
“It’s a waste of your time to figure out
how to put a PowerPoint presentation together or do desktop publishing when your
focus should be on driving your business
forward.”
Citrisys Solutions, which is in the process of
moving its Novi headquarters to Vienna,
Va., hired virtual assistants through StaffPro to work on a press release, marketing
templates and revamping the content and
design of its Web site to better reflect its ecommerce building capabilities, said President Ara Ramalingam.
“We didn’t want full-time help. We wanted someone who was remote, who didn’t
have to come to our office, because we are
traveling and not here in the office all of the
time,” he said.
Pleasant Ridge-based Cerb & Associates
L.L.C. also has been using virtual pros from
StaffPro for the past six months, said Cindy
Eggleton, a principal with the marketing
and communications firm.
“We have a lot of projects that are specific
to a time period, but not necessarily ongoing
for a year,” Eggleton said. “It’s a huge benefit
to be able to bring people in project by project
with almost no training time needed.”
Like StaffPro, Troy-based Kelly Services
Inc. works with home-based administrative
assistants, but they are considered employees of the staffing firm as opposed to selfcontractors, said Jonathan Means, senior
vice president and general manager.
There’s “a fairly slippery slope” with the
model of working with self-contractors, he
said, since there are very specific rules
around whether someone truly is an independent contractor.
If that person doesn’t qualify as an independent contractor, “the employer utilizing
them still ends up with a tax burden they
weren’t counting on,” Means said.
A recent report by the state’s Interagency
Task Force on Worker Misclassification warns
that companies that misuse independent
contractors may face increased scrutiny
from state agencies. (See “Contract hiring
under scrutiny,” Crain’s Detroit Business,
Page 1, July 7.)
“We believe, in general, that employees
are better served to be employees of Kelly
and not independent contractors in most
circumstances so they are not burdened of
the responsibilities of being a selfemployer,” Means said.
“Not paying employee taxes is certainly a
benefit for StaffPro and the client, but it’s
probably not a benefit for the independent
contractor who has to pay their own taxes,”
he said.
Sherri
Begin:
(313)
446-1694,
[email protected]
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7/31/2008
4:39 PM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Page 17
A CONVERSATION WITH
Laughs from the links
Lorna Utley and other
readers sent us their most
memorable golf stories,
whether “Caddyshack”
moments or brushes with
celebrities. Page 22.
Joe
Steranka,
PGA of America
PGA of America CEO Joe Steranka
was named CEO of the PGA in 2005
and is the second CEO in the 92-year
history of the organization.
Before working at the PGA, he held
marketing positions with the NBA’s
Washington Bullets (now Wizards) and
Cleveland Cavaliers. He also helped
create public-relations and marketing
campaigns for Michael Jordan, Arthur
Ashe and Jimmy Connors during a
five-year stint with Washington, D.C.based sports management company
ProServ.
Steranka spoke with Crain’s reporter Ryan Beene about the local
economic impact of the PGA ($40 million to $60 million) and the intersection of golf and business.
What’s your handicap? I’m a 6.8. No,
wait, transpose that, 8.6. I don’t want
to give up that many strokes yet.
How much of the mindset required by
golf translates into business, based
on your experience as a golfer and a
businessman? There is an adage that
you can learn a lot about how someone will conduct themselves in business by playing a round of golf with
them. If someone stays calm, cool
and collected even after they’ve
topped three shots in a row, if someone can be self-deprecating about
their game, if someone doesn’t boast
too loudly when they do make a good
shot — and conversely there’s a lot of
things you can do to lose your cool on
the golf course — that tells you a lot
about the makeup of someone that
you’re looking to do business with
and perhaps hire.
How is marketing golf different than
marketing other sports, like the
NBA? Golf is a game that appeals to
a much wider range of customers,
from age 8 to 80. You’re talking about
golf as a participation sport, more
than a fan- or team-loyalty type of
sport. Golf is about promoting almost
a lifestyle.
How much of a chance is there for local or regional businesses to advertise, market or have a presence at
the PGA Championship, as opposed
to core sponsors like General Motors
or the Royal Bank of Scotland? Most
of the economic impact from a PGA
Championship or the Ryder Cup goes
to the local community, so you have an
opportunity if you’re in the retail business to attract several thousand fans
who are coming in from out of town,
out of the state or out of the country,
to your establishment. If you’re a business-to-business customer, you have a
chance to promote yourself to a whole
host of businesses. We’ve got over
100 companies that are involved in
some way, shape or form with buying
tickets, buying corporate tables, buying
private hospitality chalets.
PGA Championship
Business of golf
Sure, the PGA Championship is
about golf, but dealing is expected
90TH PGA
CHAMPIONSHIP
What: The season’s final
major championship,
featuring the toughest field of
the season’s four majors, will
include 136 of the world’s
greatest players and 20 club
professionals competing for
the Wanamaker Trophy.
When: Today-Sunday.
Where: South course,
Oakland Hills Country Club,
Bloomfield Township.
Live TV coverage: Thursday
and Friday, 1-7 p.m. (TNT);
Saturday and Sunday, 11
a.m.-2 p.m. (TNT), 2-7 p.m.
(CBS).
Gate hours: 7 a.m.-8:15 p.m.
every day.
Parking: Free shuttles will run
from the Pontiac Silverdome
beginning at 6:45 a.m.
Monday-Wednesday and
6:30 a.m. Thursday-Sunday.
Details: Cameras are allowed
only during the practice
rounds today-Wednesday.
Autographs are allowed only
at the practice range and
putting green those days.
Cell phones are not
permitted at any time.
Portable folding chairs and
umbrellas are allowed.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
The game will go
on, even without
Tiger. Page 18.
BY JASON DEEGAN
nside, outside or at a VIP reception, area executives are among the fans watching the PGA
Championship this week at Oakland Hills Country Club.
For some, it’s all about the golf. For others, it’s all
about access to a top-tier business crowd.
Whether you’re a high roller with access to the
finest in corporate hospitality or a golf junkie with a
more modest budget, there’s a range of options for
making the most of the time on or near the greens.
Unlike a football or basketball game in an arena
filled with seats, golf tournaments give fans the freedom to find a spot where they feel
most comfortable.
“There are several ways you
can go about watching a major,”
said John Bailey, CEO of John Bailey & Associates Inc. in Troy. “A lot
of it depends on how you feel and
what day of the week of it is. If it
is crowded, you might stay in one
spot.”
People with tickets to the pracBailey
tice rounds Monday through
Wednesday won’t see the tournament, but they have
greater access to the players because of smaller
crowds. They can take pictures and maybe even
snag an autograph — two luxuries not allowed during tournament play. As of press time, tickets were
still available at www.pga.com/pga championship/2008, starting at $30.
For those ready for a workout, following a favorite player through the course can be a fun way to
tour one of the world’s most famous private courses.
New this year are the PGA Learning Center, presented by American Express near the main entrance, and the American Express Card Member
Club, located between holes eight and 12. Inside the
learning center, PGA members will give fans free 10minute lessons and offer swing and putting analysis. The air-conditioned sponsored tent has complimentary snacks and a silent auction for American
I
See PGA, Page 18
Pat Croswell, head
professional at
Oakland Hills
Country Club, says
the driving range
is the best place
to hang out during
the tournament.
Local courses to host U.S. Senior
Open and Michigan Open. Page 19.
Longtime Oakland Hills members
who have worked on multiple PGA
championships. Page 20.
The history of the PGA in Michigan.
Page 22.
Local businesses and vendors
that scored championship contracts.
Page 24.
How Charter One has used the
PGA as a marketing opportunity,
including a clinic with Jack Nicklaus.
Page 25.
ON THE WEB
If you know
someone interesting
you would like Ryan
Beene to interview,
call (313) 446-0315
or write rbeene@
crain.com
PHOTO COURTESY OF OAKLAND HILLS
Coverage from Crain’s reporting
staff at the event and interviews
with two Michigan golfers playing
this week: Scott Hebert, director of
golf at Grand Traverse Resort & Spa,
and Brad Dean, director of golf for
Crystal Mountain Resort. See
www.crainsdetroit.com/focus.
Page 18
7/31/2008
2:36 PM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
FOCUS: PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
Great golf, even without Tiger
NEWSCOM
How much will the absence of Tiger Woods (left) affect the 90th PGA Championship at Oakland Hills?
Woods, the two-time defending PGA champion, had season-ending surgery to repair a ligament in his left knee in June, just days after
his dramatic U.S. Open win in a playoff. Detroit-area golf fans are certainly disappointed
to miss out on the No. 1 player in the world,
but most say there’s still plenty of anticipation for the tournament.
John Bailey, CEO of John Bailey & Associates Inc. in Troy, said he still plans to attend all seven days of the tournament, including practice rounds.
“There will still be a tremendous amount
of great players,” he said. “I will miss the
drama of him being there. Don’t worry. There will
be great golf and drama from all the other players.”
When asked about the impact, PGA Tournament
director Ryan Cannon said: “The tournament has
an amazing and long and storied history behind it.
The 90th version won’t be any different.”
Oakland Hills Country Club member Hunter McDonald said the biggest caveat is for the eventual
winner. “If you win it and Tiger is not in the field,
someone has to live with that. It’s like having an asterisk next to your name,” he said.
But McDonald said there is plenty to be excited
about, even in Woods’ absence.
“It will be a great event. Once it gets rolling, people
won’t notice or care (Woods is out). It will be exciting.”
— Jason Deegan
BUSINESS ACE
Tips for business interactions
during golf events:
■ Work on big issues, not details.
■ Don’t try to settle a conflict or
problem.
■ Do invite a client’s significant
other.
■ Keep the mood casual and
relaxed by not over-scheduling.
PGA: The
biz of golf
■ From Page 17
Express cardholders.
Golf insiders, such as Oakland
Hills Country Club head professional Pat Croswell and Michigan
PGA Executive Director Kevin
Helm, believe the driving range is
the best place to hang out during a
tournament.
“The practice range is an awesome place for a person who wants
to look at a lot of (different)
swings,” Croswell said.
People with access to the corporate hospitality areas can try all
these suggestions and then return
to the comfort of their tables and
chalets to watch the tournament on
TV. There are 44 air-conditioned
chalets in four separate villages and
100 tables, according to tournament
director Ryan Cannon.
Corporate hospitality packages,
which were sold out, ranged from
$37,500 for a 10-person table to
$500,000 for a 200-person corporate
chalet.
“We never promise or sell a
view,” Cannon said of the chalets.
“It is more about an experience.
The way the villages are set up at
Oakland Hills, they all have a good
view of the course.”
Larry Peck, Buick golf marketing manager, said Buick bought
one of the few tables inside the
clubhouse to bring dealers, managers and clients together. Peck
said “anything is fair game” when
it comes to talking business in an
environment like the PGA Championship.
“Golf lends to a lot of time,” Peck
said. “It is a leisurely activity. You
are in for a good part of the day. It
is second nature to talk about business, and it is expected.”
Mike Biber, the managing partner of Brighton-based Osprey Management Co., a real estate company
that owns eight golf courses in
Michigan, said he will entertain “a
couple hundred” business clients at
a chalet near the 16th hole and at a
captain’s table inside the clubhouse.
“It allows you to enjoy the event
and get some business done,”
Biber said. “Sometimes, business
meetings get intense. There are a
lot of details. You go to a PGA
Championship or Ryder Cup, it
gives you an opportunity to do it in
a more casual environment.”
But Biber also recommends
keeping a low-key mindset and not
over-scheduling.
“If 50 percent of your time is
spent on business, it is a little too
much,” he said. “For me, it is business more than pleasure; but for
guests, it is more pleasure than
business.”
7/31/2008
2:39 PM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Page 19
COURTESY OF ORCHARD LAKE COUNTRY CLUB
The Michigan Open comes to the Orchard Lake Country Club in 2009 and 2010 after being held at the Grand Traverse
Resort & Spa in Acme for 28 years.
Other courses expect to benefit
from lull between big tournaments
BY JASON DEEGAN
for 2009 and 2010 after 28 years at
the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa in
Acme. That event will feature 156
Fans of golf in metro Detroit of the state’s top pros, club pros
have become spoiled.
and amateurs.
The Oakland Hills Country Club has
Kevin Helm, executive director
had a historic run, hosting the 2002 of the Michigan section of the
U.S. Amateur, the 2004 Ryder Cup PGA, said an official June date is
Matches and the 2008 PGA Champistill being worked out. Helm said
onship this week. But with the adthe move should attract more playvance scheduling
ers attempting to
at play for the U.S.
qualify.
Open and the PGA
“As great as a
Championship, the
venue
as Grand
club won’t land anTraverse was, if
other major chamyou
qualified
pionship until 2016
you had to make
at the earliest.
a financial comThe gap in big
mitment to play
tourney
wins
with lodging and
could help boost
traveling
exthe business interpenses,” Helm
ests
in
other
said.
events coming to
the area at other
“To move to a
clubs in coming
greater
metro
years.
area gives more
Indianwood Golf &
people a chance
Country Club head
Dave Zink,
to play. Some
professional Dave
Indianwood Golf & Country Club
will be able to
Zink expects it to
commute from
work in his favor. His Orion Town- home. Some will be able to check
ship club will host the 2012 U.S. Se- in to work. It makes it more convenior Open July 12-15. The Senior nient and accessible for more playOpen, run by the United States Golf ers.”
Association, is the biggest of five
Helm hopes local golf fans will
majors on the Champions Tour for support the event as spectators.
golfers 50 and older.
“They will see how talented these
“I think it will help a lot,” he said amateurs and pros are,” he said.
of the long layoff between top tourZink estimated the U.S. Senior
naments. “There is no question it Open could attract as many as
will increase the sales by being the 25,000 to 30,000 spectators on the
only game in town for a few years. weekend. Indianwood attracted
roughly 20,000 fans during the fiThe only big game, I should say.”
On a smaller scale, the Michigan nal two rounds of the U.S. Women’s
Open, the premier championship Open it hosted in 1989 and 1994. Big
hosted by the Michigan section of names like Fred Couples, Mark
the Professional Golfers’ Association Calcavecchia and Nick Faldo will
of America, moves to the Orchard be eligible for the Champions Tour
Lake Country Club in Orchard Lake by 2012.
“The metro area is fantastic at
supporting events,” Zink said.
“That’s why the USGA and the
PGA come to this area. We will get
great support.”
metro area is
“ The
fantastic at
supporting events.
That’s why the
USGA and the
PGA come to this
area. We will get
great support.
”
WELCOME PGA FANS
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Page 20
7/31/2008
2:41 PM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Oakland Hills members notch another PGA on belts
A few have seen
2 others at course
BY JASON DEEGAN
The memories are still vivid in the minds
of Jeff Trimmer and Hunter McDonald.
The crowds. The excitement. The golf.
The two longtime Oakland Hills Country Club
members are walking history books. They
are among a handful of people at the club
who experienced the south course’s two other PGA Championships, the 1972 event won
by Gary Player and the 1979 tournament
captured by David Graham in an epic threehole playoff. They marvel at how the tournament, the course and — most significantly
— the game have changed since the PGA
Championship last came to town. The 90th
PGA Championship week begins today and
continues through Sunday.
Both men were working volunteers at
those events and are still active today. Trimmer, on the executive committee for this
year’s championship, recalls the intimacy of
those tournaments in the 1970s.
“It was Oakland Hills hosting the world,”
said Trimmer, 63, a Birmingham resident
who retired from DaimlerChrysler Corp.
(now Chrysler L.L.C.) seven years ago. “The
members were proud of what they did. We
WILLIAM PUGLIANO
Longtime Oakland Hills Country Club members Hunter McDonald (left) and Jeff Trimmer have
experienced the south course’s two other PGA Championships.
groomed people to move up (in committees).
That was part of the deal. There was one
family that did the marshalling for years. It
was very personal. Now it is somewhat less
than that. It has gotten so big.
“It is really a happening. The golf isn’t
secondary, but it is just part of what is happening.”
Trimmer still has a photo of himself with
golf legend Jack Nicklaus on the 12th tee
from the 1972 tournament.
“In those days, it was Gary Player,
Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. They
were the marquee players,” he recalled. “It
is great when the marquee players win at
your club.”
McDonald, 67, a Franklin resident who
has been a member since 1963, remembers a
great buzz leading up to great crowds at the
1979 championship. McDonald is a partner
in CNP Group, a manufacturing consulting
firm.
“It was a good economic time in Detroit.
You live and die by that,” McDonald said.
“We had a lot of great ticket sales. That
was the time we starting to get into corporate tents. We had generated the best performance the PGA has ever had. It has just gotten bigger and bigger.”
McDonald, an elite player who won the
club championship 18 times, laments the
changes in technology that has relegated
many traditional courses obsolete. Because
players can hit the ball farther, course designer Rees Jones’ renovated the south
course to add 346 yards and roughly 30
bunkers. Bets continue to fly around the
club about the winning score.
“The difference between then and now is
significant. The playability (of the course) is
different,” McDonald said.
“Some guys say eight or nine under par
(will win). My personal selection to par is
five under. I don’t think anyone will break
70 all four days. That would be unusual, given the degree of difficulty of this course.”
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7/28/2008
3:04 PM
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7/31/2008
3:44 PM
Page 22
Page 1
August 4, 2008
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BY BILL SHEA
Not every golfer subscribes to
golf’s monastic qualities of being
solemn and silent.
At the other end of the spectrum
are the Ty Webbs and Al Czerviks.
In other words, the “Caddyshack”
moments that spark laughter.
With the staid importance of the
history-heavy PGA Championship
descending on Oakland Hills, it’s a
chance to share a few lighter golf
moments from Crain’s readers:
Birmingham Mayor Don Carney, a partner with Berry Moorman
P.C. in Detroit, was a marshal at
the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland
Hills and twice ran into elite
golfers. The first time, he was
standing outside a Starbucks at the
end of a round when Sergio Garcia
popped out of a limo to get a coffee
before heading to bed. Carney was
the only one to recognize him and
high-fived him.
The second time was at a reception for the foreign press held at Dick
O’Dow’s bar. Carney got there early
and saw, sitting alone at the bar, former Masters champion Ben Crenshaw. The two chatted for about 40
minutes, mainly about Crenshaw’s
love for Crystal Downs Country Club in
Frankfort. “It was a wonderful experience,” said Carney, a marshal for
the PGA Championship.
Gibraltar resident Jerry
Heath, a retired information tech-
nology worker who last worked for
Thyssen Krupp Budd Co., and a trio of
friends were golfing at Wesburn Golf
Course in South Rockwood when
one of them sliced a drive. The ball
struck the grille of a passing car,
and the driver was not too pleased.
“Another golfer in our group
stepped in between the two and
calmly said, ‘Hey buddy, how do
you think my friend here feels? He
just lost a brand new golf ball.”
The driver got in his car and left
without another word.
Lorna Utley, president and
CEO of Goodwill Industries of Greater
Detroit, and her husband were
about to play the PGA National Resort in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.,
and were told
they would be
playing
with
Arnold Palmer.
After they drove
up in their cart,
“a spectacled older
gentleman
turns to greet us
and says, ‘Hi, I
am
Arnold
Utley
Palmer, but not the Arnold Palmer I
am sure you were expecting.’ We
had a delightful time hearing about
his life with the same name, and a
much better round of golf not having to feel the pressure of playing
with Arnie.”
Bill Shea: (313) 446-1626,
[email protected]
Local clubs celebrate PGA history
BY JASON DEEGAN
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It’s been three decades since the
PGA Championship’s last visit to
Michigan, but the state has a storied
track record for the tournament.
Bloomfield Township’s Oakland
Hills Country Club, site of the 90th
PGA Championship this week, last
hosted the tournament in 1979, seven years after its first successful
PGA in 1972.
The club isn’t the only elite private club in metro Detroit celebrating the tournament’s return.
Plum Hollow Country Club in Southfield, Meadowbrook Country Club in
Northville and Birmingham Country
Club also have hosted the prestigious championship.
Meadowbrook General Manager
Joseph Marini said his club is very
proud of hosting the 1955 PGA won
by Doug Ford, who became the
fourth player in the event’s matchplay history to win the championship after earning medalist honors during qualifying. Today, the
PGA Championship is a strokeplay event.
“We have three generations of
members. There is a big buzz
about it coming back to Michigan,” he said.
The clubs work hard to reconnect with their pasts. Marini said
one member found a flag from the
1955 PGA in Arizona and purchased it. It’s now on display in the
grill room.
The infamous “Black Friday”
occurred at Birmingham Country
Club in the 1953 PGA Championship. Some of game’s biggest
names in those days — Jack Fleck,
Gene Sarazen and Michigan’s
Chick Harbert — fell in match
play, opening the door for a new
face. In the finals, more than 10,000
fans came to watch Detroit-born
Walter Burkemo defeat Felice
Torza, 2 and 1.
Plum Hollow member David
Wigler became the club’s official
historian when he joined the club
nine years ago, putting together a
“history locker” outside the pro
shop with golf artifacts.
The West Bloomfield Township
resident said the club was awarded
the 1947 PGA Championship in appreciation of selling wartime bonds
at an exhibition Ryder Cup match
during World War II. He’s collected
magazine articles, photos and the
irons used by winner Jim Ferrier.
“Whenever a member brings a
guest out, and it is their first time,
they show them the memorabilia,”
Plum Hollow head professional
John Jawor said. “It is a great
point of pride.”
DBpageAD.qxd
7/30/2008
11:05 AM
Page 1
Join us at Campus Martius Park to play
the RBS Jack Nicklaus Majors Challenge
and you could win a trip to the
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7/31/2008
2:49 PM
Page 1
Page 24
August 4, 2008
Detroit-area companies prep course for the big show
BY JASON DEEGAN
Turning the south course at Oakland Hills Country Club from a championship golf course into a PGA
Championship venue that can support 40,000 people per day takes
years of planning and plenty of
workers.
Tournament organizers also
called on several Detroit-area businesses to get the job done.
Blaze Contracting Inc. of Detroit,
Runco Waste Industries Inc. of Birmingham, Center Line Electric of Center Line, and Bluewater Technology
Group Inc. of Southfield are among
the handful of locally owned businesses working behind the scenes
at the championship staged in
Bloomfield Township this week.
Bluewater Vice President Alex
Mills said the company first
worked with the Professional
Golfers’ Association of America at
the 2004 Ryder Cup matches at
Oakland Hills, supplying the large
spectator video screens and installing televisions throughout
the property and in corporate
chalets.
“The PGA was handling all of
this themselves,” Mills said. “By
bringing us on, they were able to
take that monkey off their back.
They had a lot of breakage and destroyed (TVs) because they were
handling it themselves.”
The company has installed 455
high-definition TVs (50-inch plasma and 32-inch LCD models) on
site for this week’s tournament.
Mills said all the TVs will be removed and sold to consumers at a
discount with manufacturer’s warranty.
Mills said the company, founded
by President Sue Schoeneberger’s
family in 1985, reports $30 million
in annual sales, employs 100 and
works with such clients as NASCAR
and the Detroit 3 automakers.
“There are 65 auto shows a year
(across the country), and we go to
all 65 shows,” Mills said.
Tournament Director Ryan Cannon said that as many as 70 outside
contractors will be used for the
PGA Championship, handling
everything from electrical work to
laundry services.
“If they are not doing their job,
the system doesn’t work,” he said.
“We go through an extensive
process to get quality service and,
like any company, an affordable
price.”
Roughly half of the contracts are
with companies used year after
year, Cannon said.
FOUND:
This Blackberry was found at Oakland Hills during this
week’s practice rounds.
We are looking for its owner.
Foremost, so we can return it.
But secondly, so we can shake his hand. Seriously.
Look at all he’s doing. Between closing some amazing
business deals and enjoying more events in Oakland
County last week than most people do in a year, this exec
is living a sweet life. Oh, and you should see what he
scored at Oakland Hills last Saturday.
If you are the owner, please call Nancy of the Oakland
County Business Development Team at (248) 858-8706.
And if you want in on some of the same great
business development ideas as this exec, call
Nancy or visit www.globaloakland.com.
Regards,
L. Brooks Patterson
Oakland County Executive
Construction company Blaze
worked on the physical space, leveling vendor, transportation and
hospitality areas and putting down
fabric and 6,000 tons of stone 4 to 10
inches deep in spots, said James
Cassel, Blaze’s project manager.
Blaze President Kerlin Blaise
called the project delicate.
“We understood the importance
of it, with the PGA and also the
surrounding residences,” he said.
“We had to make sure we did it
perfect.”
Blaise, an offensive lineman for
the Detroit Lions from 1998 to 2003,
founded the company with partner
Christopher Kuzak in 2000. It does
roughly $25 million in annual
sales, he said, and employs 65 people. Past clients include Detroit’s
three casinos, Wayne State University and Detroit Metropolitan Airport,
he said.
“I’m grateful to the PGA,” Blaise
said. “They gave a minority-owned
company a contract to do this.”
Cassel said removing the stone
will take about six weeks.
“We want to make sure we minimize the amount of disturbance to
the course,” he said. “For the
members’ sake, we’ll take it slow
and easy. We’ll get in and get our
work done and be gone.”
JOHN F. MARTIN
Bluewater Technology Group Inc. has installed 455 high-definition TVs at
Oakland Hills for this week’s tournament. Vice President Alex Mills said the
company counts NASCAR and the Detroit 3 among its clients.
7/31/2008
4:41 PM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Page 25
RBS, Charter One score an ace with joint marketing for tournament
work earlier this year on how they
could capitalize on their parent
company’s involvement in the
championship.
The
result
was a multilevel
marketing campaign that links
Charter One to
RBS and the
tournament.
“This was a
grassroots initiative on how
Pierce
we can really
market this and really enjoy it,”
Pierce said.
Highlights of the campaign:
PGA Championship Experience: Set for today through Friday
at Campus Martius Park, it will in-
BY BILL SHEA
When the Royal Bank of Scotland
Group signed a deal last year to become one of the PGA of America’s
two top sponsors, the Detroit headquarters of RBS subsidiary Charter
One saw a chance to spin marketing gold.
After all, as an elite sponsor, the
RBS name was going to be all over
this year’s 90th PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club
in Bloomfield Hills, so the chance
was there to piggyback.
The tournament is the final of
the PGA’s annual four majors,
drawing worldwide interest. So,
Charter One President Sandra
Pierce and her executives went to
clude hitting nets, free lessons, a
golf simulator challenge for a
chance to win tickets to the 2008
Ryder Cup, a putting green and a
leader board that will track live
scoring during the championship.
The opening of Charter One’s
new main office branch at One
Kennedy Square was accelerated
almost two months to the week of
July 28 to tie into the PGA Championship Experience.
After 5 Detroit lunch: Participants in the online networking site
for young professionals can have
lunch Tuesday at the One Kennedy
Square building.
A day of golf on June 5 for 36
RBS and Charter One guests that included a clinic with Jack Nicklaus,
who’s an RBS “global ambassador.”
Monday, August 18, 2008
Shotgun Scrambles
Afternoon 1:15 PM
On the Course for
Academic
Achievement
2008 Sponsors
The Chrysler Foundation
GOLFTHEMYTH.COM
200 CAPACITY FORMAL BANQUET ROOM
TEE TIMES 248-693-7170
18 HOLE CHAMPIONSHIP & 9 HOLE PAR 3
Please join us for the 26th Annual Desert
Classic benefiting Sacred Heart Major
Seminary’s Desert Formation Experience
$300 per person (only $125 for priests) includes lunch, golf cart, 18 holes,
reception including drinks and hors d’oeuvres, dinner, awards and prizes
A Golf Outing to Benefit
Detroit Urban League
Education Initiatives
850 STONEY CREEK RD. OAKLAND
Science May 21-July 31, but Charter
One, which has 119 branches in
Michigan, held its own events at the
exhibit. RBS and American Express
are the two elite PGA sponsors.
“(RBS has) got such a big footprint in the world of golf, and it’s
been a great partnership for the
PGA,” said John Handley, the
PGA’s director of sales and marketing for the tournament.
Dave Richards, founder of Bloomfield Hills-based Resort and Golf Marketing, said the strategy makes a lot
sense for banks.
“If you look at the people at a major championship, that’s their market,” he said.
Bill
Shea:
(313)
446-1626,
[email protected]
Monday, September 15, 2008
St. John’s Golf Club in Plymouth
Registration at 10:00 a.m. Shotgun start at 11:00 a.m.
Shenandoah Country Club
West Bloomfield
2008 Chair
A June 19 scotch-tasting for
commercial banking clients and
prospects.
A reception July 17 honoring
the nonprofit Midnight Golf program that’s aimed at at-risk urban
youth in Detroit.
Cash machines set up at Oakland Hills during the tournament
will feature both the Charter One
and RBS logos.
“We act and behave very local.
This is to show our commitment to
our market,” Pierce said.
“The marketing does help, but
this is about showing we are a local
bank. We just happened to have
world resources.” RBS was the exclusive sponsor of the PGA History
Exhibit at the Cranbrook Institute of
To register to play, become a sponsor or advertise, please contact Jan Stuart at
313-883-8567 or [email protected].
Title Sponsor — Michigan Knights of Columbus
7/31/2008
3:47 PM
Page 1
Page 26
August 4, 2008
PEOPLE
ARCHITECTURE
building supply divisions.
Thomas Edwards to senior associate, Albert Kahn Inc., Detroit, remaining as
project manager. Also, Lawrence Fill to
senior associate, remaining as manager of commissioning services; Jeffrey
Gaines to senior associate, remaining
as manager of programming and planning; Theresa Harris to senior associate,
remaining as manager of health care
planning; John Hrovat to senior associate, remaining as manager of architectural design; and Amy Russeau to senior associate, remaining as director of
marketing and public relations.
DISTRIBUTORS
Rozanne Kokko to senior vice president and CFO, Handleman Co., Troy,
from vice president of finance.
EDUCATION
Robert Minter to
CONSTRUCTION
Jack Pounds to sales manager, Detroit
Ready Mix Concrete, Detroit, remaining as product specialist, precast and
FINANCE
Minter
executive
vice
president
and
chief academic officer, Walsh College, Troy, from
professor
and
dean of the College of Business,
Delaware State
University,
Dover, Del.
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Paul Toby to first vice president, financial adviser to the Rochester office’s
global wealth management group,
Morgan Stanley, Rochester, from vice
president.
Michael Robinson to market manager
of Bloomfield Hills office, JPMorgan
Private Client Services, Bloomfield
Hills, from director of training and education.
Ron Hagen to vice president of sales,
LifeSecure Insurance Co., Brighton,
from regional sales vice president,
MetLife
Insurance Co., Irvine,
Calif.
Jeff Bankowski to
director of internal audit, Asset
Acceptance Capital Corp., Warren,
from chief accounting officer
and director of
worldwide
accounting operaBankowski
tions, Teksid Aluminum,
Southfield. Also,
Moira Morgan to
director of training and development, from manager of training
development,
Pulte
Homes,
Bloomfield Hills.
Linda Salas to
Morgan
commercial loan
manager, Oxford Bank, Oxford, remaining loan officer.
Carole Winnard Brumm to first vice
president and regional lending manager, Fidelity Bank, Dearborn, from senior vice president and general manager, commercial banking, LaSalle
Bank, Troy.
Suzanne BeDell to Dialog general
manager, ProQuest, Ann Arbor, from
senior vice president.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Harry Zike has
been named
vice president
and CFO at
Rochester
Hills-based
Energy
Conversion
Devices,
effective Sept.
1.
Zike, 53,
Zike
replaces
Sanjeev Kumar, who is leaving to
pursue other opportunities.
Before joining ECD, Zike was
executive vice president, CFO and
director with Siemens VDO
Automotive Corp. in Orlando, Fla.
He graduated from the University
of Scranton with a bachelor of
science degree in accounting.
National Alliance of State and Territorial Directors, Washington, D.C.
Narinder Sherma
to chief of medical
staff, DMC SinaiGrace Hospital,
Detroit, from vice
chief of medical
staff. Also, Andrew Turrisi to
chief of radiation
oncology,
from
chief of radiation
oncology,
Karmanos Cancer InSherma
stitute, Detroit;
and Anthony Williams to chief of gastroenterology, from staff position in
gastroenterology department.
INDUSTRY GROUPS
Wayne Oehmke to
president,
HEALTH CARE
the
Chamber of Commerce for Sterling
Heights,
Utica
and Shelby Township, from pub-
Celeste Davis to director of community health, Greater Detroit Area Health
Council Inc., Detroit, from senior program associate of HIV prevention, the
lisher, The Daily
Tribune,
Royal
Oak.
WHITEHALL GROUP, L.L.C.
Helping
Companies
Drive Change
INFO/TECHNOLOGY
Oehmke
Guy Briggs, senior
strategy officer, ASI Consulting
Group, Bingham Farms, to member of
the global advisory board, Netlink,
Madison Heights.
Stephen Arnett to CEO, DataNet Quality Systems, Southfield, from COO.
Thomas Abraham to director of sales
and marketing, Wiltec Technologies,
Ann Arbor, from director of sales,
Global Crossing, Southfield.
Mark Wright to COO, Osiris Innovations Group, Auburn Hills, from senior vice president, Procuri Inc., Atlanta.
MANUFACTURING
Edward Schwartz to executive vice
president, TriMas Corp., Bloomfield
Hills, from group president, RV and
trailer products and recreational accessories.
Allow us to help you address
the controllable issues in an
uncontrollable environment
MARKETING
Niki Grifka to senior analyst, SSG
Marketing, Ann
Providing Services to Companies in Transition
Merger, Acquisition
and Divestiture Services
Chapter 11 / Crisis Management
& Orderly Liquidations
Operational and Financial
Due Diligence
Turnaround & Restructuring
Operational Improvement
Supplier Development
Interim Corporate Management
Grifka
Arbor, from senior analyst, Organic Inc., Bloomfield Hills.
Cris Woodward to
creative director,
Marx Layne & Co.,
Farmington Hills,
from senior art
director, McCann
Erickson, Detroit.
MEDIA
801 W. Big Beaver Rd. 400, Troy, MI 48084
P: 248-519-1072 www.whitehallgroupllc.com
John Jackson to vice president of digital
sales, Detroit Media Partnership, Detroit, from retail multimedia sales director, Augusta Chronicle, Augusta, Ga.
NONPROFITS
Irma Hamilton to director of education, Detroit Zoological Society, Royal
Oak, from adjunct professor, Concordia University, Ann Arbor, and consultant to Michigan State University’s
Department of Education, East Lansing. Also, Robert Lessnau to curator of
mammals, from primatologist, St.
Catherine’s Island Foundation, St.
Catherine’s Island, Midway, Ga.
Anders Ruhwald to head of ceramics department and artist in residence, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills,
from his own studio, London, England.
Sandra Kravitz to
vice president of
sales and marketing, Presbyterian
Villages of Michigan, Southfield,
from leasing development manager. Also, Cheryl
Kravitz
Carney to vice
president of housing, from director of
housing and asset manager.
Neelav Hajra to president and CEO,
Nonprofit Enterprise at Work, Ann Arbor, from COO.
REAL ESTATE
Ron
Alessio to
vice president relocation services,
Coldwell Banker
Schweitzer Real
Estate, Detroit,
from vice president of client services, Sirva Inc.,
Westmont, Ill.
Tony Landa to senior vice presiAlessio
dent, Lutz Real Estate, Farmington Hills, from vice
president.
Bill Wylonis to general manager of
Baluster Park, Emmes Asset Management Co. L.L.C., Troy, from facility manager, Federal Mogul Corp., Southfield.
SERVICES
Judy Perry to director of business development, StaffPro America, Southfield, from territory sales manager,
National Federation of Independent
Business, Nashville.
Andrean Horton to general counsel and
corporate secretary, The Bartech Group,
Livonia, from vice president of legal
and regulatory compliance, YRC Worldwide Inc., Overland Park, Kansas.
Patricia Little to executive vice president and CFO, Kelly Services Inc.,
Troy, from general auditor, Ford Motor Co., Dearborn.
Tony Saylor to director of sales planning, Avanti Press Inc., Detroit, from
sales manager of operations. Also,
Sevi Stokes to director of key accounts, from manager of key accounts; and Susan Vincenti and Sally
Heekin to regional sales manager,
from area sales support leadership.
PEOPLE GUIDELINES
Announcements are limited to
management positions. Nonprofit
and industry group board
appointments can be found at
www.crainsdetroit.com. Send
submissions for People to Joanne
Scharich, Crain’s Detroit Business,
1155 Gratiot Ave., Detroit, MI
48207-2997, or send e-mail 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.
7/31/2008
4:56 PM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Page 27
CALENDAR
TUESDAY
AUG. 5
Power Tools-Take Control of Your Business. 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women, National Association
of Women Business
Owners
Greater Detroit
Chapter, Women
Impacting Public
Policy,
Women
Presidents’ Organization,
and
FleishmanHillard. Keynote
speaker: Debbie
Dingell
vice
Dingell,
chairwoman of the General Motors
TrackSpeed expands
with new warehouses
BY RYAN BEENE
Ann Arbor-based TrackSpeed
L.L.C. last week moved into a
70,000-square-foot warehouse in
Brownstown Township and plans
to open two more warehouses in
Mexico and Canada by Sept. 1.
The provider of Internet-based,
business-to-business e-commerce
software to industrial companies
needs more space to house its expanding business operations.
“We’ve been space constrained
in Ann Arbor; we outgrew our
6,500 square feet pretty quick,”
CEO Brent Ray said of his current
space used to serve customers that
use his SurplusTrack program.
SurplusTrack is a Web site where
TrackSpeed’s customers can sell
surplus and obsolete inventory to
other industrial companies.
“We’ve actually put a couple of
new client opportunities on hold because we just didn’t have the bandwidth to take their material,” Ray
said. “So we feel that by adding the
Brownstown facility and opening
up operations in Mexico and Canada, where we also have pending opportunities that we haven’t been
able to capitalize on, is going to
translate into some pretty significant revenue growth.”
SurplusTrack was launched in
2006 and quickly gained traction
within the auto industry. Troybased Delphi Corp., Auburn Hillsbased Benteler Automotive Corp., Ford
Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and
Chrysler L.L.C. sell surplus and obsolete inventory using SurplusTrack.
The upcoming expansions in
Monterey, Mexico, and Mississauga, Ontario, and the completed
expansion in Brownstown give
TrackSpeed more than 17 times
the space of its current facility in
Ann Arbor to house inventory for
sale. The Monterey warehouse is
25,000 square feet and the site in
Mississauga is 17,000 square feet.
The company boosted revenue
from $1.89 million in 2006 to $2.92
million in 2007. Ray expects 2008
revenue to reach $3.7 million.
TrackSpeed also has launched a
new Web-based program called KPI
Scorecard, which tracks cost savings, avoidance and performance
indicators of a user’s suppliers.
Ryan Beene: (313) 446-0315,
[email protected]
Foundation and senior executive at
General Motors Corp. Tapestry Conference Center, Southfield. $99. Contact: Amy Marshall, (313) 961-4748.
land County Executive Office Building,
Waterford Township. Free, pre-registration required. Contact: (248) 858-0783.
FRIDAY
THURSDAY
AUG. 7
Should I Start My Own Business? 8:45
a.m.-12:45 p.m. Service Corps of Retired Executives. Counselors will ask
questions every budding business
owner must ponder. Southfield Public
Library. Free. Contact: (313) 226-7947.
Pre-Business Research. 6-9:30 p.m. Oakland County Business Center. The Entrepreneur’s Source, Oakland County’s
Business Center, market research department, and research librarian. Oak-
AUG. 8
Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce Coffee. 8-9 a.m. Networking for members
and prospective members. No reservations required. Van Every Family
Chiropractic Center, Royal Oak. Free.
Contact: (248) 547-4000.
COMING EVENTS
American Business Women’s Association. 6:15 p.m. Aug. 13. Meeting of the
Novi Oaks Charter Chapter. Crowne
Plaza
Hotel,
Novi. Contact:
www.abwa-novi.org.
27. Rod Marinelli, head coach, Detroit
2008 Alfred P. Sloan Awards. 11:30
a.m.-2 p.m. Aug. 14. Detroit Chamber.
Lions. A portion of the proceeds will
benefit Think Detroit PAL. Cobo Center, Detroit. $55 members, $60 guests
of members and nonmembers. Contact: (313) 963-8547.
Recognizes businesses with 10 or
more employees which exhibit exceptional workplace flexibility and employee effectiveness programs.
MGM Grand Detroit. Free. Contact:
Robert
Troutman, (313)
596-0478.
Detroit Lions Kickoff
Luncheon.
11:30
a.m.-1:30
p.m. Detroit Economic Club. Aug. Marinelli
CALENDAR GUIDELINES
More Calendar items can be found
on the Web at www.crainsdetroit.
com. Please send news releases
for Calendar to Joanne Scharich,
Crain’s Detroit Business, 1155
Gratiot Ave., Detroit, MI 482072997, or e-mail jscharich@
crain.com. You also may submit
Calendar items in the Calendar
section of crainsdetroit.com.
:finding the
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7/31/2008
3:48 PM
Page 1
Page 28
August 4, 2008
Feel right at home owning a
business in downtown Northville.
Northville is located in western Wayne County about 30 miles
northwest of downtown Detroit and can be easily accessed off of
M-14 and I-96 (east and west), or I-275 (north and south). For more
information on business opportunities in Northville, including available
retail and office space, and incentive packages, contact the Northville
Downtown Development Authority at 248-349-0345.
“I’ve saved thousands per year in office rent and
utilities while increasing CVMedia’s exposure in
the Northville area and other cities further west
like Ann Arbor and Lansing. My staff is happier
here at our Northville Square location than on
Northwestern Highway. In addition, many of my
clients look forward to meetings at my new studio
and they love shopping the stores. My landlord
is wonderful to deal with AND if I need more
space to grow, adjoining space is available.
A win, win, win scenario... need I say more?”
Mike Mnich, President
CVMedia
“Almost 19 years ago,
I chose to center my
business in Northville.
Those things that
made it attractive
then, have kept me
here today. Northville
is a small town in a
metropolitan area with
all the luxuries of big
city life within a 20
minute drive.”
Todd Knickerbocker,
Senior Vice President,
Investments
The Knickerbocker
Group of
Raymond James
downtown
t i m e l e s s .. . w i t h a t wi st
Isn’t it time that you became part of the downtown
Northville family of businesses? Contact us today!
www.downtownnorthville.com
© 2008 Downtown Northville
Photography: Diane Johnson Design: New Moon
BUSINESS DIARY
ACQUISITIONS
TK Holdings Inc., Detroit, has purchased the assets of the former Assistware division of Cognex for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition enhances
Takata’s safety technology in the area
of lane-departure warning systems.
Vertabase, an Oak Park developer of
project-management software, has acquired Palo Alto, Calif.-based Accomplice Inc. and its task-management software.
First Mercury Financial Corp., Southfield, announced the sale of its wholly
owned subsidiary, American Risk
Pooling Consultants Inc. and its affiliates to York Insurance Services Group
Inc., Parsippany, N.J.
CONTRACTS
Rich and Associates, a Southfieldbased parking design and planning
firm, has been selected to design a
new 400-space parking structure for
Allegiance Health, Jackson.
Fish Head L.L.C., a Brighton-based
training, development and marketing
communications company, was selected to produce e-learning modules for
Hospitality Marketing Concepts based
in Newport Beach, Calif.
Renaissance Construction Group,
Eastpointe, has been selected as the
general contractor for the new Leo’s
Coney Island in Saline, Mitutoyo
Corp.’s new sales office in Plymouth
Township, renovations at Brownell
Middle School in Grosse Pointe and
renovations of Brewers Tavern in Clinton Township. Renaissance Construction Group also is serving as construction manager for two projects in
Detroit’s Greektown.
Attendance on Demand Inc. employee
time and attendance service, Farmington Hills, has been implemented by
Michigan Neurology Associates P.C., a
St. Clair Shores-based neurology practice with multiple locations.
Zana Network, Farmington Hills, has
launched a program to provide small
and midsize businesses with sales representation around the globe, in part-
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nership with trade offices in 88 countries and Rhode Island-based Bryant
University. Zana, an online marketplace and business development resource, is offering the sales representation program to its members as part
of its $200 annual membership fee.
Azure Dynamics Corp., an Oak Park
developer of hybrid electric and electric powertrains for commercial vehicles, has signed its first dealer, south
Florida’s Palmetto Truck Center, with
a sales and service agreement.
Davis & Davis Interior Design, Farmington Hills, has retained strategic
communications firm Tanner Friedman, also of Farmington Hills.
Rand Construction Engineering Inc., a
Brighton-based design and build construction firm, has been awarded a
contract by Henrob Corp. to renovate
its 50,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in Livonia.
Lawrence Technological University,
Southfield, has signed an international academic agreement with the University of Bahrain, a public university
in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Lawrence
Tech also has international academic
agreements with universities in
Egypt, Jordan, Sharjah in the United
Arab Emirates, Germany, China, Taiwan, India and Canada.
Michigan Aerospace Corp., an Ann
Arbor-based advanced engineering
and products company, is collaborating with the University of Illinois on
part of the Neutral Ion Coupling Explorer satellite mission recently selected by the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration as a candidate
for the Small Explorer mission. The
mission, led by the University of California-Berkeley, will contain five instruments for exploring Earth’s upper
atmosphere. Michigan Aerospace
Corp. will be responsible for the design and fabrication of the Doppler
Wind Imager, an instrument that will
measure neutral winds in the upper
atmosphere.
Marketlink Services, a technology
launch company in Novi, is bringing
SecurStar GmbH, a European information technology security company, to
the U.S. The new partnership with
Marketlink Services provides sales,
marketing and support to U.S. customers, and several new jobs for
Michigan workers at Marketlink
headquarters.
NSF International, Ann Arbor, certified the quality and purity of Coppell,
Texas-based Mannatech Inc.’s Ambrotose and Advanced Ambrotose dietary
supplements to the NSF/ANSI 173 Dietary Supplement Standard. NSF also
assessed Mannatech’s manufacturing
sites for good manufacturing practices compliance.
Air Design Inc., Southfield, has become a representative firm for Lindhab Inc., a Portsmouth, Va., air duct
systems manufacturer.
Greg Frazier CPA P.L.L.C., a Detroitbased Microsoft Certified Partner,
completed a contract with Norquick
Distributing Co., Canton Township, to
develop and implement a warehouse
management system exclusively for
warehouse logistics service providers.
The American Red Cross, Washington,
D.C., and NSF International, Ann
Arbor, announced a collaborative
agreement to advertise, promote and
co-brand “The Scrub Club” Web site
and characters designed to teach children the importance of proper handwashing.
The Millerschin Group, Auburn Hills,
will provide strategic communications planning, media relations, special-event planning, advertising and
coordination and collateral development to Citation Corp., a Novi-based
automotive supplier.
Energy Conversion Devices Inc.,
Rochester Hills, announced its Uni-Solar thin-film flexible solar laminates
will power what it says is the world’s
largest rooftop solar system. The 12megawatt system is being installed on
General Motors Corp.’s assembly plant
in Figureuelas, Spain, and will become operational in the fall. When fully operational, the photovoltaic sys-
tem will have a peak capacity of 12
megawatts, producing as much as 15
million kilowatt hours of “green” energy annually, enough to power approximately 4,500 homes.
EXPANSIONS
Booz & Co., a global management consulting firm, has opened an office at
101 W. Big Beaver Road, Troy. The
staff includes about 25 industry, information-technology and operations
professionals who serve clients in the
automotive, industrial and energy
sectors. Web site: www.booz.com.
Three M Tool & Machine Inc., Commerce Township, has purchased new
facilities in the Century Industrial
Park in Wixom. The company is expanding to include the machining of
windmill turbine generators and large
castings for the alternative-energy industry. The total investment is anticipated to approach $20 million over the
next several years.
Auto-Lab Franchise Management
Corp., a Plymouth-based franchisor of
auto repair shops, opened its 35th and
36th Auto-Lab Complete Car Care
Center stores in Oakland Park, Fla.,
and in Canton Township. Auto-Lab
plans to expand to more than 42 locations by the end of 2008.
MERGERS
The Rehmann Group L.L.C., a Saginawbased CPA and consulting firm with
offices in Troy and Farmington Hills,
has merged with Novi-based Pew &
Kearis P.L.L.C.
MOVES
The Walraven Group announced its
team of eight real estate agents has
moved from ReMax in the Hills in
Bloomfield Hills to Keller Williams
Market Center, 1700 W. Big Beaver,
Troy. Telephone: (248) 649-7200.
League of Women Voters-Oakland
Area to South Adams Square in Birmingham. The nonpartisan political organization serves 60 communities and
27 school districts in Oakland County.
Web site: www.lwvoa.org.
The Pure Detroit-GM Collection store,
Detroit, from the GM Wintergarden to
Tower 400, Level 1 in the Renaissance
Center, next to Allegra Print & Imaging. The company specializes in Detroit-themed apparel, bags, purses and
glassware. Telephone: (313) 259-5100.
Web site: www.puredetroit.com.
NAME CHANGES
Exhibit Enterprises Inc., a Rochester
Hills event marketing firm, to EEI
Global.
Target Logistic Services’ Detroit facility, to Mainfreight.
NEW SERVICES
MySplake L.L.C., Orion Township, has
released mySplake.com, a Web site designed to match job seekers with positions that match their skills and experience.
STARTUPS
Go 15 Midwest Distributors L.L.C.,
1684 Hydraulic Drive, Howell, is a
sales and distribution facility for a
new metal-conditioning automotive
oil additive. Howell residents Jeff Layer and Don Pelland are the Midwest
representatives for Go 15, which
claims to increase fuel economy about
15 percent. Telephone: (877) For-Go15.
DIARY GUIDELINES
Send news releases for Business
Diary to Joanne Scharich, Crain’s
Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot
Ave., Detroit, MI 48207-2997 or
send e-mail to jscharich@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.
8/1/2008
11:07 AM
Page 1
MIXED MEDIA
An unplugged life
Page 29
business
August 4, 2008
Gift takes library beyond books, Page 31.
Bob Bury
Executive Director
Detroit Historical Society
People do crazy things. Some
jump from planes, others climb
skyscrapers. But Bob Bury, executive director of the Detroit Historical Society, may be the craziest of them all — at least to his
13-year-old daughter.
“How I could ever live without
instant messaging is probably
hard for her to believe,” Bury, 54,
said.
It’s clear that Bury is in no
hurry to plug in. He’d rather
take jogs with his goldendoodle
(a golden retriever-poodle mix)
sans the iPod. He also enjoys
swimming, kayaking on the Detroit River and spending time
with his family.
That’s not to say Bury is antitechnology. He’s just not so sure
we use it wisely.
“(Sometimes) people are unable to use it responsibly, and by
doing that perhaps fail to develop some of the other critical life
skills such as communicating
with others, appreciating others’
points of view (and) learning to
live in a changing and diverse
society,” Bury said.
PHOTOS COURTESY HENRY
FORD HEALTH CARE
Alex Maysura closed many
business deals through
drinking but eventually
sought help at Henry Ford
Behavioral HealthMaplegrove Center in West
Bloomfield Township.
The long road
to recovery
Keeping up with news
To keep himself abreast of the
times, Bury reads The Detroit
News, the Detroit Free Press, the
Grosse Pointe News, The Chronicle of Philanthropy and Crain’s
Detroit
Business.
Aside from
the papers,
every morning
Bury listens to
either “The
Paul W. Smith
Gaddis
Show” on WJR
760 AM or “Inside Detroit with
Mildred Gaddis” on WCHB 1200
AM.
Taking on a challenge
Bury said he also enjoys reading for fun, particularly literature that isn’t
connected to
his job. Right
now he’s tackling Atlas
Shrugged by
Ayn Rand, a
novel that
clocks in at
approximately 645,000 words.
— H. Jose Bosch
Executives tell of addiction, denial, reach for treatment
BY JAY GREENE
Drinking was
“
good for business,
and I had a sucessful
business. Once 9-11
hit, my business went
down the tubes. I was
left with just my
drinking.
”
Alex Maysura,
University Printing Services
fter 30 years in printing, Alex Maysura
thought he’d honed an effective businessdevelopment strategy.
“I would take customers out for a threemartini lunch and I would have nine,” said Maysura,
56. “I found I had a talent for drinking. … I closed business deals that way. I did more business at the bar and
the golf course than I did any other way.”
Maysura, owner of University Printing Services, a 20person shop in Detroit, had lost touch with reality.
“You think you are in control with all events in your
life. Drinking was good for business, and I had a successful company. Once 9-11 hit, my business went down the
tubes. I was left with just my drinking.”
A 52-year-old executive of a major bank in Southeast
Michigan who wishes to remain anonymous developed
his drinking habit over cocktail lunches with clients. In
the beginning, it was three times a week. Eventually it
turned into two to three drinks a day, which continued
for the next 10 years.
By 2004, he was up to nearly a quart of Jack Daniel’s a
night.
“I always was one who suffered from stress,” he said.
“As I went through a job transfer and a promotion, the
A
See Recovery, Page 30
SIGNS OF ADDICTION
How do you know if someone at
work is struggling with substance
abuse? There are no hard and fast
rules, but there are warning signs.
Look for:
䡲 Major behavior changes or mood
swings.
䡲 Short-tempered or angry.
䡲 Secretive or withdrawn.
䡲 Loss of usual interests.
䡲 Irregular work and sleep
patterns.
䡲 Takes Mondays and Fridays off.
䡲 Change in eating habits with
weight loss or gain.
䡲 Nose bleeds.
䡲 Needle marks on arms.
䡲 Unkempt appearance.
Sources: Dr. Carl Christensen, Wayne State
University School of Medicine; Tom Ghena,
Henry Ford Behavioral Health-Maplegrove
Center; Denise Bertin-Epp, Brighton
Hospital.
Page 30
8/1/2008
11:09 AM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
BUSINESS LIVES
Recovery: Addiction, denial,
The New
■ From Page 29
added job and social responsibilities led to me to pour myself that
additional drink or two at home.”
But like the other alcoholic business professionals interviewed for
this story, he was convinced that
his drinking could be self-managed.
“I woke up one morning with
the shakes. I needed to medicate
myself or have another drink to
get through the day,” he said. “I
didn’t want to go to work with alcohol on my breath, so I took antidepressants. I became cross-addicted.”
‘Even their dog knows’
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Like others suffering from addiction, executives struggle with
a loss of control. What sets them
apart, though, is their common
unwillingness to seek and accept
help, said Tom Ghena, administrative director of Henry Ford Behavioral Health-Maplegrove Center in
West Bloomfield Township.
Executives often delay care because they are embarrassed, worry treatment will be discovered
and the revelation will hurt their
careers. Rather than take the risk,
they opt to manage the problem on
their own.
“By the time many executives
seek help, they’ve either been admitted to a hospital for emergency
treatment or told by their company to seek help or be fired,” said
Denise Bertin-Epp, president and
chief nursing officer of Brighton
Hospital.
“There is not a lot of education
around addiction, and many
people don’t understand the issues surrounding
it,”
Bertin-Epp said.
“There’s a huge
stereotype. People believe they
choose
that
Bertin-Epp
lifestyle or they
are weak.”
But addiction is a disease that
can be inherited, Christensen said.
As such, people need a variety of
tactics to beat it.
Treatment often includes an initial assessment, detoxification,
outpatient drug treatment and inpatient care that can range from
two weeks to three months, said
Dr. Carl Christensen, an addiction
medicine specialist at Wayne State
University School of Medicine.
Other options include 12-step
programs made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous, and counseling
and aftercare.
Once executives realize they
need treatment, they often fear the
admission process. Bertin-Epp and
Ghena recommend executives first
seek advice from their primarycare physicians. They also suggest
executives call them directly.
In February, Brighton began a
concierge service for executives
who need substance abuse intervention but are too embarrassed to
make traditional arrangements.
Instead of calling a hospital’s patient intake office, Bertin-Epp offers her cell phone number.
Some 10 to 20 executives from
WHERE TO GET HELP
Hospitals in Southeast Michigan
with licensed substance abuse
facilities:
Brighton Hospital, Brighton: (810)
227-1211 or
www.brightonhospital.org.
Providence Hospital and Medical
Center, Southfield: (248) 8493000 or www.stjohn.org/
services/addiction/.
Havenwyck Hospital, Auburn Hills:
(248) 373-9200 or
www.psysolutions.com/facilities/
havenwyck.
POH-Havenwyck Substance Abuse
Treatment Center, Pontiac: (248)
373-9200.
Henry Ford-Maplegrove Center,
West Bloomfield Township: (248)
661-6100 or www.henryford.com.
University of Michigan Addiction
Treatment Services, Ann Arbor:
(734) 764-9190 or
www.psych.med.umich.edu/
umats.
Source: Michigan Department of
Community Health, Bureau of Health
Professions
around the country call per week,
Bertin-Epp said. They ask: “How
could I have done this to myself?
What will my staff think of me?
What will the board think?”
Bertin-Epp answers questions
on why treatment is important,
where an executive can go, and
how to explain an absence or educate the office staff.
It helps that Bertin-Epp has former addicts on her team.
Virginia June, Brighton’s director of business development, began drinking with her alcoholic father at age 9. She was rather proud
she could “drink him under the
table.” But by 25, she was drinking
a fifth of bourbon, popping 30 amphetamine pills and snorting a
gram of cocaine a day.
“It is amazing I am still alive,”
said June, now 47. “When I was 12,
my mother used to buy me Boone’s
Farm. It was like a juice box.”
Dr. Mark Menestrina, director
of Brighton’s detoxification unit,
has been arrested 12 times and lost
his medical license.
“Pretty much anything I could
use, I would use,” said Menestrina,
55, who has been sober 15 years.
“The only substances I did not use
were ones that were not yet invented.”
It wasn’t until his wife filed for
divorce in 1987 that he realized he
needed help.
Over a 14-year period, Menestrina counted 49 times in which he
had been in a treatment program.
But it was the
50th time that
he realized he
needed to listen
to the experts.
In March 1993,
he had his last
drink.
Menestrina
said many executives take elabMenestrina
orate steps to
cover their admission, but few believe their stories.
“Even their dog knows they
have a problem.”
Still, executives have assistants
8/1/2008
11:10 AM
Page 2
August 4, 2008
Page 31
BUSINESS LIVES
Clean
+
Sober
ial, treatment
who sometimes cover their addictions.
“Professionals can control their
environment more, and that can
make the problem worse,” Ghena
said. “My advice for subordinates
is to talk with each other” and find
a peer to approach the superior.
But Christensen said co-workers sometimes don’t know there’s
a problem. “If you have a co-worker who is an addict and homeless,
you might not even know until
they have lost everything. It is not
uncommon for a person to have a
life completely destroyed but still
show up at work,” he said.
Most people are relieved once
they are in treatment.
“They have lied and made excuses to hide it,” Christensen said.
“They want help. It is just difficult
taking that first step.”
‘I needed to shut up and listen’
When his printing business
tanked in 2002, Maysura started
to increase his drinking until he
was up to a quart of liquor a day.
“I was having family problems,
my parents were sick and my
business closed. I just couldn’t
handle the pressure,” he said.
Maysura searched the Internet
for self-help solutions and finally
decided to seek professional help.
“I had a habit that I cultivated
over 30 years, and I found you
can’t get rid of it in 30 days,” he
said. “It is a disease, but you also
have to deal with psychological
traits, so it isn’t easy to kick.”
After years of heavy drinking,
the banker who wishes to remain
anonymous had a pancreatic attack.
“My doctor told me in April
2006 that if I didn’t stop drinking I
might as well put a gun to my
head because you can’t replace
your pancreas,” he said.
In May 2006, he asked his physician about checking into a treatment center. “I couldn’t sleep
without having a drink or taking
a drug.”
It wasn’t until his third admission at Maplegrove in June 2007
that he became receptive to the
full treatment program.
“My way of thinking was not
working. I needed to shut up and
listen and do what I was supposed
to do,” he said. The key, he said,
was attending post-inpatient
treatment meetings three to four
times a week.
In October 2005, Maysura had
his last drink. He has since gone
back to college and will graduate
this year with a bachelor’s degree
in psychology. He plans to earn a
master’s degree in social work to
become an addiction counselor
for seniors. Right now, he volunteers at Maplegrove.
“I go to meetings once a week
and feel comfortable because I am
around people who understand
me and do not judge me,” Maysura said. “I am not worried
about hitting the bottle again. I
have the knowledge on how to say
no to old friends who want to go
have a drink.”
Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325,
[email protected]
PROFILES IN GIVING
The gift: $1 million
Nonprofit receiving the gift:
Grosse Pointe Library
Foundation.
Donors: Marybeth and Kinnie
Smith Jr.
Why the gift was made: To
preserve and expand the
Grosse Pointe Central Library.
Gift takes
a library
beyond books
While Marybeth and Kinnie
Smith Jr. see the value in moving forward, they also see value
in preserving the past.
The couple has pledged $1
million toward the preservation of the Grosse Pointe Central
Library and the addition of new
space and technology.
Their donation is the lead
gift in the Grosse Pointe Library
Foundation’s $10 million capital
campaign.
Located at Kercheval Street
and Fisher Road in Grosse
Pointe Farms, the library was
designed by noted modernist
architect Marcel Breuer in
1953. It is on the World Monuments Fund’s 2008 watch list of
the 100 most endangered sites.
Smith has served on the library foundation board of directors for five years and on the library’s board of directors for two
years. She’s also been president
and board member of the
Friends of the Library since 2002.
Before their most recent gift,
the Smiths, both 77, made a
$200,000 gift to the library foundation.
Kinnie Smith, who is of counsel at Miller, Canfield, Paddock
and Stone P.L.C., is a past board
member of the Detroit Institute of
Arts and the Michigan Opera Theatre, organizations the couple
continues to support.
About half of Grosse Pointe’s
library patronage takes place at
the Central Library branch,
which places it in the top 20 percent of Michigan libraries for
patronage, said Marcia Scavarda, director of the library foundation, in an e-mail.
“Yet it ranks in the bottom 25
percent in terms of square
footage per resident,” she
added.
In addition to the Smiths’
gift, the foundation has secured
a $50,000 grant from the World
Monuments Fund and a
$250,000 donation from an unnamed donor to fund the project.
It plans to officially launch
the capital campaign once it receives approval from the city of
Grosse Pointe Farms.
— Sherri Begin
2 Words. 12 Steps. 30 Days. = A New Start.
Michigan’s first and most experienced addiction treatment facility.
For a confidential assessment call: 1-800-523-8198
Visit us on the web at
www.brightonhospital.org
8PYÀ^.LWL_]LaL
=PQ $!2
Md ;L_PV ;STWT[[P
www.ahee.com
8/1/2008
11:22 AM
Page 1
Page 32
August 4, 2008
BUSINESS LIVES
Classic-car collector likes to get the motors running
BY TOM ANDREW
BILL’S COLLECTION
Bill Whetstone estimates he has bought
and sold about 50 classic cars and trucks over
the past 15 years. Unlike many collectors,
however, Whetstone doesn’t keep his vehicles
under wraps.
“I drive every one,” Whetstone says. “I
probably average a couple hundred miles on
each vehicle every year, just to make sure
they’re running good.”
Whetstone is the owner of Warren-based
Greater Detroit Landscape Co. The company
started as a lawn and garden service in 1932.
Whetstone, who just turned 70, came on
board in 1962 and took ownership in 1985.
Today, Greater Detroit Landscape has
some 60 employees — including son Matt
Whetstone, who helps run the business — and
offers its customers full-service landscape architectural design and build, as well as the
usual lawn and snow removal services.
Whetstone began to dabble in car collecting
at age 17, when he bought a 1952 Ford coupe.
He bought and sold a few cars over the next
few years but pretty much left the biz by the
mid-1960s.
Bill Whetstone currently has 10 vehicles in
his collection:
䡲 Two 1932 Ford
roadsters
䡲 1934 Ford Cabriolet
䡲 1940 Ford convertible
䡲 1940 Ford pickup
䡲 1940 Ford coupe (right)
䡲 1950 Ford coupe
䡲 1960 Ford Starliner
In 1989, Whetstone bought an old Mustang
so he and Matt could work on it together,
“and within three years I had 12 Mustangs. It
was a real nice collection.”
Whetstone’s current collection includes 10
vehicles. All are Ford products, but none is a
Mustang, as his tastes have changed over the
past two decades.
“I went through sports cars, muscle cars
and finally got back into street rods, which
is where I am today,” he says.
Whetstone lives in Fairhaven on about 10
acres, which he shares with his son and
their families. The property has two buildings that can hold up to
16 vehicles. The on-site
storage gives Whetstone instant access to
any of his vehicles. He
also can store cars for
friends and his grandson, Chris Herod, 20,
who works in the family business and shares
his grandfather’s interest in cars. Herod has
two cars, a 1932 Ford
pickup and a 1960 Ford
Starliner.
Whetstone likes to buy cars that are 75-85
percent restored so he doesn’t have to do too
much but still can complete the car or truck
to his specifications. And though he may not
be in the market as much these days, he’s always on the lookout for something to upgrade his collection.
“If I have something I like, I just don’t put
a price on it,” he says. “But if I find something I like a little better, it might go on the
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market. Normally when I sell, I’ve always
got my eye on something else.”
Today, his eyes are on the lookout for a
1936 Ford three-window coupe.
“But they’re hard to find,” he says. “And
I’m always looking at ’32, ’33 and ’34 Fords.”
In his current collection, the deep blue
1940 Ford coupe may be his favorite. He’s
owned it for 11 years, which is longer than
any car in his collection.
“For some reason, I just love the lines,” he
says. “They’re very, very pleasing to
the eye.”
From the 1932 Ford roadster to
the 1960 Ford Starliner, Whetstone finds them all pleasing,
which is why he takes different
vehicles to the half-dozen or so
car shows he attends each
year or why he takes a different vehicle every day to the
Woodward Dream Cruise.
“It’s a nice hobby,” Whetstone says. “Car shows are
like family reunions. It’s a
nice gathering, and you
meet a good group of people.”
Car bug bit collector be
BY TOM ANDREW
Many car collectors focus on a
specific kind of vehicle. They
might deal in sports cars or antiques, nameplates such as Ford or
Chevrolet, or certain eras like the
1930s or 1950s.
Then there’s Greg Ornazian,
whose tastes run from Volkswagen
Bugs to Lamborghinis, with motorcycles thrown in as a diversion.
“I have a pretty eclectic collection because I have pretty eclectic
tastes,” says Ornazian, who owns
Troy-based Extrusion Punch & Tool
Inc. and Varsity Welding. “I buy
them because I like them.”
The 52-year-old was nicknamed
“The Horse Trader” in 2007 when
he was profiled in the book Motor
City Dream Garages. At the time,
he estimated he had bought and
sold about 150 classic cars over the
past 20 years — the fun and challenging part of the collecting biz.
“I never buy a car that I don’t
love,” he says. “If I make money on
it, so be it. If I lose money
on it, so be it. But I don’t
regret it.”
Ornazian, who grew up
in Maryland, got hooked
on the “horse trading”
business even before he
had a driver’s license.
When he was 15, he received a nonfunctioning
1959 Thunderbird from
his godfather. By his 16th
birthday, Ornazian had the car
running. Not long after, he made
his first sale.
“It was an amateur restoration,”
he recalls.
In Maryland, Ornazian soon was
spending a lot of time fixing up
Corvettes and Volkswagens.
“The Corvette world I loved,” he
says. “But I’d get in trouble with
Corvettes for speeding, so I went
back and forth between Corvettes
and VW Bugs. My dad thought I was
crazy spending $2,000 to $2,500 on a
Corvette, but I never borrowed
money to buy a car — I did a variety
of jobs to earn the money. Then,
when I’d sell it for more than I paid,
8/1/2008
11:54 AM
Page 2
Bill Whetstone
currently has 10
vehicles in his
collection, including
this 1934 Ford
Cabriolet.
PHOTOS BY NATHAN SKID/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS
r before he had a driver’s license
COLLECTION
Greg Ornazian’s collection includes a 1936 Cord Cabriolet (above) and some
motorcycles, including this 100th anniversary Harley-Davidson that was turned
into a chopper. He said his 1961 Corvette (left) is worth about $1 million.
he thought I was a genius.”
Ornazian moved to Michigan after finishing college and getting
married, and quickly caught the automotive bug. Extrusion Punch &
Tool creates forging dies for the
auto industry, and most of Varsity
Welding’s business is auto related.
The father of five continues to refine his collection, which today
stands at 20 cars and 12 motorcycles. He can keep up to 14 cars in a
beautiful showroom at his home in
Rochester. Restoration work is
done at his company’s shop.
“I’ve bought and sold so many
I’ve lost count,” he says. “But I’ve
always set my standards high, so
I’ve kept escalating my collection.”
Ornazian has had his burgundy
1969 Corvette convertible the
longest. He purchased it from the
original owner in 1985. Although
it’s difficult to name a favorite, he
mentions the 1935 Auburn 851
Boattail Speedster and the 1961
Corvette Sebring race car. He’s
also proud to have his red 1960
Cadillac Series 62 convertible, on
display at the Automotive Hall of
Greg Ornazian currently has 20
cars in his collection.
䡲 1935 Auburn Boattail Speedster
䡲 1936 Cord Cabriolet
䡲 1948 Kurtis-Kraft race car
No. 66
䡲 1936 Ford 5-window
coupe street rod
䡲 1946 Dodge fire engine
䡲 1955 Corvette
䡲 1955 Chevrolet Nomad
䡲 1956 Thunderbird
䡲 1960 Cadillac convertible
䡲 1961 Corvette Sebring
race car No. 11
䡲 1964 Corvette Z06 convertible
䡲 1967 Pontiac GTO
䡲 1968 Corvette L88 Greenwood
BFGoodrich race car No. 49
䡲 1969 Corvette 427/435 hp
convertible
䡲 1969 Corvette L88 convertible
䡲 1970 American Motors AMX
䡲 1989 Corvette Challenge
race car No. 18
䡲 1993 Dodge Viper
䡲 2005 Lamborghini
Murciélago Roadster
䡲 2009 Corvette ZR1 (on order)
Fame museum in Dearborn.
“One thing I don’t have in my
collection is a Duesenberg,” he
says. “I’m in the market for one.
But not only does the car have to
be right, the price has to be right.”
There’s also a chance Ornazian
might add another dimension to
his collection. On holidays and
weekends, he uses his Suburban —
with a trailer hitch — to take the
family to their waterfront home in
Algonac.
“I’m getting into boats,” he said.
“I’ve already purchased a couple,
and I’m looking at a couple more.”
Page 33
8/1/2008
10:28 AM
Page 1
Page 34
August 4, 2008
Effort would increase number of clinics that treat uninsured
BY JAY GREENE
If Wayne County’s five federally
qualified health centers and two
look-alike sites treated a higher
proportion of Medicaid patients,
Chris Allen believes they could expand and take on a greater number
of the county’s nearly 300,000 uninsured people.
As CEO of the Detroit Wayne
County Health Authority, Allen’s job
is to find ways to improve Detroit’s
primary care delivery system.
With almost 35 percent of the
county’s 1.9 million people unin-
sured or enrolled in Medicaid—
and those numbers are growing —
Allen’s task is
not an easy one.
Since
the
health authority
was formed in
2005, Allen has
been working
with other safety net provider
organizations
Allen
like Voices of Detroit Initiative and the Greater Detroit
Area Health Council to increase the
number of federally qualified
health centers and the so-called
“look-alike clinics.”
Look-alike sites provide similar
services to FQHCs, but they don’t
receive federal grant funding and
don’t have to comply with various
federal rules. Some have not yet
applied for FQHC status.
Some of the FQHCs have multiple sites. Of the 13 clinic locations,
three have been added since 2005.
Two weeks ago, the health authority approved a report on overhauling Detroit’s lower east side
primary care delivery system. One
of its 20 recommendations is to
find a better way to coordinate
care between hospitals, clinics,
MARKET PLACE
ANNOUNCEMENTS &
SERVICES
CONSTRUCTION
BUSINESS SERVICES
INVESTIGATIONS – CORPORATE
Conducted by Retired FBI Agents
RK International, Inc.
100 Kercheval Avenue, Suite A
Grosse Pointe Farms, MI 48236
www.rkinternationalinc.com
Phone: (313) 886-4492
FINANCIAL SERVICES
6$1,7$5< 67250 6(:(56 :$7(5 0$,16 *5$',1*
0$66 (;&$9$7,21 6,7( '(9(/230(17
63(&,$/7< &21&5(7( '(02/,7,21
CAPITAL AVAILABLE
If you have an opportunity that requires
funding but does not fit traditional
banking parameters - contact us. We do
not fund senior/mezzanine debt or
working capital. We focus on special
situations with investment size ranging
$500K
to
$10
million.
Total
committed capital of $100 million. We
have an in-house legal team, can think
"outside the box" and act quickly.
Please refer to www.etccapital.com
or call 248-560-0203 ext. 101
for more information.
FILE STORAGE
6WDUN5RDG/LYRQLD0,
)D[
Large scale (MAXI) storage units. Great for RV’s,
boats, cars, warehousing. 14 x 14 door, heated, 24/7
entry, secured. Buy/Lease - I-94 & 26 Mile Area
800-945-5816/www.stclairstoragecondos.com
(48$/23325781,7<(03/2<(5
LEGAL SERVICES
WE COLLECT MONEY JUDGMENTS!
and Commercial/Consumer Bad Debts
Experts in Locating Assets
Contingency Fee Basis
LAW OFFICES OF L.J. FRANK, P.C.
(248) 424-9777 or [email protected]
collectionlaw-firm.com
LEGAL SERVICES - IMMIGRATION
N. Peter Antone
AV-rated Immigration Attorney
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
Love To Golf? Is Playing Golf A Passion of Yours?
Do you play golf and travel or just like to travel? Turn
these passions into a substantial revenue source.
Call 734-529-5295 We are serious, are you?
INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT
Need More Space?
BUSINESSES WANTED
Looking to acquire small commercial cleaning
company in the Metro Detroit area. No retail, residential or restaurants. Call 248-423-1136 or email
[email protected].
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Starting at $1,895.00
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Seeking investor for lucrative Wellness Center & Day
Spa business, (In the University District , Livernois
and 6 mile area). Incl. Spa and Salon, Fitness Center,
Cafe and Retail, in a newly designed & renovated
6,239 sq-ft facility. Business Plan and financials avail.
growing and expanding, to initiate a One Stop Shop
concept. Contact Charice Snoddy at 313-523-3752
Seeking Investors for unique
arts/entertainment/dining venture. Building "Green"
in Northern Suburbs. Need $900K for start up.
Contact Daryl or Claudia At 586.752.3314
WILL BUY
ALL OFFICE TELEPHONE EQUIPMENT
Please Call: 877-RICHARD
Please Call: 877-742-4273
EQUIPMENT &
MERCHANDISE
CLOSING TIMES: Monday 3 p.m.,
one week prior to publication date.
Please call us for holiday closing times.
VIDEOCONFERENCE SERVICES
OFFICE FURNITURE
Complete Videoconference Services
Job Interviews, Legal Depositions, Business Meetings
Convenient Troy Location, 3 Rooms, 1-200 Capacity
Midwest Video 248-583-3632 www.midwestvideo.com
MUST SELL, OFFICE CLOSED
Desks $99, Chairs $39, Files $49, Partitions $50,
Lateral Files $99, Cubicles, Office Phone Systems
Call (248) 548-6404 or (248) 474-3375.
FAX: (313) 446-1757
E-MAIL: [email protected]
INTERNET: www.crainsdetroit.com/classifieds
BUSINESS &
INVESTMENTS
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Adjunct Professor Immigration Law at MSU
Antone, Casagrande & Adwers, P.C.
31555 W. 14 Mile Road, Suite 100
Farmington Hills, MI 48334
Phone (248) 406-4100, www.antone.com
BUSINESSES FOR SALE
Franchise Bounce Party facility. Established customer base, strong repeat business. Below market
lease. New equipment. Perfect for hands-off or -on
owner. Owners’ transferring. Call 734-455-0323
LUCENT . . . AVAYA. . . PARTNER. . .
MAGIX. . . VOIP. . .LEGEND . . .
MERLIN. . .SPIRIT Systems/Parts New/refurbished.
Omnicall Equipment Corp. (248) 848-9282
WE HAVE USED PHONES
Nortel, Lucent, phone systems. Almost any new or
used phone available. Expert installation available.
Call (248)548-6404
ARESCO, Inc.
Pontiac, MI
aresco.org
Toll Free 1-877-227-3726
Call Us For Personalized
Service: (313) 446-6068
Confidential Reply Boxes Available
PAYMENT: All classified ads must be
prepaid. Checks, money order or
Crain’s credit approval accepted.
Credit cards accepted.
See Crainsdetroit.com/Classifieds
for more classified advertisements
primary care physicians and the
“We like the idea of the FQHCs
FQHCs.
increasing their care of the uninOne way of doing that, Allen be- sured, but we don’t want to hurt
lieves, is to increase the number of the business of our contracted
Medicaid patients in the FQHCs providers,” said Ray Pitera, direcfrom the current patient payer mix tor of provider services and netthat averages about 40 percent work development with Health Plan
Medicaid and 60 percent unin- of Michigan in Detroit, a Medicaid
sured to about a 50-50 mix.
HMO.
To achieve that mix, Allen said
Allen said he believes the priMedicaid health maintenance or- vate doctors wouldn’t be hurt figanizations need to assign 60,000 nancially by sending new Medicnew Medicaid HMO members to aid enrollees to the FQHCs because
the FQHCs during fiscal 2009 start- the number of Medicaid enrollees
ing Oct. 1. The FQHCs currently is growing in Wayne County.
see about 40,000 Medicaid mem“Many of the doctors who accept
bers.
Medicaid do so because they have
“This is a significant initiative a commitment to help the poor,”
that allows our health centers to Allen said.
get more (Medicaid) volume, but it
In Wayne County, Medicaid enalso allows them
rollees grew 1,083
to see more uninto 310,426 in June
sured,”
Allen
from 309,342 in
said.
April.
Wayne
The two largest
Bradley, CEO of
Medicaid HMOs
Detroit Community
operating in the
Health
county are TroyConnections,
a
based
Molina
FQHC that operHealthcare
of
ates five clinic loMichigan
and
cations, said he
Great Lakes Health
estimates his cenPlan in Southfield.
ter could take one
Molina has about
additional unin101,000 Medicaid
sured patient for
Dr. James Forshee,
members
in
each additional
chief medical officer,
Wayne
County,
Medicaid patient.
Molina Healthcare of Michigan
and Great Lakes
“If I had more
has 58,000.
Medicaid patients
Some 14 percoming in, I could
hire more staff and expand (to cent of Health Plan’s 7,000 Medictreat more uninsured),” Bradley aid members in Wayne County use
the FQHCs, Pitera said. While
said.
Some of the uninsured or low-in- Health Plan has 150,000 Medicaid
come people do not qualify for members statewide, the Medicaid
Medicaid because their assets may HMO only began operating in Debe too high. Others earn too much troit last October.
to qualify for Medicaid but can’t
FQHCs benefit financially by
afford private insurance.
treating Medicaid patients beDuring the last month, Allen has cause the state pays the health cenconvened three meetings with ters an additional fee for each visCEOs of the largest Medicaid it, said Cheryl Bupp, director of
HMOs that operate in Wayne
the Medicaid managed care plan
County and the directors of the
division at the state Department of
FQHCs to discuss changing the criCommunity Health.
teria for automatically assigning
“It is a federal regulation to pay
patients to providers.
Assignment works like this: Pa- the FQHCs’ cost-based reimbursetients enrolled in Medicaid HMOs ment,” Bupp said. “It is to make
have up to 25 days to choose their them whole for every encounter
providers. Once that time expires, they provide.”
But another issue that needs to
Medicaid HMOs use their own
software program, which factors be addressed is whether the qualiin geography and provider quality, ty of the FQHCs is comparable to
to assign new members to the quality of the private doctors,
providers. About 30 percent of new said Dr. James Forshee, Molina’s
chief medical officer.
Medicaid members are assigned.
“We prefer to assign those memAllen said the assignment criteria will be the primary focus of bers to providers who do a better
the Aug. 7 health authority meet- job at providing quality care,” Forshee said. “If the health centers
ing.
“The plans are receptive to the can clearly identify they provide
idea, as long as quality standard is quality care, it would be easier to
there (with the FQHCs), which it send patients there. We don’t have
enough quality information from
is,” he said.
In a July 18 meeting, Medicaid them.”
Bupp said she believes the
HMOs and FQHC executives
agreed on several guiding princi- FQHCs have high quality and proples that include a pledge to coor- vide comprehensive services, but
dinate care more effectively to in- some FQHCs do not have an adecrease the number of uninsured quate system to collect the statepeople sent to the FQHCs.
mandated quality data.
But one of the problems in di“The health centers have to colrecting a greater number of newly lect it and provide it to the health
enrolled Medicaid patients to the plans. It may be an issue for some
health centers is that fewer of to provide that data,” said Bupp. “I
those patients would be assigned believe they will be able to prove
to the 800 primary care physi- their quality.”
Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325,
cians in Detroit who accept [email protected]
icaid.
We prefer to
“assign
those
members to
providers who do a
better job
at providing
quality care.
”
8/1/2008
11:38 AM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Page 35
Land Bank Authority to help move vacant parcels
BY ROBERT ANKENY
The Land Bank Authority, created July 29
by Detroit City Council, has its work lined up
with the city’s surplus property listings
now showing more than 32,000 parcels valued at more than $180 million.
Douglass Diggs, director of Detroit’s
Planning and Development Department, said
most parcels come to the city as tax forfeitures. In addition to the stagnant real estate market, the city faces problems getting
title clearances, Diggs said. The Land Bank
has the authority to get clearances quickly.
Between 90 percent and 95 percent of the
parcels are vacant, Diggs said. Of the 5 per-
cent-10 percent that aren’t vacant, about 90
percent are single-family residential. The
rest are duplexes and other multi-residential
buildings plus a few commercial buildings.
The department tries to sell property as
quickly as possible, Diggs said.
“As soon as we can have clear title, we
move it to a monthly bid list. If we don’t sell it
then, it’s moved to a ‘first-come, first-served
list’ to be sold at a negotiated price.”
Planning and Development Department
records show 1,433 parcels were sold between July 1, 2002, and June 30, 2008, bringing $11,452,113 to the city.
Diggs said many lots are sold to adjacent
property owners at $200 each, or split between residents on either side for $100 each.
AUCTIONS
AUCTION
Homebuyers,
Investors,
Speculators
100 New Homes
Originally Priced From $100,000 – $450,000
Opening Bids from $30,000
North: Bruce Township, Chesterfield Township,
Clinton Township, Harrison Township, Lake
Orion, Lapeer, Macomb Township, Metamora,
Oakland Township, Oxford, Rochester, Shelby
Township, St. Clair, Washington Township
250 Homesites,
Residential Land
& Industrial Sites
Northwest: Brighton, Commerce Township,
Fenton, Grand Blanc, Hartland, Howell,
Northville, Southfield, White Lake
South: Carleton, Dundee, South Rockwood
West: Pickney, Superior Township
“Up-North”: Harbor Springs, Higgins Lake
AUCTIONS
PUBLIC
AUCTION!
INDUSTRIAL
BLUE WATER TECHNOL
2931 - 3005 PETIT STREET
PORT HURON, MICHIGAN 48060
From I-94 Exit 269, merge on Dove,
Left on 32nd, Right on Petit.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2008 at 11 am
TRUCK TERMINAL • TRUCK WASH
Waste Management Lease • Buildings
• Land • 14.16+/- Acres
Auctioneer Notes: First time offered! Five
parcels and two will sell Absolute! Prime
location, built new in ‘99/’00, abuts CSX
railroad.
View More Information Online!
www.pamelaroseauction.com
Toll Free
Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008
www.nrc.com/816
866-447-0672 ext.816
In cooperation with Michael Moceri, Inc.
Real Estate & Land Auction
2 Homes, 36 Lots and 1 Parcel
Welcome to Port Austin - Up North....So Close to Home!
On-site Sat. Aug. 9th at 1pm
Location: Woodlands of Port Austin
Preview & Registration at 11am
Enjoy Shopping, Fine Dining,
Golf Courses, Marinas, Beaches,
Outdoor Sports and More!!
Open Houses: Sat Aug 2nd & Sun Aug 3rd Noon-3pm
Sells to highest bidder!
1361 Towering Oaks, Port Austin, MI
1500+/- Sq. Ft. - 3 Beds
Built in 2005!
Real Estate Auction!
1704+/- Sq. Ft. - 3 Beds
Built in 2005!
Also offering 36 Lots Rose Auction Group, LLC
The Woodlands of Port Austin
877-696-7653
8 Lots To Sell to Highest Bidder(s)! roseauctiongroup.com
Beth Rose, CAI Auctioneer
COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES
LUXURY PROPERTY
FOR SALE - TROY
PLYMOUTH - BY OWNER
Beautiful stand alone building (over
10,000 sq. ft.) located on Maple Road
between Livernois & Rochester Rd.
Move in condition. All major updates
to the building are current. One suite
is occupied the other is available for
lease.
For further information please call at:
(313) 410-8385 or Email:
[email protected]
Inspection Sat 9th Aug & Sun 10th Aug from 12-4pm.
INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY
Home will be sold Sunday Night, August 10th to
HIGHEST BIDDER
(734) 344-5209
PRIME DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY
Western Wayne County.
• I-275/Michigan Ave. 36 acres, zoned industrial,
Canton. $4.5 M.
Dearborn Real Estate Company 313-565-2800
Crane Building, Marysville, MI
199,000 sq. ft, 20.73 Acres, 32 ft. ceilings.
7 overhead cranes. $2.4 Million. Kramer Realty.
810-841-2500
Leasing 4 Units - 12,000, 24,000, 50,000 & 106,000
s.f. @ Burt Indust’l Pk. (I-96/Telegraph), Very Clean,
Dry, Well-Maint., Docks, Truck Pkg, EZ Freeway
Access. (248) 356 - 5466
AVAILABLE NOW
4,000 to 100,000 sq. ft.
Also 10,000 & 25,000 sq. ft.
Free Standing Bldgs w/truckwells.
1 Mile from Metro Airport
Custom 7000 sq.ft French Colonial Mansion on 12+
acres, 4 BR, 4 1/2 baths, gourmet kitchen, private
study, 15 min from Detroit airport. Last remaining
home of it’s kind on acreage in exclusive
Plymouth/Canton school district
$797,500 or Best Reasonable Offer
(Home has current valuation of $1.5M)
PS: A “sneak preview” cocktail party, fundraiser
and art auction will be held Friday evening (8th
August) 7.30 – 10pm in support of the University of
Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, with guest
speaker Diane Simeone, MD. - Program Leader of the
Pancreatic Research Program.
Please call (734) 344-5209 now to be placed on the
waiting list.
Owner holds valid real estate license in state of
Michigan
Seller Financing Available.
Absolutely Stunning
Acreage Home!
877-462-7673 REA CONSTRUCTION
Pamela Rose
(734) 946-8730
Broker Auctioneer AARE CAI
Also Heavy Industrial
Land Available
www.reaconstruction.net
Pame
a Rose,
K. Rose
Pamela K.
Broker
Auctioneer, AARE, CAI
©2008
[email protected]
Michael Murray
Michael E. Murray
Auctioneer, GRI, CAI
Auctioneer CAI GRI
[email protected]
[email protected]
COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES
PRIME DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY
Western Wayne County.
• Dearborn, Michigan Ave., 1.7 acres w/8,100 sq.ft.
building. Zoned commercial. $1.3 M
Dearborn Real Estate Company 313-565-2800
Well Known Family
Restaurant & Bar
FOR SALE
*Excellent Location in Troy, MI
* Great Traffic Count,
Visibility & Signage
* Sale Includes All Real Estate,
Equipment & Liquor License
* Confidential Sale
1362 Towering Oaks, Port Austin, MI
Lots Averaging .33-.75 Acres!
The Inforum Center for Leadership, Detroit, is
launching a “Make Your Success Happen!
Executive
Presence
Workshop” this fall for
area women.
The Oct. 22 session at
Compuware headquarters
in Detroit is to be led by The
Personal Brand Co.’s master
certified facilitators Alesia
Latson and Sue Hodgkinson. Hodgkinson is author
of The Leader’s Edge: Using
Latson
Personal Branding to Drive
Performance and Profit.
Cost is $700 for members, $750 for others.
Registrations are due by Aug. 29.
For more information or to register, call
(313) 578-3846.
— Joanne Scharich
REAL ESTATE
Greater Detroit Real Estate
S!
PLU
Developable land is sold at a negotiated
per-square-foot price, he said. Diggs said his
department is “seeing more interest in all
kinds of surplus property from out-of-state
investors ... preferably occupied but vacant,
too, if they can get it at the right price in the
right neighborhood.”
Diggs, along with City Planning Commission Director Marcel Todd, will be on
the Land Bank Authority board.
Diggs and two other members are appointed by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and
three, including Todd, by the council. The
seventh is to be selected by agreement between the mayor and council.
Robert Ankeny: (313) 446-0404,
[email protected]
Inforum workshop for women
For More Information, Contact:
Tom Boutrous
248-637-9700
www.Lmcap.com
INVESTMENT PROPERTY
LYON TOWNSHIP/BANK OWNED
12-unit rental townhouse project available.
Get a great deal on this investment opportunity.
Contact Karen Shepherd at 248-290-5300 ext. 311
LUXURY PROPERTY
Shelby Township
Magnificent - Stunning - Incredible!
All brick ranch featuring over 14,000 sq. ft. of finished living area with attached 6 car garage. First
floor master suite has sitting area, fireplace, exercise room and luxurious bath. Gourmet kitchen
with high end appliances. 5 bdrm, 5 1/2 bath, game
room, in-law quarters. Completely finished walkout
basement including a full 2nd kitchen. Surround
sound, security w/cameras. Grounds are professionally and meticulously maintained and include a
huge gunite pool with separate hot tub. Too many
features and amenities to list!
Bill Whitcher
586-295-1448
Century 21 Showcase
Expansive rooms, remarkable quality, open yet private interiors! All granite, Downsview cabinets,
Viking's and Sub Zero's, wide wood planked floors,
7 bedrooms, 5.5 bath. 7,126 sq. ft. finished walkout, apartment w/kitchen, 4 car heated garage, 3
decks, copper gutters! Brighton Schools.
Offered at $1,395,000
Call Pat Biber
Heritage GMAC Real Estate
201 E. Grand River Brighton, MI 48116
(810) 577-2490
8/1/2008
11:11 AM
Page 1
Page 36
August 4, 2008
REAL ESTATE
OFFICE BUILDING
WATERFRONT PROPERTY
Click On: bratemanproperties.com
LUXURY WATERFRONT PROPERTY
Five buildings for sale in: Plymouth, Wixom,
Farmington Hills and Lathrup Village
Jonathan Brateman Proeprties (248) 477-5000
Located in Palm City Florida for sale or
exchange for like property in Oakland
County, Michigan.
OFFICE SPACE
BY JAY GREENE
Available for sublease, 1000 sq.ft. loft type space
highly upgraded. Currently furnished with direct
access to a large state-of-the-art conference
room. Contact: Off. Mgr. at (248) 540-0660
FOR SALE or LEASE
Premier Medical Space Available
609 SW Bittern St., Stuart, FL 34990
Elegant 2 story estate home, 3 Bedrooms +
additional Bdrm/Office/Den, 4 Bath, Sauna,
Walk Thru Botanical Garden, Pool/Waterfall,
Jacuzzi Spa, 400+' Frontage, Deep Water
Dock, Private Beach.
$2,500,000
28625 Northwestern Hwy • Southfield, MI
•32,476 SqFt, 2-Story Medical Building
Mike Novik
248-755-5225 888-592-1301
•Expandable to 45,000 SqFt
•Fully Re-Modeled in 2001
•60 Exam Rooms, Consulting Room, XRay & MRI/CAT Scan Imaging Center
PORT HURON LAKEFRONT
•Building Signage Rights
For More Info Please Contact:
Bob Moon
[email protected]
34975 W Twelve Mile Rd
Farmington Hills, MI 48331
248.324.2000
www.friedmanrealestate.com
RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY
HOUSE FOR SALE -19689 Dwyer St., Detroit, MI.
House appraised for $60,000, selling for $7,000! 2
bdrm., 1 bath, eat-in kitchen, basement & fenced
back yard. Call 770-473-4615 or [email protected].
WATERFRONT PROPERTY
ON ORCHARD LAKE
4 bedroom ranch, 3 1/2 baths on
1.4 acres premium lot. 248-335-0104
www.5081commerce.com
Why drive “Up North”?
SumRead
me y fo
r2 r
00
8
Enjoy 365 days of that Great “Up North”
Experience at Hilton Pointe Estates on
300 acre Woodland Lake in Brighton.
• 1-Acre Lakefront Estates
• Spectacular Sunsets
• Private Docks
• Award-Winning Schools
TheraMatrix plans $10M lawsuit
against the Blues over contracts
• Paved private road
• All-Sports Lake
•15 Minutes West Of Novi
•15 Minutes North Of A.A.
Custom home plans available by Vantage
For more details please visit www.hiltonpointeestates.com
or call Vantage Construction at 810.220.8060
Advertise your goods and services in
Crain’s Detroit Business
Experience the Extraordinary with spectacular
Architectural Styling! Exquisite foyer features
high volume ceilings, brilliant window placement
and panoramic view on Lake Huron. Custom
workmanship and materials enhance sensational
entertaining space throughout including a specialty kitchen complete with handsome cabinetry,
granite countertops, top-of-the-line appliances
and an elaborate grilling station. Formal dining, 5
bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms, a 3rd floor
observatory or office, finished lower level Guest
Quarters, recreation room, game room, 2nd
kitchen & 3 car side entrance garage are just a
few of the amenities of this fine home (5,356 sq.
ft., plus 1,782 sq. ft. in lower level). Handsomely
treed 75 x 300 lot. Boulder enhanced patio with
attractive walkway to the beach.
$2,100,000
For your personal viewing call
JoAnn Wine, CRB, CRS
www.joannwine.com
Call Us For Personalized
Service: (313) 446-6068
CLOSING TIMES: Monday 3 p.m.,
one week prior to publication date.
Please call us for holiday closing times.
FAX: (313) 446-1757
E-MAIL: [email protected]
INTERNET: www.crainsdetroit.com/classifieds
Confidential Reply Boxes Available
PAYMENT: All classified ads must be
prepaid. Checks, money order or
Crain’s credit approval accepted.
Credit cards accepted.
See Crainsdetroit.com/Classifieds
for more classified advertisements
A U C T I O N
Lakeside Estate on Mackinac Island
Mackinac Island, Michigan
Bidding starts at $100,000
August 21
r4R'U
r#FESPPN
r#BUI
TheraMatrix Physical Therapy in Pontiac was to file a
multimillion-dollar lawsuit today against Blue Cross
Blue Shield of Michigan for breaching a 2005 vendor
agreement and a 2006 provider agreement in an ongoing arrangement TheraMatrix has to provide outpatient physical therapy services to Ford Motor Co.
The four-count lawsuit, which was to be filed in
Oakland County Circuit Court, seeks more than $10 million in damages and also charges Blue Cross with tortuous interference with business and negligence in
incorrectly reporting Ford’s outpatient therapy costs,
among other allegations.
Rodger Young, a managing parter at Young & Susser
in Southfield, represents TheraMatrix.
Helen Stojic, media-relations director with Blue
Cross, said the company had not seen the lawsuit and
could not comment.
In 2002, Ford asked TheraMatrix to develop an outpatient physical therapy network carve-out plan to
contain rising costs. At the time, Blue Cross was
Ford’s third-party administrator.
But some 10 days after TheraMatrix and Ford finalized the deal in February 2005, Blue Cross reneged on
the third-party agreement, the lawsuit alleges.
CAREER MOVES
Over $1,500,000 Invested
866-673-9270rredfieldgroup.com
*ODPOKVODUJPOXJUI$FOUVSZ-PPLJOH(MBTT
MANAGEMENT
CONSTRUCTION
Open Air Center Developer
Seeking part time owner’s rep/inspection
manager with 10 years + experience to
direct and guide onsite construction project
teams in the redevelopment of mall. Experience must include successful expertise in
the management process of commercial
design and construction, both onsite work
and tenant build out. Must be skilled with
the interaction of local municipalities,
inspectors, fire marshals, and building
departments. As the owner’s representative you will assist in the direction of architects, contractors with strong attention to
detail, schedule, budget and cost control.
Strong verbal and collaborative communication skills a must. Job will entail an
onsite presence two days per week and
will report to the VP-Development. Please
mail, fax or email your resume to:
Arthur Hill & Co., LLC
900 Clark St
Evanston, IL 60201
ATTN: Tom Zabor
[email protected]
Fax 847-570-5656
GENERAL
Warehouse Workers: $20/hr plus benefits. Apply
online, zipcareers.com/miserv
Grosse Pointe Historical Society -- Executive Director
The Grosse Pointe Historical Society (GPHS) seeks an energetic and dynamic individual to lead the
organization in the next stage of its growth and development. The Society operates the Provencal
Weir House, and the Moran Resource Center. Its holdings include a substantial collection of artifacts, photographs, documents and ephemera related to the history of the Grosse Pointe area. Staff
includes a part-time assistant and project managers, and a dedicated group of volunteers. The successful candidate will have demonstrated strong administrative and management skills, be experienced working with volunteer committees, as well as in grants development and community out
reach. The Executive Director represents the Society, keeps the committees and projects running,
supports development and supervises the management of the properties and staff. The Executive
Director will play an important role in crafting the growth of the society and in helping the organization continue the implementation of its five-year strategic plan.
For qualifications and information please visit www.gphistorical.org and follow the link on the
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Applications Deadline: August 20, 2008 / www.gphistorical.org
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Nine months later, Blue Cross terminated an
agreement that led to TheraMatrix losing half its 2,000
physicians, said TheraMatrix CEO Bob Whitton.
Some 16 months later, Blue Cross reinstated TheraMatrix, he said.
During the termination period, Blue Cross “engaged in a coordinated, malicious and willful campaign to destroy” the company, the lawsuit alleges.
Whitton said the company lost millions of dollars
and has been forced to lay off 60 employees and reduce
the hours of some of its 13 clinics in Michigan. TheraMatrix currently has about 100 employees, he said.
When Blue Cross terminated TheraMatrix in April
2006 as a participating provider of outpatient physical
therapy, the lawsuit said, Blue Cross sent out thousands of letters to physicians, agents, companies and
patients indicating Blue Cross would no longer pay
for treatments at TheraMatrix clinics.
“It took us 25 years to develop our physician network,” Whitton said.
TheraMatrix, which continues to provide the
carve-out services to Ford, now contracts with another third-party administrator, Automated Benefit Services in Sterling Heights.
TheraMatrix is a minority-owned, federally certified rehabilitation agency founded in 1981.
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8/1/2008
6:01 PM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Page 37
Legislators working to
reconcile energy bills
for the Customer Choice
LANSING — Two conCoalition, which includes
ference committees and
business groups, connine lawmakers are havsumer interests and altering a final hand in shapnative-electricity suppliing Michigan energy reers, said “there’s still
forms.
room to improve both bills
Key bills dealing with
in a substantial way.”
electric choice and regu“Competition is still
lation, energy efficiency
the best way to increase
and a state standard for
the amount of renewable
renewable energy have
power in the state while
moved into House-Senholding down prices for
ate conference commitAmy Lane
all. We think there’s a
tees, where lawmakers
great opportunity for the Senate to
will hammer out differences.
If the committees reach compro- stand up for entrepreneurship and
mise, the bills could be voted on job creation by increasing compesoon. The House and Senate are tition in both bills,” he said.
Conferees on HB 5524 are: Rep.
scheduled to return Aug. 13.
The House in July replaced Sen- Frank Accavitti, D-Eastpointe; Rep.
ate-passed versions of the bills Matt Gillard, D-Alpena; Rep. Mike
with measures the House previ- Nofs, R-Battle Creek; Sen. Cameron
ously passed, sending House Bills Brown, R-Fawn River Township;
5524 and Senate Bill 213 back to the Sen. Randy Richardville, R-Frenchtown Township; and Sen. Dennis OlSenate.
Both versions have set a 10 per- shove, D-Warren.
Conference committee members
cent cap on the amount of a utility’s customer load that can go to al- for SB 213 are: Sen. Patricia Birkholz, R-Saugatuck Township;
ternative-electricity suppliers.
The House passed a renewable- Richardville and Olshove; Rep.
energy mandate that called for 10 Kathy Angerer, D-Dundee; Rep.
percent of a utility’s electricity to David Palsrok, R-Manistee; and
come from renewable sources by Accavitti.
2015, while the Senate passed a 7
percent renewable portfolio standard and allowed part of that tarMichigan’s new $300 million Inget to be met through energy effivest Michigan! initiative will target
ciency programs and other means.
“We encourage the conference generally small and midsized
committees to reconcile the energy Michigan companies in a wide
bills quickly and push for near- range of sectors.
The program’s Growth Capital
term passage of all energy-reform
provisions,” DTE Energy Co. Chair- Fund will make direct investments
man and CEO Anthony Earley Jr. in the range of $2 million to $7 million, targeting venture capital and
said in a statement.
But Dave Waymire, spokesman expansion-stage companies. The
Capitol
B r i e fi ng s
Fund targets small, midsize firms
Michigan Opportunities Fund will target potential acquisitions and buyouts, through $10 million to $40
million investments.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm said
that while Michigan has investment programs focused on earlygrowth companies, “until this
point … there has not been enough
funding available for later-stage
capital needs.”
Each fund is capitalized with $150
million in Michigan pension funds.
The Growth Capital Fund will be
managed by Beringea L.L.C. and Credit Suisse, while the other fund will be
managed by Glencoe Capital.
As reported on crainsdetroit.
com, a council of business leaders,
led by Penske Corp. CEO Roger
Penske, will lend expertise to the
program.
Terry Stanton, public information officer with the Michigan Department of Treasury, said the goal
“is to generate market-rate returns and at the same time invest
in Michigan businesses, retain
Michigan businesses, and help
them grow and create jobs.”
He declined to comment on
when the funds would make their
first investments, but said “the
program is under way. We’re moving forward.”
Granholm first proposed the initiative in her 2008 State of the State
address.
Senate Finance Committee
chair Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, said
in a statement that “state government is picking winners and losers
instead of providing relief to all
struggling businesses.”
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[email protected]
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Think of me as a
new security guard.
People Mover has
its first ‘green’ roof
The Detroit People Mover has completed
its first “green” roof project at the Joe
Lewis Arena Station. The goal: to alleviate some of the heat caused by the previous roof in the platform area.
Detroit People
Mover, owned by
the Detroit Trans- Visit crainsdetroit.
portation Corp., paid com/multimedia
for the $159,950 pro- for a video report
ject through its gen- on the People
eral operating fund. Mover green roof
project.
Detroit-based
Schreiber Corp. was
the contractor, said
Dennis Green, marketing manager for
Detroit
People
Mover.
The roof uses a multilayered system of
Koppers Inc. Coal Tar Built-up Roofing
and Xero Flor Pre-cultivated Green Roof
System, in order to ensure both sustainability and functionality.
The roof was added during an interruption in operations for track repairs. The
People Mover is expected to restart operations by Aug. 18.
— Nathan Skid
ON THE WEB
A layer of vegetation tops the new roof of the Detroit People Mover
station at Joe Louis Arena.
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8/1/2008
6:02 PM
Page 1
Page 38
August 4, 2008
Nonprofit: Birdie or bogie
■ From Page 1
&IRST!NNUAL#ONFERENCEON.ANOTECHNOLOGY
!UGUST
FXbcXe[Le`m\ij`kp
FXbcXe[:\ek\i
The First Annual Conference on Nanotechnology will bring
together researchers and entrepreneurs from across the
country in the fields of nano-scale science and engineering
to share the latest research and development.
Join noted speakers to discuss
conference topics including:
s .ANOSYSTEMS
IfZ_\jk\i#D`Z_`^Xe
s .ANOSTRUCTURES
s .ANOBIOTECHNOLOGY
s .ANOTECHNOLOGY
Speakers include:
s -ARK3IMSPRESIDENT.ANOREX
a software company specializing
in the development of engineering
tools for nano-scale design.
s *ILL0OWELLTECHNICALSALES
MANAGER#3-)NSTRUMENTSAN
instrumentation company
specializing in advanced
mechanical surface
characterization.
To register, or for more information, please visit:
www.oakland.edu/research/conf or contact
*EAN-IAOORRESEARCH OAKLANDEDU
EXPERIENCE THE DISTINCTION
Where Innovation and Opportunity Meet
Nationally known as a leader in basic science,
applied engineering, and nanobiotechnology
disciplines, Oakland University helps transform
emerging discoveries into reality.
Oakland University is the second fastest growing
state university in Michigan and is classified by the
Carnegie Foundation as one of the country’s
83 doctoral/research universities, providing
undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity
to work with expert faculty in myriad fields.
of about 3,000 grounds and hospitality tickets to give to current and potential donors and clients, he said.
“Normally, charities don’t get a
chance to do these kinds of
things,” Ellison said. “We use this
concept because it works for the
normal business. During the course
of the championships … this gives
nonprofits (that same opportunity)
for relationship building or to say
thank you.”
Balancing potential fundraising
opportunities with the risk of
breaking the budget is a challenge
facing other events. Ticket sales
have been very slow for a fundraising hospitality site organized to
benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society Michigan Chapter Inc.
Board member Tony Rubino and
his brother Daniel leased a home
overlooking Oakland Hills to raise
money for the MS Society through
the sale of hospitality tickets.
The two jointly own the Apple Annie’s and Friars Kitchen & Bakery
restaurants, the food court at
Wayne State University, Pilot Property
Group, MarketPlace Promotions and
Michigan Tether.
They’ve invested about $100,000
on such expenses as wait staff,
commemorative gifts, big-screen
television monitors, food and
drink and shuttle service from local, off-site parking.
Their hope, Tony Rubino said,
was to make money for the MS Society after recouping their costs.
As of deadline for this story, they
had sold only about 50 tickets and
have given out another 40, out of 875
available for Wednesday through
Sunday. They also booked two
small, corporate cocktail parties for
after the course closes, he said.
“We’re far below what they’re
charging for hospitality tickets on
the course,” Rubino said. “We’ve
just hit a big wall.”
“The feedback we’ve gotten
from the smaller to midsize companies is that they aren’t spending
any money on this at all,” said
Elana Sullivan, president of the
MS Society.
Other nonprofit PGA programs
link nonprofit revenue to providing services and support staff at
the event. Providing volunteers
for the championships follows a
model used at events such as the
Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix, the
Buick Open in Grand Blanc and Super Bowl XL at Ford Field.
Band of Angels and the Junior
League of Birmingham are providing
volunteers for merchandise sales
at the championships.
Band of Angels has organized 75
volunteers who collectively will
work more than 1,000 hours. The
Rochester Hills-based nonprofit,
which provides services for children with Down Syndrome and
their families, is guaranteed a minimum donation of $5,000 from the
PGA for its efforts, said Barbara
Fornasiero of EAFocus Inc., speaking on Band of Angels’ behalf.
Lighthouse of Oakland County is
providing 750 volunteers to staff
concessions for Chicago-based Levy
Restaurants Inc. during the championship.
The Pontiac-based agency,
which provides emergency assistance and services to help people
move to self-sufficiency, also
staffed concessions for the Ryder
BEST MANAGED NONPROFIT
This year has seen continued
challenges in the nonprofit arena
that have included changes in
United Way funding in addition to a
weak economy.
Therefore, this year’s Best
Managed Nonprofit Contest will
continue to look at nonprofits that
have taken specific steps to
improve operations and delivery of
services.
We are looking at the following
categories:
䡲 Collaborations, including
mergers.
䡲 Finding ways to do more with
less.
䡲 Strategies for diversifying
funding.
䡲 Launches of new programs that
help the organization better meet
objectives.
Please focus on only one of the
above in your application.
As always, documentation of
results is important.
Applications for the contest are
due Sept. 17. Finalists in this
year’s contest will be interviewed
in person by judges the morning of
Dec. 2.
Applicants for the award must be a
501(c)(3) with headquarters in
Wayne, Washtenaw, Oakland,
Macomb or Livingston counties.
Each application must include a
completed entry form, a copy of
the nonprofit’s most recent
audited financial statements and a
copy of the nonprofit’s most recent
IRS Form 990.
Previous first-place winners are not
eligible; neither are hospitals,
HMOs, medical clinics, business
and professional organizations,
schools, churches or foundations.
The winning nonprofits will be
profiled in the Dec. 22 issue,
receive a cash award, a special
“best-managed” logo from Crain’s
for use in promotional material,
and will receive recognition at the
Crain’s Newsmaker of the Year
lunch in February.
For a copy of the application form,
please send an e-mail request to
[email protected] or visit
www.crainsdetroit.com/nominate.
For more information, call (313)
446-0329.
Cup at Oakland Hills four years
ago and received about 10 percent
of sales, or about $100,000, said
CEO John Ziraldo. He’s hoping to
bring in a similar amount this year.
“One of the questions we’ve had is
how (the) local economy will impact
spending and attendance at the
championships,” Ziraldo said. “If
people come to the championships
and don’t spend much money there,
the charitable donations Levy is
making to Lighthouse will be less.”
Ziraldo said he didn’t include projected proceeds from the championship volunteering in Lighthouse’s budget.
“We’re being very careful not to
create spending in our budget that
we can’t create year after year.”
Other one-time nonprofit opportunities can come from grants, such
as one that went to the Detroit Midnight Golf Program, which teaches life
skills to at-risk youth. It indirectly
benefited from the championship
when it received a $20,000 grant
from the Charter One Foundation.
(See Charter One story, Page 25.)
Sherri Begin: (313) 446-1694, [email protected]
8/1/2008
6:04 PM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Page 39
Roads: State scrambles
■ From Page 1
ers there, would generate about $97
million a year. The amounts raised
under the local option measures
could also be used for purposes
such as public transportation.
Under the gas tax legislation, a
single county could impose a tax of
up to 3 cents, while two adjacent
counties could join to impose a tax
of up to 5 cents, and three adjacent
counties could impose a tax of up to
7 cents.
Alan Kiriluk, chairman of Troybased Kirco Development Corp. and
head of a coalition that has been
working on the
local-option
strategy for several years, said
the
approach
“raises money locally, it stays locally, and it is
used locally.”
He is chairKiriluk
man of Businesses for Better Transportation and the
Oakland County Business Roundtable
transportation committee.
Kiriluk said that as corporate decision-makers or site-selection organizations eye locations for capital
investment, “one of the key ingredients of making a decision is infrastructure.”
“And around the country, there
are 37 states that have legislative
provisions for communities to enact local options to fund their infrastructure needs that they deem
appropriate,” he said.
“This is not imposing a tax on
anybody. But it gives you the opportunity, if you feel you have the need.
And we certainly have the need.”
The bipartisan local-option bills
join statewide measures introduced earlier this year, including
a 9-cent increase in the state gas
tax that would be phased in at 3
cents a year over three years; a 13cent, phased-in increase on the tax
on diesel; and a 50 percent increase
in vehicle registration fees.
And the entire road-funding issue
is moving toward potential debate
this fall, when a state task force issues preliminary recommendations
on alternatives to replace or supplement state motor fuel taxes that
fund transportation infrastructure.
For the Michigan Department of
Transportation, time is of the essence.
M-DOT predicts that beginning in
2010, based on current revenue estimates, it will be unable to provide
the state funds needed to match a
portion of federal aid for Michigan
road projects. That means the department could lose out on nearly
$4.5 billion in federal funding, or
about $750 million a year, in the
2010-2015 time frame.
“If we get to that point, we will
have some very tough choices to
make. And certainly services are
going to be impacted,” said M-DOT
Director Kirk Steudle.
The department is being
squeezed by a convergence of factors, including declining gas-tax
revenue, due in part to people driving less, buying more fuel-efficient
cars or using more mass transit;
and road-construction costs that
have risen about 43 percent since
2004, driven by higher prices for
commodities such as steel, cement,
asphalt, natural gas and fuels.
It makes budgeting “extremely
tricky,” Steudle said. In addition,
there’s uncertainty over how
much money will continue to flow
to Michigan and other states from
the federal Highway Trust Fund,
which faces a multibillion-dollar
deficit by the end of fiscal 2009 unless Washington acts.
“We haven’t delayed any projects
for this year, but money is very
tight,” Steudle said. “As we look forward to next year, it really becomes
a pretty complicated exercise.”
State motor-fuel taxes, motor-vehicle registrations and fees, federal highway fuel taxes and some local revenue pay for Michigan
roads. The current-year state road
and bridge program has a $1.6 billion budget, including $147 million
in bond-financed projects that
were advanced to this year instead
of occurring in 2009.
The M-DOT road and bridge budget drops to about $1.2 billion in fiscal 2009. And that’s far less than is
needed, according to a new report
from a panel appointed earlier this
year by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
The Michigan citizens advisory
committee on transportation needs
and funding said in a July 21 report
that just basic improvements to the
Michigan road and bridge system
would require M-DOT to spend
close to $3 billion annually. Local
government spending would need
to top an additional $3 billion,
adding up to a total state investment of $6.1 billion annually to improve road infrastructure.
“We just put the price tag on it,
and it’s large,” said advisory committee member Keith Ledbetter,
director of legislative affairs for
the Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Association.
“I think we were all surprised
by how large it was. But our job
was to determine what the actual
needs were, not what was politically acceptable.”
The citizens panel’s report is a
prelude to preliminary recommendations, due by Oct. 31, from a public-private task force that is looking at alternative ways to fund
roads, as well as the adequacy of
aeronautics service and finance.
Ledbetter and others say revenue solutions need to be found.
The Okemos-based group represents road and bridge builders, underground contractors and other
construction interests.
“We’re as nervous as a long-tailed
cat in a room full of rocking chairs,”
Ledbetter said. “Between state and
federal funds, rising construction
costs and high gas prices, that really reflects our sentiment.”
MITA last year proposed a 9cent increase in Michigan’s gas
tax, phased in over three years, as
part of a package of measures to
collectively generate $1 billion annually in road funding.
House Transportation Committee
Chair Hoon-Yung Hopgood, D-Taylor, is a sponsor of measures that
include increases in the diesel tax,
registration fees and the local-option sales tax.
He said the October task force
report will be important to move
the debate forward, and he would
like to act on measures this year.
“It’s a real issue, and it’s only going to get worse at this point,”
Hopgood said.
Amy Lane: (517) 371-5355,
[email protected]
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8/1/2008
6:05 PM
Page 1
Page 40
August 4, 2008
Hospitals: Care for poor grows, takes bigger chunk of budgets
■ From Page 3
rate crept up to 11 percent in June
from 9.1 percent in March, the
number of uninsured has steadily
grown, hospital officials said. The
state unemployment rate is 8.7 percent, compared with 5 percent nationally.
“There are also an increased
number of working uninsured patients, as well as a shrinking number of hospitals and primary care
providers in metro Detroit,” said
Shelby Brown, Henry Ford’s manager of Safety Net Services. “Those
providers that do remain carry a
larger responsibility.”
As Detroit’s largest provider of
indigent care, Detroit Receiving’s
bad debt increased by $16 million
in 2007 to $144 million, Larkins
said. The record high for bad debt
at Detroit Receiving was $155 million in 2005 when the hospital lost
$10 million.
In 2007, Detroit Receiving lost
$11 million compared with $10.4
million in 2006.
“While we have improved efficiencies, our operating losses have
increased over the last few years,
and most of the bottom line losses
are directly related to the numbers
of uninsured,” said Gloria
Larkins, vice president of finance
at Detroit Receiving.
The uncompensated care load
provided by the three Detroit hospitals in 2007 is expected to increase this year, executives said.
Uncompensated care includes
charity care, bad debt and unpaid
GROWING BURDEN
Detroit hospitals have been hit hard by falling profits and rising levels of
uncompensated care. Figures are in millions.
Net income
Uncompensated care
2007
2006
2007
2006
Detroit Medical Center
$33.8
$40.9
$265.6
Detroit Receiving Hospital
($11)
($10.4)
$151
$147
Henry Ford Health System
$105
$134.8
$72.8
$55.6
Henry Ford Hospital
St. John Hospital*
St. John Health*
$243.3
NA
NA
NA
NA
$48.4
$48.9
$61
$44.5
$137.1
$100.9
$157.8
$128.9
Note: DMC has eight hospitals, Henry Ford has five and St. John Health has seven.
*Fiscal year ends June 30.
Source: Individual hospitals.
costs of Medicaid.
St. John Hospital provided a 40
percent increase in uncompensated care in 2008 to $86 million from
$61 million in 2007. Bad debt increased to 2.6 percent in 2007 from
2 percent in 2006.
At Henry Ford Health System, uncompensated care increased 31
percent to $72.8 million in 2007
from $55.6 million in 2006. Henry
Ford officials declined to break out
individual hospital figures.
It isn’t just the 300,000 uninsured people and the additional
310,000 Medicaid recipients, who
account for about 35 percent of the
county’s 1.9 million population,
who are causing the increase in
uncompensated care for the hospitals.
Some people with insurance are
finding it difficult to cover rising
co-payments and deductibles,
Larkins said.
“We are seeing an increase in
people who are underinsured who
can’t pay,” she said.
Hospital executives said the declining profits caused by rising uncompensated care are leading to
cost-cutting efforts in mostly nonpatient care departments.
“The increase in uncompensated care is a significant drain on resources,” said Patrick McGuire,
St. John’s CFO. “We have looked at
every area we can within our hospitals (to lower costs).”
Earlier this year, seven-hospital
St. John Health in Warren announced it planned to lay off 300
employees, including 50 managers,
to help cut $85 million in expenses
this year. The system also is restructuring operations. Last year,
St. John closed its Riverview Hospital, located on the lower east side of
Detroit, saving the system $23 million.
Another factor exacerbating
health care delivery problems for
the poor in Detroit is the lack of a
safety net public hospital, said Dr.
Susan Schooley, Henry Ford’s
chair of family medicine.
“In New York, Chicago or San
Francisco there are public hospitals that absorb that burden and
get funding for it in a clear way
(through taxes). We don’t have
that solution here,” said Schooley,
who also is medical director of the
Henry Ford Medical Group’s Detroit
Region.
In 1980, city-owned Detroit General Hospital, the downtown public
hospital, closed and was reincarnated as Detroit Receiving, a private nonprofit hospital under the
DMC umbrella with a mission to
treat the poor and underinsured.
Four other hospitals have closed
in Detroit since 1998.
“We have a competitive environment here with private hospitals and fragile safety net providers
that are struggling to make ends
meet in an urban health care setting,” Schooley said.
Henry Ford’s net income
dropped 27 percent to $105.8 million in 2007 from $134.8 million in
2006.
In 2007, DMC’s combined eight
hospitals reported a 17 percent
drop in net income to $33.8 million
from $40.9 million in 2006.
St. John Hospital’s 2007 net income dipped to $48.4 million from
$48.9 million in 2006. However, its
operating income dropped 46 percent to $16.9 million, the lowest
level in four years, from $31.7 million in 2006. It earned $18.2 million
in 2004.
“The combined resources of the
Detroit-area safety net are woefully
inadequate to meet the existing
needs,” said David Law, executive
director of the Joy-Southfield Community Development Corp. in Detroit.
“We do the best we can with the limited resources that we have.”
Detroit residents fare far worse
than national averages across a
wide range of health indicators.
For example, they develop heart
disease at a rate 59 percent higher
than the national average, suffer
strokes at a rate 19 percent higher,
and develop cancer at a rate 8 percent higher.
Schooley said that with Michigan unlikely to increase Medicaid
funding because of budget woes,
more federal dollars are needed to
improve Detroit’s care network.
“My prediction for the next couple years is that it will keep getting
worse and people will die. People
are already dying because the
health disparities associated with
poverty is very easy to demonstrate in the community,” said
Schooley.
Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325,
[email protected]
Moten: Pick-Fort Shelby is developer’s latest achievement
■ From Page 3
“During the 1980s, Moten tried to get developers interested in downtown hotels that
had been closed, but no one listened,” Marshall said.
Now Cleveland-based developer John Ferchill is scheduled to open the Westin Book
Cadillac this fall, and Moten’s Doubletree
Guest Suites Fort Shelby will open soon after.
Moten said he and Ferchill have conferred about their properties, construction
progress and development in the city.
The Hilton Hotels Corp. (NYSE: HLT) will
manage the Fort Shelby for MCP Development
L.L.C., Moten said.
Along with Moten, MCP principals are
Oakland County businessmen Eugene Curtis,
Leo Phillips and Brian Hermelin, with Rich
Curto of Chicago-based RSC and Associates.
The new hotel will feature 204 guest
suites, with room rates varying from $189 to
$229 per night depending on demand, said
Bill Aprill, director of sales and marketing
for Doubletree Guest Suites Fort Shelby.
Ground-floor retail will include a bar, a
coffee shop and an upscale steak and seafood
restaurant, Finn & Porter.
Detroit-based L.S. Brinker Co. is construction manager, and Hobbs+Black Associates
Inc. of Ann Arbor is the architect.
Financing for the $80 million project includes a $14 million construction loan from
Chicago-based ShoreBank, an $18.7 million
HUD loan, and $24 million from the General
Retirement System of the City of Detroit.
Other funds come from tax credits for historical buildings and a Michigan singlebusiness tax credit, Moten said.
Aprill’s goal is to get the new hotel certified by the International Association of Conference Centers. IACC certification dictates
amenities, technology and staff expertise,
and is not easy to secure.
“The state-of-the-art conference center, as
well as the suites, will include ergonomic
chairs, superb acoustics and plenty of work
surfaces — a real adult-learning environment,” Aprill said.
The original Fort Shelby was an 11-story
hotel erected in 1917, to which a 22-story Albert Kahn-designed tower was added on the
west side 10 years later.
Now, 52 condo-ready apartments are being built on the upper 11 floors of the tower.
The 1,000- to 1,500-square-foot units will be
rentals for five years, then will be sold as
condos at market prices, Moten said.
Overseeing a complicated deal like the
Fort Shelby rehab isn’t new to Moten, nor is
he a stranger to controversy.
His zeal and loyalty to Young once earned
him a brief stint in the Wayne County Jail in
1986 for refusing a court order to turn over a
property list to a Detroit newspaper.
And he was sued — along with the city,
Young and Little Caesar Enterprises Inc. — by
another downtown developer over property
dealings involving the Fox and other sites
around Detroit’s two ballparks.
Moten, a native of New Orleans, once was
assistant chief administrative officer for
that city’s former mayor, Moon Landrieu.
He came to Detroit in 1978 to work for Bob
Spencer at the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.
By 1979, Young had named Moten director of
Detroit’s Community and Economic Development Department, which he led until 1988.
Charles Beckham, now director of the Detroit Public Lighting Department, said Moten is
“a consummate deal-maker who could start
with no money and put together projects
like the Cobo expansion.”
Beckham, head of the Detroit Water and Sew-
erage Department in the Young administration, said “Moten Economics” was the phrase
coined for Moten’s style of deal-making.
“Coleman loved him as his ‘can-do’ guy,
and Emmett knew how to put deals together
— like Poletown and Jefferson Avenue East
— moving the money from one pocket to the
other. And he knew how to talk to council.
He moved things ... and was the engine behind Coleman’s dreams,” Beckham said.
After leaving his city job, Moten was vice
president of development for Olympia Development of Michigan L.L.C., the Ilitch organization’s real estate arm, from 1988 until 1995.
“I learned politics from Coleman Young,
and business sense from Mike and Marian
(Ilitch),” Moten said.
He also managed Dogwood Investments
L.L.C., developing a 110-unit housing project
near Oakland and Caniff avenues for industrialist Dave Bing.
Bob Berg, partner in Detroit-based Berg
Muirhead & Associates, who did public-relations work for Young from 1983 until
Young’s death in 1997, credited Moten with
getting the Ilitches to come downtown.
“They had broken ground for Little Caesars headquarters in Farmington Hills, but
he convinced the Ilitches to take the Fox and
bring it back into shape,” Berg said.
Moten also got dubious credit for his role
in the Fox-Ilitches deal in a lawsuit filed in
1994 by Detroit developer Chuck Forbes.
Forbes — onetime owner of the Fox Theatre, Palms Building and State Theatre —
sued the city of Detroit, its Downtown Development Authority and Moten, claiming the city
forced him to sell the Fox to the Ilitches in
1987 and then backed out of promises to aid in
development of other downtown properties.
Little Caesars and founder-owner Mike Il-
itch also were named, and then dropped,
from the lawsuit, which was settled out of
court in the mid-1990s.
Atanas Ilitch, president of Olympia Development, said of Moten in a statement:
“His unique ability to bring people together and push development across the area
have helped to move the city and state forward. He played an instrumental role in major projects, including Foxtown development as well as the Comerica Park and Ford
Field projects.”
Frank Stella was chairman of the Greater
Detroit Chamber of Commerce (now the Detroit
Regional Chamber) in 1983-84 when the business community was quietly pushing for an
expansion of Cobo Center.
“I told Mayor Young that we needed to expand because it could only hold one-half of a
major convention and we wanted to get the
auto show. We looked into it without letting
too many know.”
Moten accompanied Stella and other city
and business leaders to Lansing to lobby for
state support for expanding Cobo and it
worked, Stella said.
“I’ve never seen a fellow who can handle 10
jobs at once the way Emmett can,” Stella said.
Moten also was key in bringing Southwest
Airlines to Detroit City Airport, where it operated successful passenger service for five
years in the 1980s, Berg said.
An opinion Berg said he heard voiced often by GM officials and others was that
“without Moten, Poletown would not have
happened.”
And Poletown paved the way for Chrysler
Jefferson, Berg said.
Robert
Ankeny:
(313)
446-0404,
[email protected]
8/1/2008
6:09 PM
Page 1
August 4, 2008
Page 41
Dealers: Loss of automaker lease deals is a jolt
■ From Page 3
new crossovers and cars. Chrysler is offering
zero percent interest for 72 months on select vehicles, steep discounts off sticker prices, cash
back, and lease loyalty incentives toward purchase, Automotive News reported.
But it’s uncertain whether such packages
will protect area auto dealers. Dealers contacted by Crain’s last week said leasing accounts
for 70 percent to 90 percent of total sales, a number all agree exceeds national averages.
At Dearborn’s Les Stanford Chevrolet Cadillac,
President Paul Stanford says 70 percent of business has been leasing, while at Sterling Heights
Dodge, Chairman Tony Viviano says leasing
has ranged from 90 percent to 95 percent of
monthly business. Owner-President George
Fetsco of Rochester Hills Chrysler Dodge said leases are about 80 percent of business.
Dealer reaction was mixed.
“When they told us, I was devastated,” Viviano said. “Then I took a deep breath and
thought, ‘You know what? These guys have
guts and they’re smart. We have the best product available, and they’re working with us;
they’re not going to let us sink and drown.’ ”
Hoot McInerny, owner of Star Lincoln Mercury
in Southfield, said Chrysler’s product is strong
and that the decision was driven by financing
requirements, not customer demand.
“The banks are the ones that refused the
money,” he said. “They couldn’t get the financing is the reason. It wasn’t because the product
wasn’t worth the money, it wasn’t a defect. …
The people at Chrysler, are they Lee Iacocca?
No. Are they Roger Smith? No. They’re not car
people.”
Bill Golling, president-owner of Bloomfield
Hills-based Golling Chrysler Jeep Dodge, said he
believes that customers will buy if the automaker offers incentives that make purchasing comparable to leasing.
“The advantage of a lease has always been
the price would be less than retail,” he said.
“That may no longer be the case going forward;
and if the price is more than retail, wouldn’t
you be better off to own it?”
Those low lease payments have been the
downfall of lease programs, industry professionals say.
Lease payments are calculated based on the
residual value of the vehicle at the end of the
lease. With a down economy
and high gas prices, the sale
prices of post-lease trucks
and SUVs have plummeted,
leaving automakers holding
the bag. Both Ford and GM
have posted multimilliondollar losses resulting from
falling residuals.
But there may be more at
stake than bottom-line pricHarbour-Felax
ing, said Laurie Harbour-Felax, an industry analyst and president of Royal
Oak-based Harbour-Felax Group.
“This is a culture change,” Harbour-Felax
said. “We are a land of plenty. We are all used to
buying a car and two years later saying, ‘I don’t
really like it, let’s go turn it in, extend ourselves
in credit, get the new one before the term of
lease is up, roll the balance into the new lease.’
We are a society of wanting to have the newest
and latest and greatest all the time.”
Across the Detroit area, dealers wrote leases
last week in record numbers in an effort to
move as many vehicles as possible before
Chrysler’s Aug. 1 deadline.
Golling said he signed 300 leases in three
days last week; weekly averages had been 125.
Fetsco said he’d done about 40 a day, compared
with a normal rate of eight to 10.
But the high volume of leases signed are likely the prelude to rough terrain as dealers
scramble to find alternate lease financing or
capitalize on the new incentives.
Dealers looking for alternative lease financing will likely be disappointed, say a cross-section of area bankers contacted by Crain’s.
“Banks are looking at it this way: ‘If the auto
companies don’t want to do their own leases,
why should we?’ Chrysler said, ‘We gotta get
out of this because it’s a big loser,’ ” said Vito
Pianello, associate managing director of commercial lending at Bloomfield Hills-based The
Private Bank-Michigan. He worked for GMAC for
10 years, later heading auto retail and leasing
operations at Manufacturers Bank and Huntington
Bank.
Bankers say they have enough on their
plates trying to deal with nonperforming commercial and residential real estate loans already in their portfolios without expanding
into another troubled line of business.
“No, no,” said David Boyle, president and
CEO of Troy-based National City Bank, Michigan,
when asked if his bank would begin financing
auto leases. National City Bank, Michigan’s
parent company has been one of those hardest
hit by the subprime fallout.
“The banking industry certainly has its own
set of challenges right now that will be with us
a while,” he said. “We’ve got our hands full trying to build our core business, and leasing isn’t
a part of it.”
There’s more bad news for Chrysler.
Huntington National Bank will no longer finance leases on Chrysler SUVs or trucks, a
large part of Chrysler’s lineup. And last week,
both Fifth Third Bank and Chase Auto Finance said
they would no longer fund Chrysler leases, effective Aug. 1. Chase will continue to serve as
the finance agent for Subaru of America dealers.
“Stay tuned. This is a really interesting and
highly variable drama that’s going to be playing out for the next two months,” said David
Cole, executive director of the Center for Automotive Research, an Ann Arbor-based nonprofit automotive think tank.
Cole said it’s unlikely that GM and Ford will
eliminate leasing entirely.
“Everybody’s going to be more cautious on
leasing, I think that’s a given, but eliminating, I
don’t know,” he said. “If they did it would probably be only for a relatively temporary period
of time. Leasing is still an important part of it.”
When the dust settles, analysts say, the ranks
of area auto dealers may have thinned.
“For the domestic three, two things: the shift
in population has left too many legacy dealers,
and with the loss of market share, volume is
down considerably,” Cole said. “Consolidation
is what companies would like to do.”
Only dealers with the right business model
will have an advantage in an increasingly
strained environment, Harbour-Felax said.
“We’ve got way too many dealers, and they
have contracts,” she said. “How do we do it? We
make things more difficult, and only the strong
survive.”
Tom Henderson also contributed to this report.
Nancy
Kaffer:
(313)
446-0412,
[email protected]
Funds: Groups seek to raise Detroit grad rates
■ From Page 1
United Way board member and
chair of its Educational Preparedness Council and of the Greater
Detroit Education Venture Fund.
Given the needs of Southeast
Michigan, AT&T’s employment of
12,000 people in Michigan and the
AT&T Foundation’s launch last
spring of a program aimed at
strengthening student success and
workforce readiness in the U.S.,
the investment made perfect
sense, Torreano said.
“When you look at issues of current and lifetime income, health
disparity, incarceration rates, literacy rates — all of that leads to
the fundamental foundation that
education is one of the key drivers
of both economic and emotional
and physical success,” said United
Way CEO Michael Brennan.
The aim of the program is to
turn around the 30 or so Southeast
Michigan high schools labeled as
“drop-out factories” in a 2007 Johns
Hopkins University study because of
their graduation rates of 60 percent or less.
The schools are in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.
The goal is to increase graduation rates to 80 percent or more of
entering students within five
years of the program’s launch in
the 2009-2010 academic year, Brennan said.
“There’s no question there’s a
crisis, particularly at the high
school level in Detroit,” said
William Hanson, director of communications and technology at
Skillman.
The plan is to implement best
practices that have worked in
Boston and New York and other
parts of the country by working
with nationally known educational intermediaries to create smaller, more personalized learning environments.
United Way plans today and
Tuesday to host a group of nationally recognized intermediary nonprofits at Lawrence Technological
University so the target high schools
can meet them and learn more
about their work.
Many of the intermediaries,
which include EdWorks, First Things
First and the Institute for Student
Achievement, have garnered past
funding from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, Brennan said.
Administered by United Way,
the Greater Detroit Education
Venture Fund will make annual
grants of $320,000 directly to the intermediary partners of larger high
schools and $80,000 to smaller high
schools with 500 or fewer students.
The grants would be renewable
for up to five years and are being
made to intermediaries to keep
them accountable, Brennan said.
The 30 or so “drop-out factories”
in metro Detroit will compete for
the dollars, he said, by demonstrating leadership support and readiness within the school and a partnership
with
a
proven
intermediary.
United Way has invited the
schools to submit a turnaround
proposal to qualify for funding,
Brennan said.
With $10 million in hand, the
fund expects to begin making
grants for turnaround efforts at six
large high schools of about 1,500 to
2,000 students or more in the 20092010 academic year, Brennan said.
The plan is to break those six
schools into smaller schools of 500
students or fewer to give students
a more targeted and personalized
approach. The smaller schools
could have an academic focus
more geared to students’ abilities,
such as math and science or arts,
he said.
The intermediaries also would
help implement best practices
such as site-based management of
academic performance and instruction and stronger and more
targeted relationships with the
student population that would
help those schools increase their
graduation rates to 80 percent
within five years, Brennan said.
The program will entail a year
of preparation to get schools lined
up for the turnaround work scheduled to begin the fall of 2009, he
said.
“We certainly hope that with a
clear demonstration of local private funding … it will put us in a
position to attract national foundation funds for the Venture Fund,”
Brennan said.
Sherri Begin: (313) 4460-1694, [email protected]
www.crainsdetroit.com
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8/1/2008
6:35 PM
Page 42
A
Companies hope to land
names on new terminal
Five companies are “very
interested” in buying Detroit Metropolitan Airport’s
August 4, 2008
RUMBLINGS
Beaumont to
close Royal
Oak shops
prime retail real estate parcel in Royal
Oak is going medical.
Beaumont Hospital, which
has owned the 214,000square-foot shopping center
at 13 Mile Road and Woodward Avenue, next door to
the Royal Oak hospital,
since the 1980s, plans to demolish it for future use.
Beaumont confirmed last
week that Northwood Shopping Center is slated to be
razed sometime after 2011.
Colette Stimmell, director
of public relations for Beaumont, said Beaumont has
notified the shopping center’s tenants that their leases will not be extended beyond 2011, to allow for
clearing the property.
Those tenants include a
Kroger Co. location, Four
Green Fields — An Irish Pub
Inc., McDevitt’s Hallmark, a
Michigan Secretary of State
branch and offices for Beaumont Services Co. Long a
prime viewing area for
spectators during the Woodward Dream Cruise, the area
will find a new use in 2012
or later, Stimmell said.
It may be considered as a
site for a medical school
building planned with Oakland University. Plans for the
Oakland University William
Beaumont School of Medicine
call for a new instructional
building on the OU campus
in Auburn Hills and a new
clinical building in Royal
Oak.
Page 1
WEEK IN REVIEW
FROM WWW.CRAINSDETROIT.COM, WEEK OF JULY26-AUG.1
PGA of American CEO Joe
Sternaka told the Detroit Economic Club last month that
$30 million to $60 million
will be pumped into the region. The tournament’s director, Ryan Cannon, is a bit
more optimistic on the low
end and says $40 to $60 million. Royal Bank of Scotland,
one of the PGA Tour’s two
primary sponsors, says $41
million.
Pat Anderson, whose East
Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group loves this sort
of thing, is most precise in a
study, predicting $39.1 million.
In any case, it’s a lot.
The last year the PGA
measured the industry’s
size, in 2005, the game was a
$76 billion industry. (See
Page 1 and Page 17 for PGA
coverage.)
new terminal naming
rights, according to the
company charged with selling those rights.
“They are all local and
global,” said Andy Appleby,
owner of Rochester-based
General Sports and Entertainment L.L.C. He declined to
name the companies or
what sectors they’re in.
A decision on which company
General
Sports
will
recomPeter Karmend
manos Jr., Comto the
puware Corp.
Wayne
chairman and
County
CEO, is venturAirport
ing into the
Authorirestaurant inty will
dustry by become
coming the
in 30
WILLIAM PUGLIANO franchisee of
Golf merchandise with the PGA
to 60
the co-branded
days, Championship logo is for sale in the restaurant Papa
Apple- pro shop of Oakland Hills Country
Romano’s and
Club.
by
Mr. Pita, the
said.
first such
A General Sports subrestaurant in Detroit.
sidiary, General Sports AlIt’s a return to restaurant
liances Inc., did a valuation of
roots for Karmanos, whose
everything at the airport
parents use to run a coney
and partnered with Detroitisland.
based McConnell CommunicaHis new 1,800-square-foot
tions Inc. to form GSA-Mcco-branded restaurant is in
Connell Airport Consulting,
the Compuware building at
which is handling the actual
One Campus Martius and is
naming-rights work.
Detroit’s fourth Papa RoThe $431 million, 824,000mano’s and fifth Mr. Pita.
square-foot terminal opens
The restaurant will offer
Sept. 17.
dine-in and carryout as well
as a bicycle delivery service
for nearby orders. It will
also offer a regular delivery
Just how much is this
service for orders farther
week’s 90th PGA Champiaway. Mr. Pita and Papa Roonship at Oakland Hills County
mano’s are owned by Askar
Club worth to Michigan?
Brands, which generated
Everyone has an opinion.
$40.4 million in 2007.
Software, pitas
and pizza
What’s a tourney worth?
Go with us, up on the roof or out on the vine
oversaw the installation and an
There are a million rooftops in the
official with the People Mover at
naked city. Now one of them’s not
www.crainsdetroit.com/
naked any more.
multimedia.
Last week, we climbed a spindly
And while the economy is dragging,
ladder to the top of the People
Mover station outside Joe Louis
Michigan’s grape growers are
Arena to see the building’s new
getting national attention.
high-tech roof, the top layer of
More and more Michigan vintners
which contains soil and plants.
are planting Riesling grapes, and
It’s good for the station, because it
the wine made here is turning
will naturally keep the building
heads.
cooler. It’s good for the
Read all about it in our monthly
environment, because it absorbs
WEB WORLD
Michigan Grapevine column — a
rainwater and carbon dioxide and
Alan Baker
special feature of Business Lives
puts oxygen back into the air.
Web General Manager — at www.crainsdetroit.com/
See a video tour of the new roof,
section/grapevine. Cheers!
along with interviews with an engineer who
Granholm won’t
extend hearings
on removal
of Kilpatrick
ov. Jennifer Granholm
denied a Thursday request
by
Sharon
McPhail, an attorney representing Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, to delay removal
hearings by two months, the
Associated Press reported.
Granholm has scheduled
a Sept. 3 hearing date — if
she deems one is necessary
— for Detroit City Council’s
request to remove Kilpatrick from office.
Also:
䡲 The Michigan State Police say they expect to finish
their investigation into an
alleged confrontation between Kilpatrick and a detective by early next week,
the AP reported.
A detective said July 25
that when he and a colleague
tried to deliver a subpoena to
a friend of Kilpatrick, the
mayor threw him into another investigator.
Attorney General Mike
Cox will decide whether to
bring charges, and says he
can be fair to Detroit’s mayor despite having previously
called him a black racist and
liar who’s unfit for office.
䡲 The Michigan Supreme
Court denied prosecutor Kym
Worthy’s request to disqualify Judge Ronald Giles and the
entire 36th District Court in
Kilpatrick’s case, the AP reported.
䡲 Prosecutors will ask
Giles if Kilpatrick gave notification prior to visiting
Canada on July 23 to push
the sale of the city’s half of
the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel,
the AP reported. Kilpatrick
is required to notify the
court of all travel plans.
䡲 Douglas Bayer, a former
Detroit emergency medical
technician, has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit claiming
he was retaliated against for
providing information to the
state police investigating a
long-rumored party at the
Manoogian Mansion, The
Detroit News reported.
Also, Ira Todd, a veteran
Detroit Police detective,
has filed a whistle-blower
suit claiming he was demoted for investigating alleged
ties between the mayor and
a reputed cocaine dealer
and associate of a hit man.
䡲 Council on Tuesday
voted against rescinding the
Synagro Technologies Inc. deal
despite a federal bribery
probe, The News reported.
䡲 Marc Cunningham, an
aide to the mayor who has
been linked to the FBI investigation of the Synagro
deal, has resigned, The
G
NEARLY DONE
The Greektown Casino Hotel finished exterior construction
Wednesday. It’s scheduled to open early next year.
News reported.
䡲 Councilwoman Martha
Reeves met with suspended
Synagro Vice President
James Rosendall, who is at
the center of a $47 million
sludge recycling contract being investigated by the FBI,
the AP reported. She
changed her opposition to
the deal after the meeting.
ON THE MOVE
䡲 Marla Drutz to vice president and general manager,
WDIV-Channel 4, Detroit,
from programming director, WXYZ-Channel 7, Southfield. She replaces Steve
Wasserman, who left the station in January.
䡲 Elizabeth Sullivan to vice
president of community investment, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan,
Detroit, from senior vice
president for capital programs, Kresge Foundation,
Troy.
She replaces Cassandra
Joubert, who is becoming a
professor and director of
the Central California Children’s Institute at California
State University, Fresno.
䡲 Stephen Bancroft to executive director of the newly
formed Detroit Office of Foreclosure Prevention and Response, Detroit Economic
Growth Association. He had
been president of Commonwealth Holdings L.L.C., St.
Louis, Mo.
䡲 Frank Sovis to COO, Noble International Inc., Troy,
from president of Noble operations in North America.
He replaces Jim Orchard, who
resigned.
䡲 William Restum to president of DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan, Detroit,
from vice president of clinical and ambulatory services of DMC’s northwest
region. He replaces Terry
Reiley, who retired.
䡲 Neeta Delaney, president and CEO of ArtServe
Michigan, Wixom, plans to
step down Sept. 30.
OTHER NEWS
䡲 Bankole Thompson, senior editor of the Michigan
Chronicle, filed a police report Friday alleging politi-
cal consultant Sam Riddle
pushed him during a verbal
confrontation at a Detroit
restaurant, the Free Press
reported.
䡲 TRW Automotive Inc. cut
140 positions in its brake division late last month and is
leaving open positions unfilled, Automotive News reported.
䡲 Net income for Michigan’s 23 commercial HMOs
declined last year to $201
million, or 2.4 percent of
$8.4 billion revenue, from
average margins of 3.3 percent in 2006 and 3.7 percent
in 2005, said a report, prepared by Allan Baumgarten, a
Minneapolis-based consultant, for pharmaceutical
maker GlaxoSmithKline.
䡲 State regulators Tuesday authorized Detroit Edison Co. to place a temporary
charge on electricity bills
that could in part generate
$43 million for the utility
and compensate it for
amounts not recovered
from customers last year.
䡲 The Detroit Medical Center has paid $2.7 million to
the Wayne State University
School of Medicine for past
physician payments, a partial payment in its ongoing
dispute over physician payments to the school’s University Physician Group.
䡲 The Detroit Economic
Growth Corp. and the Old
Tiger Stadium Conservancy
have agreed on a deal to
keep part of the stadium
standing until at least
March, if the conservancy
can put $300,000 into an escrow account by Friday, the
AP reported.
䡲 The Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute has
received a $250,000 grant
from the J.P. McCarthy Fund
of the Community Foundation
for Southeast Michigan to
benefit the hospital’s umbilical cord stem-cell bank.
OBITUARIES
䡲 Richard Bochenek, who
owned and operated
Hogan’s restaurant in
Bloomfield Hills, died July
27. He was 78.
䡲 Richard Kozlow, noted
local artist, died July 29. He
was 82.
DBpageAD.qxd
7/28/2008
3:17 PM
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