JUNE 2 – 8, 2014 ©Entire contents copyright 2014 by Crain

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This issue in two sections (Section 1) Vol. 30, No. 22 J U N E 2 – 8 , 2 0 1 4 $2 a copy; $59 a year

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Survey finds biz optimisticabout state’s economy

Recall turns up heat forDetroit meatpacker

Page 3

Proud sponsor of the 2014 Mackinac Policy Conference

www.itctransco.com

BY DUSTIN WALSH

CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS

Google Inc. is positioning itself tobecome a player in the automotiveindustry with advanced autonomoustechnologies. But with all the exper-tise in Silicon Valley, it can’t be ac-complished without the Motor City.

Experts and officials say it’s nosurprise Google shipped the projectfrom the West Coast to SoutheastMichigan — this region has exper-tise.

“(It) makes a lot of sense given thestate’s clear leadership in vehiclemanufacturing and engineering,”

said Richard Wallace, director oftransportation systems analysis atthe Ann Arbor-based Center for Auto-motive Research. “It also should helpmotivate Michigan companies tocontinue innovating and developinggreat new vehicle technology.”

Last week, the Mountain View,Calif.-based tech giant announcedit would launch a fleet of 100 self-driving vehicle prototypes, sanssteering wheel and gas and brakepedals, by the end of the summer.

Livonia-based Roush EnterprisesInc. will assemble the prototypeswith parts from several SoutheastMichigan suppliers, anonymous

sources confirmed to Crain’s. It re-mains unclear whether the proto-types will be retrofitted at Roush’slocations in Allen Park or Livonia.

Google and Roush declined tocomment on the topic.

Troy-based Delphi Automotive plc,which supplies connectivity tech-nology, confirmed it is involved inthe process, but would not com-ment on details.

Other autonomous vehicle tech-nology suppliers, such as AuburnHills-based Continental AutomotiveSystems LLC and Van Buren Town-

See Google, Page 18

GOOGLE

Livonia-based Roush Enterprises willassemble 100 prototypes of Google’sself-driving vehicle.

Halfway intoProject Lean,teams look for‘quick wins’

BY CHAD HALCOM


It wasn’t the first time Mike Dug-gan asked lean process manage-ment experts for help, and, local ex-ecutives and officials say, it won’tbe the last.

The mayor’sinitiative to seekfree expert helpto improve 18Detroit servicesthrough lean re-engineering is atthe halfwaymark of aneight-weekspeed makeover.

Duggan hasno qualms aboutasking things ofthe businesscommunity. Atlast week’s Detroit Regional ChamberMackinac Policy Conference, hemade an emphatic plea for busi-nesses to take on 5,000 teen internsas part of a summer 2015 projectcalled TeenWork.

The Project Lean effort, mean-while, is in its fourth week. Theprogram puts volunteer execu-tives and consultants to work byteaming them up with more than

How Michiganlost grip

on Method

See Project Lean, Page 16

BY AMY HAIMERL AND KIRK PINHO


Method Home Products could have made Detroit— or one of several other Michigan cities —home for a large soap manufacturing plant. It

could have built a 200,000-square-foot factory. It couldhave invested $35 million. It could have created 100green-manufacturing jobs.

Instead, the spoils went to Chicago.A year and a half ago, Detroit didn’t step up to help

the San Francisco-based company through thelabyrinth of tax credits, abatements, zoning laws, realestate rules, legal wrangling and everything else ittakes to turn an abandoned brownfield site into a suc-cessful business, said Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan,the Detroit-area natives who founded Method.

Mike Finney, president and CEO of the MichiganEconomic Development Corp., said his organization

also dropped the ball by not providing site informa-tion or tax incentive information quickly enough — al-

though the MEDC has since improved its business at-traction efforts.

See Method, Page 15

Disconnect, slow response killedplant; officials vow to do better

HIRE A TEEN

Duggan asks bizto offerinternships, Page 16

Detroit’s immigrants: Driven to succeedDetroit’s immigrants: Driven to succeed

AMERICANDREAMERSAMERICANDREAMERS

For the Hammoudfamily (above), a gasstation fueled thesuccess of six children.Read about their storiesand those of otherswho came here asimmigrants and nowprosper as part of thebusiness community.

Starts on Page M9

A special report looksat the obstacles andopportunities forimmigrants who cometo Michigan withdreams as big as acertain tire along I-94.

Starts on Page M1

Method HomeProducts plans tostart making soapin Chicago. But itsfounders said theywanted to make itin Detroit.

Experts: Google needs Detroit to fuel self-driving car biz

20140602-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 5/30/2014 3:23 PM Page 1

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June 2, 2014CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESSPage 2

Supreme Court: State can’t stopopening of tribe’s casino in U.P.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4last week that Michigan can’t blockthe opening of the Bay Mills IndianCommunity’s off-reservation casinoin the Upper Peninsula because thestate’s legal challenge is barred bytribal sovereign immunity, The As-sociated Press reported.

Michigan argued that the BayMills tribe opened the casino in2010 without permission from theU.S. government and in violationof a state compact. Writing for themajority, Justice Elena Kagan saidthe federal Indian Gaming Regula-tory Act only allows a state tobring lawsuits challenging casinosoperating on Indian lands. TheBay Mills casino was opened out-side the tribe’s reservation, Kagansaid, placing it outside the law’scoverage.

The casino has been closed since2011, when a federal judge issued aninjunction. The 6th U.S. Circuit Courtof Appeals threw the injunction out.

Report: Water-based industriesaccount for 1 in 5 Mich. jobs

Michigan is fourth in the nationin the share of its workforce asso-ciated with industries that developfreshwater technology and ser-vices or are highly dependent onplentiful and clean water, accord-

ing to a report released last week. “You just have to look at what’s

happening around the countrywith all the droughts to under-stand how important it will be inthe 21st century to know how toconserve and protect water,” saidJeff Mason, executive director ofthe University Research Corridor, theconsortium of the University ofMichigan, Michigan State Universityand Wayne State University thatsponsored the analysis. The reportwas produced by East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group andreleased during the Detroit RegionalChamber’s Mackinac Policy Con-ference.

The report found that 718,704jobs in the state — 21.3 percent oftotal employment — are with in-dustries that benefit directly frominnovation and research that

boost water quantity and quality.

MICH-CELLANEOUS� Ada-based Amway Corp. said the

second arrest of its CEO of India op-erations in the past 13 months is“unjustified and unnecessary.”William Pinckney was taken intocustody last week in connectionwith a consumer complaint alleg-ing unethical circulation of moneythrough the India affiliate, The Eco-nomic Times reported. Also lastweek, Amway extended its re-search relationship with Yale Uni-versity to improve Amway productsthat lighten age spots and resolveother skin tone problems.

� Kalamazoo-based Stryker Corp.said that contrary to a report lastweek in the Financial Times, themedical device manufacturer

doesn’t plan to make a takeover of-fer for the London-based orthope-dics company Smith & Nephew Plc.

� Wolverine Worldwide Inc. filedan infringement suit against themaker of Vans over the blue rectan-gle heel tag trademarks used on itssport shoes, MLive.com reported.The Rockford-based footwear mak-er claims the Vans tag looks toomuch like Wolverine’s Kedsbrand.

� Work is scheduled to begin ona $71 million project aimed atspeeding up traffic through north-western Indiana’s congested rail-road corridors, which are part ofthe Chicago-to-Detroit Amtrakroute, The Associated Press re-ported. Officials have estimatedthe project, along with improve-ments in Illinois and Michigan,will cut 30 minutes off a Chicago-

Detroit trip.� Michigan State University re-

ceived a record 33,172 undergradu-ate applications, up 5 percent fromlast year. Out-of-state applicationsincreased 12 percent, the LansingState Journal reported.

� Sparrow Health System in Lans-ing has more than doubled the sizeof its surgical center in a $15 mil-lion expansion at Sparrow Hospital,the Lansing State Journal report-ed. The new center has 10 new op-erating rooms at the hospital’smain campus

� Chicago-based fairlife, a milkproducer, plans to spend $96.3 mil-lion to expand its plant in Coop-ersville west of Grand Rapids andcreate 100 jobs. Zeeland-basedLakeshore Advantage, a West Michi-gan economic development organi-zation, said the Michigan StrategicFund approved a $9.34 million per-formance-based incentive packagefor the project, to be realized over12 years.

� This just in from the “BeCareful of What You Wish For De-partment”: Saugatuck was votedthe No. 1 summer weekend escapedestination in the USA Todayreaders’ choice poll.

MICHIGAN BRIEFS

This week’s nominee for World’s Toughest Job:The person in charge of marketing a technology forextracting drinkable water from manure. An-nouncement of the McLanahan Nutrient SeparationSystem came last week from Michigan State Universi-ty. The system produces water that is said to beclean enough for cattle to drink. (So if you know aHolstein with high standards, cheers!)

“If you have 1,000 cows on your operation, theyproduce about 10 million gallons of manure a year,”Steve Safferman, an associate professor of biosys-

tems and agricultural engineering who is working onthe project, said in a statement reported by The Asso-ciated Press. “Here in Michigan, we have a tendencyto take water for granted. But out west, for example,where drought remains an issue, the accessibility ofclean water could make the difference between afarm remaining viable or going out of business.”

The system now extracts about 50 gallons of waterfrom each 100 gallons of manure. Developers areaiming at raising that to 65 gallons. About 90 per-cent of manure is water. We’ll take their word for it.

Care for a nice, tall glass of … ‘cow pie’? Gulp

Find business news fromaround the state at crainsdetroit.com/crainsmichiganbusiness.

Sign up for the Crain’s Michi-gan Morning e-newsletter atcrainsdetroit.com/emailsignup.


Most see worstover, recoverycontinuing

BY CHRIS GAUTZ

CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT

Businesspeople in SoutheastMichigan continue to remain opti-mistic about the state’s economy,believing it has already hit bottom,is now in recovery and will contin-ue as such for the rest of the year.

A survey commissioned byCrain’s Detroit Business and Honig-man Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP andconducted by Lansing-based Epic-MRA found that 70 percent were satis-fied with the condition of Michigan’seconomy. There were 29 percent sig-naling they were dissatisfied.

The random survey of 300 busi-ness owners, operators, officers ormanagers in Southeast Michiganwas conducted April 22-28 to gaugereaction on the economy and otherissues. The survey has an error mar-gin of plus or minus 5.7 percentagepoints.

Over the next six months, 76 per-cent said the outlook for their busi-

nesses is good,with 24 percentindicating “verygood.” Just 12 per-cent said theirbusiness outlookwas bad.

Rudy Vuckov,owner of EsotericEnterprises LLC, aRoyal-Oak-based

software development company,was one of those who said his busi-ness’ outlook was very good.

“Things have improved steadilysince 2008,” Vuckov said. “I’m get-ting more phone calls for job offers.”

Much of the interest in his com-pany’s services has come from thebanking, insurance and automo-tive industries, he said, as well asstate government.

He said he is receiving calls fromlarger companies who are nowlooking to expand and want hishelp, and this tells him that thingsare turning around and is why hisbusiness outlook is so positive.

“Businesses don’t want to investunless things are going great,” hesaid. “Unless they are making mon-ey, they aren’t spending money.”

The vast majority — 81 percent —of those polled felt the state’s econo-

my has already bottomed out and isstarting to improve. That was thesame percentage when the samequestion was asked in November.

John Cavanagh, co-founder ofEPIC-MRA, said he was not sur-prised by the figure staying thesame as there has not been any ma-jor economic news or changes inconditions that would shake confi-dence in the past six months.

Just 6 percent said the stateeconomy has not bottomed out andwill get worse.

The most common reason given

June 2, 2014 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS Page 3

These companies have significant mention in thisweek’s Crain’s Detroit Business:A & M Hospitality Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M27Ansara Restaurant Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M13Antonio’s Cucina Italiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M29Arab American and Chaldean Council . . . . . . . . . M17Arab American News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M28Arab Comm. Center for Economic & Social Services . M21Augment Ventures Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M31Basha Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M15Biomed Health Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M29Bright Loritos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M3Choon’s Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M28Cummings, McClorey, Davis & Acho . . . . . . . . . . M11DealerDirect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M15DeNovo Sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M22Destination Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Detroit Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Detroit Seafood Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M13Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . 4DTE Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M36Eastern Michigan University . . . . . . . M33, M34, M35Flash Jewelers/Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M13Ford Motor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M6Garden Food Distributor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M16Gateway Community Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M26Global CNC Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M31Global Logistics Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M26Hacienda Mexican Foods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M19Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Fund . . . . . . M29Henry Ford College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M40, M41Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn . . . . . . . . 3, M8iRule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M23La Marsa Mediterranean Cuisine . . . . . . . . . . . . M18Law Offices of Joumana Kayrouz . . . . . . . . . . . . . M24Lawrence Technological University . . . . . . M33, M34Liberty Capital Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M17Living Essentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M16Lopez Tires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M4Michigan Bottling & Custom Pack . . . . . . . . . . . M16Michigan Economic Development . . . . . . . . . . . . M24Midfield Concession Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . M21Mr. Song Millinery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M30Motif Diamond Designs/Jewelers . . . . . . . . . . . . M13NeuMoDx Molecular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M22NextEnergy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M36Oakland Community College . . . . . . . . . . . M35, M40Original Equipment Suppliers Association . . . . . . M17PharMor Pharmacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M29PrimeOne Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5ProNAi Therapeutics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M30Rockbridge Growth Equity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Roman Village . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M29Roush Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Schoolcraft College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M35, M55SHW Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M35Tata Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M4TelNet Worldwide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M24University of Detroit Mercy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M34University of Michigan . . . . . . . M33, M35, M36, M56U.S. Ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M3Walbridge Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M56Walsh College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M34, M35Washtenaw Community College . . . . . . . . . M38, M39Wayne State University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M33, M34Welcoming Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M3Wolverine Packing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3World Heritage Foundation-Prechter Family Fund . . M29Zell & Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies . . M53

Company index

Department index

Summer vacation? Not for

campus construction, Page M33

Focus: Business Education

BANKRUPTCIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

BUSINESS DIARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

CALENDAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

CAPITOL BRIEFINGS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

CLASSIFIED ADS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

KEITH CRAIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

MARY KRAMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . M51

OPINION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

OTHER VOICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

PEOPLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

RUMBLINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

WEEK ON THE WEB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

SUPPORT FORSNYDERCrain’s surveyfinds business-people backgovernor’simmigrationplan, Page M8

BIZ OUTLOOK: STATE ON THE UP ... AND UP ...

Satisfaction with thecondition of Michigan’seconomy

Outlook for your businessover the next six months

Has Michigan’s economybottomed out andstarted to improve?

Source: Epic-MRA survey commissioned by Crain’s Detroit Business, Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP

Survey: Biz upbeat about stateThe most importantreason for a favorablebusiness outlook:Improved sales:41 percentImproving economy: 20 percent

The most importantreason for a poor businessoutlook:Poor economy and lack of customers: both 23 percent.

A beef overtainted meatRecall for E. coli putsWolverine Packing’sprocesses on the grill

BY BILL SHEA


The business fallout from Detroit-basedWolverine Packing Co.’s May 19 recall of 1.8 mil-lion pounds of ground beef that may be contam-inated with potentially deadly E. coli bacteriawon’t be known for some time.

Investigations, both internal and by govern-ment officials, are underway. So is at least onelawsuit.

Wolverine, which had $1 billion in revenuelast year, declined to discuss any businesspractices that may change, or how it may be af-fected financially, until it completes its own in-ternal investigation.

“Since the voluntary recall was launched,the company still is conducting an internal in-vestigation into the recall and assisting the U.S.Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and In-spection Service as it continues to look into thematter,” said Chuck Sanger, Wolverine’s out-

side spokesman via Hartland, Wis.-based food industry public rela-tions firm Charleston Orwig Inc.

“Once all investigations arecomplete, the senior manage-ment team can then analyzewhat was learned and what remedi-al steps might be taken. Therefore, rightnow the company is not in a position tomake any final judgments regardingthe recall’s effect on Wolverine’s poli-cy, business or any changes thatmight be made moving forward.”

The recall is the second in Wolver-ine’s 77-year history, Sanger said. Hedidn’t have details about the first, in2003.

The wholesale slaughterhouse,meat packer and distributorbased in Detroit’s Eastern Mar-ket issued a voluntary recall of1.8 million pounds of Angussteak burgers and ground beefpatties after the federal governmentsaid 11 people in four states weresickened between April 22 and May2. The meat was packed betweenMarch 31 and April 18.

The recall came after the USDA’sFood Safety and Inspection Service,

See Meat, Page 17

70%satisfied 76% good

81% sayyes

11%sayno

12%notgood

29% notsatisfied

See Survey, Page 14

ISTOCK PHOTO

THIS WEEK @WWW.CRAINSDETROIT.COM

The morel of the storySo, what’s the big deal about a mushroom? Crain’s residentmorel authority, Tom Henderson, answers that question in hisblog at crainsdetroit.com/blogs.

KATHLEEN HENDERSDON


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A FAIR RATE?

Crain names CFOThomas Stevens has been

named CFO of Crain Communica-tions Inc.

Stevens, 38, joins Crain from Pro-Quest LLC, Ann Arbor, where he

was vice presi-dent of finance.

Stevens alsohas held execu-tive-level posi-tions with Bor-ders and PulteHomes, was anequity analystfor Manning &Napier Advisors,worked in M&A

with Deloitte and began his careeras a CPA with Ernst & Young in De-troit.

Stevens has a bachelor’s degreein accounting from Michigan StateUniversity and an MBA from theUCLA Anderson School of Manage-ment.

Stevens lives in Northville withhis wife and two children.

Stevens

Jamian leavesPort Authority,contract up

BY BILL SHEA


The Detroit/Wayne County Port Au-thority will be seeking a new execu-tive director because John Jami-an’s three-year contract endedFriday, and he’s not returning.

It wasn’t clear whether Jamianchose not to return or whether theauthority’s five-member board

wanted someoneelse.

A message re-questing com-ment was leftwith the port’sbusiness staff.

Jamian, 59,was hired inJune 2011 for asecond stint asthe authority’s

executive director. He also had thejob from 1997 to 2001.

“I accomplished everything Ineeded to accomplish in threeyears,” Jamian said.

When asked whose decision itwas for him to leave, Jamianwould say only that his deal wasfor three years and that he has oth-er work he wants to do.

Jamian said he intends to workwith the nonprofit Detroit WayneCounty Port Foundation that aids theport authority in maritime educa-tion, preservation, environmentalstewardship and other functions.

“I’m going to work to make thatfinancially strong,” he said.

He didn’t specify whether thatwould be paid or volunteer.

During Jamian’s tenure, the au-thority completed construction ofa $15 million, 21,000-square-footship terminal and $7.1 million off-shore wharf to serve cruise shipsand other deep-draft vessels in theDetroit River bringing tourists(and their money) to the city.

Bill Shea: (313) 446-1626,[email protected]. Twitter:@bill_shea19

Jamian

Regional event dates, locations and contacts, all in one place.crainsdetroit.com/executivecalendar

EXECUTIVE CALENDAREXECUTIVE CALENDAREXECUTIVE CALENDAR


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Bhargava closing insurance biz;agents, clients surprised, upset

BY JAY GREENE


Manoj Bhargava is the first oneto admit he wasn’t cut out to be inthe insurance industry.

“I am not known for my pa-tience,” said the CEO of 5-Hour En-

ergy about hisdecision tophase out hisFarmingtonHills-basedPrimeOne Insur-ance Co.

While the 4-year-old proper-ty and casualtyinsurance com-pany is honoring

current policies, PrimeOne sent let-ters to agents starting May 2 that itwill not write new policies.

“We have stuff all the time thatwe start up and we end,” said Bhar-gava, chairman of PrimeOne andfounder and CEO of Living EssentialsLLC, which makes and distributes 5-Hour Energy. “This project isn’t onethat is working, so we are shutting itdown. It is a business decision.”

But Bhargava’s decision isn’tsitting well with insurance agents,many of whom took a chance withthe insurer because of Bhargava’sbusiness reputation.

“I am very disappointed. We gavethem a significant amount of trustand worked with them to sell a lot ofpolicies, and to pull the plug withoutany explanation is pretty disheart-ening,” said George Gjokaj, ownerand CEO of Primary Insurance AgencyGroup LLC in Sterling Heights.

Gjokaj, who has sold about 100PrimeOne policies, said he doesn’tknow what to tell his clients.

“I am probably going to bring inmy clients to discuss it with them.I have been in the business for 20years and have never seen any-thing like this before,” said Gjokaj,noting that he and other agents re-ceived little advance notice thatPrimeOne was going out of busi-ness.

PrimeOne lost $2.27 million lastyear on net premiums written of$5.7 million, according to a financialreport filed with the Michigan Depart-ment of Insurance and Financial Ser-vices. During the first three monthsof 2014, the insurer lost another$1.14 million on net written premi-ums of $1.3 million, DIFS said.

Bhargava said PrimeOne — aninsurer that focused on bars, tav-erns, strip clubs and restaurants— required more capital invest-ments to meet operating costs thanhe wanted to spend.

During the fourth quarter of2013, Bhargava’s companies con-tributed $4 million in capital tohelp offset operating losses, saidA.M. Best Co., an Oldwick, N.J.-based credit rating agency.

“We didn’t want to invest (inPrimeOne any more),” Bhargavasaid. “We decided we have toomany other projects (that promisebetter returns on investment). If Iwere to invest $5 million or $10 mil-lion for the long haul, it makes nosense. This is a small company that

would keep looking for money.”In March, Bhargava announced a

$100 million investment in OaklandEnergy and Water Ventures LLC, a pri-vate equity company. He launchedStage 2 Innovations LLC, another pri-vate equity firm, in 2011.

Caleb Buhs, DIFS’ public infor-mation officer, said the depart-ment has been notified PrimeOneis winding down operations.

“We are regulating them as wealways have and asked them for aplan of action to understand howthey are (conducting the businessrun-off) and to make sure all theirobligations are fulfilled,” he said.

In a May 22 statement, A.M. Bestsaid PrimeOne faces challenges asit phases out its business.

PrimeOne management must becareful “concerning the currentbook of business and whether theloss reserves associated with exist-ing claims, and incurred but notreported claims, develop favorablyor unfavorably,” A.M. Best said.

Bhargava declined to discuss po-tential employee layoffs or theprocess he is going through to closePrimeOne. He confirmed that DanGibson, the company’s CEO since2012, left several weeks ago.

Doug Young, an insurance attor-ney with Detroit-based Wilson

Young PLC, said PrimeOne aggres-sively tried to increase marketshare by paying agents up to a 20percent commission to sell its poli-cies. Average commissions rangebetween 12 to 15 percent, he said.

“This company was short-livedand aggressive,” said Young, whoalso represents the Michigan Associ-ation of Insurance Agents.

“It appeared to … underprice in-surance coverage as a way to growpremium volume and gain marketshare. It also was gaining a reputa-tion for aggressively denyingclaims,” said Young, who repre-sents a PrimeOne policyholder in alawsuit that alleges the companyhas failed to pay a business inter-ruption claim for more than a year.

Gjokaj said PrimeOne offeredthe lowest premiums of any prop-erty casualty insurer in the hospi-tality industry.

“I have a client with a PrimeOnepolicy I am trying to renew withanother insurer,” he said. “Heowns a restaurant in Detroit andpaid a premium of $4,700. The clos-est price I have found so far is$7,770. This will be a real problemfor many of my clients.”

Jay Greene: (313) 446-0325,[email protected]. Twitter: @jay-bgreene

Bhargava



Editor:I agree with Keith Crain’s May

26 column regarding road taxes(“Gas taxes are the fairest tax forroads”).

His statement that we need lotsof money and that the existingfunding system isn’t working,however, is disconcerting. Thisraises the following questions:

� How much is lots of money?Do we give Lansing a blank check?

� What is the basis for deter-mining the amount?

� Where is the study that estab-lishes best practices for road con-struction, road maintenance androad repairs; sets benchmarks forthe costs the state is incurring forlabor costs, road costs and roaddurability; identifies waste in thecurrent system and sets a gameplan for getting rid of it; and estab-lishes a detailed basis for the addi-tional taxes requested?

In 2002, when Michigan’s roadswere not a serious issue, the statespent $2.1 billion on transporta-tion. In 2013, the state spent $2.9billion on transportation. That’san increase of 38.1 percent, or 3percent per year (compounded).During that same period, the Mid-west CPI (as determined by the Bu-reau of Labor Statistics) increasedby 29.5 percent, or 2.4 percent peryear. (Michigan’s Gross DomesticProduct has been growing at an av-erage annual rate of about 2 per-cent per year.)

My best estimate of the totalamount of additional road taxes thatthe governor would like is $1.4 bil-lion — which adds 48 percent to thestate’s cost for “transportation.”That’s a boatload of money for atransportation system that alreadyincreases its cost at a rate that is 25percent higher than the inflationrate (3 percent versus 2.4 percent).

The roads are indeed in terribleshape. However, the state has notdocumented that it has been a goodsteward of our transportation taxdollars, and it has not documentedthat its claimed needs are basedupon monitored best practices.Now, to alleviate our ever-increas-ing pain and suffering, the statewould like taxpayers to increaseroad funding by a whopping 48 per-cent. And this does not considerthe large increases in road taxesbeing aggressively pursued by the

Immigrants’ dreamscan help Detroit

rom Lebanon to an Eastpointe gas station to the careersand businesses of their six children, Mustapha and Soub-hye Hammoud embody the modern American dream.

As we report on Page M9 in this week’s American Dream-ers section, they worked hard to put their kids through school.

Education propelled their children — who also worked inthe family business — into careers ranging from engineeringto banking to medicine and the law. As Abed Hammoud, nowan assistant U.S. attorney, told Crain’s: “Our dad thought amaster’s degree was the minimum requirement; he set the barhigh. He devised the gas station as a way to pay for our collegeand keep us together.”

Gov. Rick Snyder hopes to boost Michigan’s economy by fo-cusing on two types of immigration: EB-2 work visas for peo-ple with advanced degrees and EB-5 for people who have themeans to invest in an existing business or create a new one. Hehopes to focus the latter on projects in Detroit.

If Snyder wants a poster-child family for his quest, he canuse the Hammouds. Better yet, he can use any number of suc-cessful immigrants we profile in our special report this week.

If the federal government and Michigan’s congressionaldelegation want “low cost” ways to support Detroit’s revival,creating a pool of EB-5 visas for Detroit is an easy way to do it.

Aid to city: End water tortureThis week, the state Senate may act on a critical piece of

Detroit’s future: a $195 million contribution toward the “grandbargain” that would help support pension obligations, pro-pelling the Detroit Institute of Arts and its artworks into own-ership by a private nonprofit.

If the legislation passes, it could inspire a favorable vote byretirees, who have until July 11 to approve concessions pro-posed as part of the bankruptcy.

Enter Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, whowants to tie specific demands about the future of the city’s wa-ter system into the legislation.

Patterson insists Orr’s plan for a regional water authoritywill generate cash for the city’s general fund and, unfairly, topay for pension obligations unrelated to the water department.

Gov. Rick Snyder and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge StevenRhodes have issued point-by-point rebuttals and white papers.But Patterson says he’s “skeptical.”

Facts are facts, and Rhodes is an independent reviewerwhose judgment should count for something.

Reasonable people may disagree, but if Rhodes’ final deci-sion on this issue is in favor of Orr, then Patterson should ac-quiesce and support the region’s best chance for financialgrowth in decades.

Don’t trust state on road funds

I am very excited about theplans for recovery of Detroithomes that will be available tobuyers who are moving in and fix-ing them up to live in them. MayorMike Duggan has the right idea,and more power to him.

I am also excited about the plansfor attacking the problem of blightin the city and its removal. It’s agood thing that we’ve got DanGilbert fighting this fight.

But it’s time for the citizens ofour community to extend the re-moval of blight even further.

I think we’ve got a couple of ex-

amples of industrialblight that we have to fig-ure out how to handleand what all our optionsmight be: the formerPackard plant and theMichigan Central Depot.

Certainly, the newowner of the oldPackard plant deservessome time to come upwith a plan and themoney to get rid of thishorrid example of industrial blightin our city.

The plant has become one of the

poster children of De-troit that everyone whovisits our city with theidea of doing the latestgreat story ends up us-ing as the photo exam-ple. It almost alwaysseems to run on thefront page of some far-off newspaper or a tele-vision news segmentexemplifying decay inDetroit.

The plant has been vacant forhalf a century and shows it. If thereis some value to the plant, it would

seem to have eluded everyone ex-cept the new owner, who must havesome ideas for this rubble.

I only hope that he has a statuteof limitations on his plans and thatwe, Detroit, don’t have to be embar-rassed by it for another 50 years.

That brings me to the granddad-dy of all industrial blight, our infa-mous abandoned railroad station.

That has been empty for morethan 25 years and must be the top-ranked example of city blight —not only in the city but the nation.

I am very sorry that the ownerdoesn’t seem to be affected by all

the negative publicity it has gener-ated for him and the city.

Whatever his master plan is forthe station, it’s been a secret allthese years.

We have to figure out how to en-courage both of them to do some-thing about their very ugly eye-sores that are the worst thingsabout blight and Detroit. And inspite of the great examples of whatour mayor and Gilbert are doing,these are two examples that areoutside their purview.

Let us hope there is somethingwe all can do. It’s embarrassing.

Detroit needs to have more blight removal

F

LETTERSOPINION

KEITH CRAIN:

federal and local governments.The bottom line is that the state

has not done the due diligence nec-essary to earn our vote for addi-tional road taxes.

John BoylePrincipal

J.L. Boyle International

Where did money go?Editor:

Roads may be the means to finan-cial health for the state of Michigan,but road beautification is not.

What deteriorates the roads isweight, yet many years ago vehicletaxes changed from weight to price.In fact, today’s vehicle tax is notbased on what the vehicle is worth,or weight, but what one may havepaid for the vehicle long ago. Pricehas nothing to do with the deterio-ration of the roads. Yet taxes andfees have gone up, up, up.

Where has all this money gone?

Vehicles are lighter and thus dete-riorate the roads less. Yet there istalk once again about raising taxesto fix the roads.

Does beautification of the road-way take precedence over fixingthe roads? If one travels along I-696between I-75 and I-94, it is clearthat millions of dollars were spenton beautification of the roadway.In fact, the new, better lighting onI-696 appears to not just have beenreplaced but moved several feet.Were the moves necessary?

Was not an experiment done onI-375 using a European style of con-struction versus what we use?How is that holding up? Using bet-ter methods of construction of ourroads in the long run may save usmoney — in repair of our roadsand our vehicles. It may take us100 years to reconstruct all theroads, but there will be plenty ofroad construction during those 100years, including some repairs.

It was not too long ago that wewere told that a billion dollars wasneeded to fix the roads. Are all tax-es of fuel now going to road con-struction or somewhere else?Maybe the general budget.

This is why I am not in favor ofany new taxes or fees on fuel or ve-hicles. Can our accountant gover-nor find out where all the roadmoney went?

Kenneth RapskeHarrison Township

Crain’s Detroit Businesswelcomes letters to the editor.All letters will be considered forpublication, provided they aresigned and do not defameindividuals or organizations.Letters may be edited for lengthand clarity.Write: Editor, Crain’s DetroitBusiness, 1155 Gratiot Ave.,Detroit, MI 48207-2997.Email: [email protected]



that any solution would re-quire new tax revenue —anathema to Republicans,especially in an electionyear — or huge cuts in in-frastructure spending at atime when roads andbridges are falling apart.

The worse that Ameri-ca’s roads and bridges get,the less attractive drivingbecomes to motorists. And

that’s bad news for the auto indus-try, which is investing heavily toaddress big issues such as oil de-pendence, climate change and af-fordable mobility.

It is expensive and challenging,

but companies have been willing togamble on the idea that they willsell smaller, lighter vehicles run-ning on batteries or hydrogen fuelcells. They do not know which tech-nologies will win. The marketplacewill decide.

By comparison, the govern-

ment’s fiscal pothole is easy to fix.It knows how to build infrastruc-ture. It just needs to make the in-vestment.

That means spending prudentlyto build what the country needs,and collecting revenue, in somefashion, to pay for it.

It’s only a lack of courage thatstands in the way.

Automakers cannot build theirown roads, and they shouldn’thave to do so. There’s a reason thatin every developed country, the re-sponsibility has been handed off tothe government to build infra-structure for the common good.

Ask most members of Congressand they will agree: This is a jobfor government.

Too bad the government isn’t do-ing its job.

Gabe Nelson is a Washington,D.C., reporter for Automotive News,a sister publication to Crain’s De-troit Business.

WASHINGTON — Carsare getting more efficient.Congress is not.

That confluence of fac-tors has brought Washing-ton to the brink of anotherfiscal crisis, this time overhighway funding.

And it should be deeplyfrustrating to the auto in-dustry, which has investedtens of billions of dollars incleaner, more efficient vehicles,only to discover that Congress is tooparalyzed by partisan squabbles toinvest in serviceable roads for themto use.

Here’s the situation: By lateJuly, if revenue and spending re-main on their current trajectories,the U.S. Department of Trans-portation’s Highway Trust Fundwill run dangerously low on cash.That means no more federal grantsfor roads and bridges in need of re-pair.

Predictably, the argument isabout taxes and spending. Everyone of these man-made crises getsa snappy name: debt ceiling, fiscalcliff, government shutdown. Let’scall this one the fiscal pothole.

President Obama clearly sees itas the next crisis. “States mighthave to put some of their projectson hold,” he warned the nation inhis weekly video address on May18. “In fact, some already are, be-cause they’re worried Congresswon’t clear up its own gridlock.”

It comes as no surprise that thehighway fund is almost empty. Foryears, spending has outstrippedthe roughly $40 billion that the fed-eral government collects annuallyfrom an 18.4-cents-a-gallon tax ongasoline and a 24.4-cents-a-gallontax on diesel fuel.

Yes, highway projects have got-ten more expensive. But the mainreason for the gap is on the rev-enue side: Cars and trucks aremuch more efficient than theywere in 1993, the last time the fueltaxes were raised.

Light-duty vehicles used 123.9billion gallons of fuel in 2011, an 11percent drop from 2004, accordingto University of Michigan re-searcher Michael Sivak. And thatwas before the Obama administra-tion’s strict new fuel economystandards even began.

Current laws offer no solution tothe funding problem. For the nationto avoid the fiscal pothole, Congressneeds to act. But once again, Con-gress is proving itself incapable ofanything but brinkmanship.

This month the Senate Environ-ment and Public Works Committeeapproved a six-year bill that wouldmaintain spending at current lev-els, plus inflation, but without anysuggestion of where that moneywould come from.

That task was left to the SenateFinance Committee.

“Admittedly, compared to theFinance Committee, which has tolead all of us in figuring out how topay for this six-year bill, we havean easier role,” U.S. Sen. DavidVitter of Louisiana, the PublicWorks committee’s ranking Re-publican, told reporters.

(Needless to say, the FinanceCommittee hasn’t yet proposed asolution.)

But at least the Senate put somesort of plan on the table. The Househasn’t even done that, knowing

“ WHAT’S DTE ENERGY DOING FOR MICHIGAN BUSINESS?”Last year alone, DTE spent $809 million with Michigan-based suppliers, far exceeding our target

of $625 million. And as a key partner in the Pure Michigan Business Connect Initiative, we’ve

spent more than $1.6 billion with Michigan businesses in the last two years. These dollars don’t

just support business, they support jobs in our state and help people and communities thrive.

Brace yourself for the fiscal potholeOTHER VOICES:

Gabe Nelson

The worse that America’s roads andbridges get, the less attractive driving

becomes to motorists. And that’s bad newsfor the auto industry.

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BANKRUPTCIESThe following businesses filed for pro-tection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court inDetroit May 23-30. Under Chapter 11,a company files for reorganization.Chapter 7 involves total liquidation.HB Somerset LLC, 2800 W. Big BeaverRoad, Suite V-338, Troy, voluntaryChapter 7. Assets: $500; liabilities:$721,300. Universal Investments Group LLC,32420 Michigan Ave., Wayne, volun-tary Chapter 11. Assets: $201,564; lia-bilities: $129,400.

— Natalie Broda

Wage hike maneuver a chess game to its architect Depending on your po-

litical persuasion, it waseither a stroke of geniusor a disingenuous politi-cal maneuver to prevent aminimum wage increasefrom making it to the bal-lot.

But the man who fig-ured out how to do itsays it has more to dowith the principle of theLegislature being em-powered — to legislate.

Bob LaBrant, senior counsel forthe Lansing-based public policyfirm Sterling Corp., came up withthe idea to thwart the Raise Michi-

gan ballot proposal,which would have in-creased the state’s mini-mum wage for both regu-lar and tipped employeesto $10.10 an hour.

The ballot proposalsought to amend thestate’s minimum wagelaw and increase thewage.

LaBrant’s idea, whichtook the form of SenateBill 934, was to repeal

state law so even if the issue didmake it to the ballot, voters wouldbe trying to amend a law that nolonger exists. This would make the

whole ballot exercise moot.“In some ways, this is a chess

game, and you have to anticipatethe moves of your opponent,” hesaid.

The minimum wage bill, spon-sored by Senate Majority Leader

Randy Richardville, R-Monroe,was signed into law by Gov. RickSnyder less than 24 hours beforeRaise Michigan volunteers sub-mitted their signatures to put theissue on the ballot.

Now the courts will likely be the

final arbiters of whether the propos-al should be allowed on the ballot.

“I think the court is going to say,‘Guess what? You should havedone your petition drive threemonths earlier,’ ” LaBrant said.

But even if it did make the ballotand voters approved it, LaBrantsaid there is case law in Michiganhe thinks will ensure that the lawSnyder signed will trump the bal-lot measure.

And that case, Reynolds v. Mar-tin, is also one he was involved in,behind the scenes.

In 1994, then-Gov. John Englersigned into law a ban on politicalbingos. Democrats who opposedthat law put together a referendumeffort to reverse the law change.But lawmakers, not long after,passed a bill that Engler alsosigned that changed some provi-sions relating to Moose Lodges.

More importantly, the preemp-tive bill also largely contained allthe same language of the 1994 lawbanning political bingos.

So in passing the new law, it re-enacted the ban on political bingosthat the referendum was seeking tooverturn in the upcoming election.

LaBrant said as the bingo bill hadworked its way through the Legisla-ture, he saw the potential precedentit could set, because at issue waswhether the Legislature can re-en-act a law while a referendum waspending, but before the actual vote.He encouraged lawmakers to sup-port the measure — and then wait-ed until it could be tested in court.

A unanimous Michigan Court ofAppeals ultimately agreed with thetrial court that first handled thecase and said the law with the re-placement language was lawful.And that to rule otherwise wouldallow a small number of petition-ers to limit the power of lawmakerselected by citizens across the state.

LaBrant said while the peoplehave the right to try and put an is-sue on the ballot before voters, itdoesn’t mean the Legislature can’ttake up that issue at the same time.

“There’s a parallel here,” hesaid. “When you’re an old guy likeme and you’ve been through somewars before, situations repeatthemselves.”

New Mac conference chairman� Mark Davidoff, Michigan man-

aging partner at Deloitte LLP, wasannounced as the chairman of the2015 Detroit Regional Chamber Mack-inac Policy Conference at the conclu-sion of this year’s conference.

Chris Gautz: (517) 403-4403,[email protected]. Twitter:@chrisgautz

Chris Gautz

CapitolBr iefings

In some ways, this is a chessgame, and you have to anticipate

the moves of your opponent.Bob LaBrant, Sterling Corp.

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Triton plans toupgrade spacein Marquette

BY KIRK PINHO


Imagine Dan Gilbert’s 46,000-square-foot Madison Building onBroadway Street, but more thanthree times larger.

That’s what Triton Capital PartnersLtd. envisions for the 164,000-square-foot Marquette Building at WestCongress Street and WashingtonBoulevard, which it plans to turninto more modern loft-style officespace for creative and tech compa-nies similar to the Madison Build-ing once its purchase of the buildingcloses, probably by end of summer.

The building is being sold by 400Monroe Associates, which is con-trolled by the estate of the lateGreektown Casino-Hotel developerTed Gatzaros. Detroit-based Exclu-sive Realty is representing the estate.

The Class B office building,which was built in 1899, is onlyabout 15 percent to 20 percent oc-cupied, but there is demand for themodern office space that Tritonplans for the Marquette Building,said A.J. Weiner, executive vicepresident in the Detroit office ofJones Lang LaSalle, who is repre-senting Triton in the sale.

“Everyone is trying to do residen-tial right now, but what we see is areal opportunity to deliver this kindof space to the market,” Weiner said.

The renovated space would beavailable the first quarter of nextyear, Weiner said.

According to data from theSouthfield office of Newmark GrubbKnight Frank, average asking rentalrates are $19.79 per square foot inClass B buildings downtown.

The listing price is $6.5 million,or $39.63 per square foot. Steve Mor-ris, managing principal of Farming-ton Hills-based Axis Advisors LLC, be-lieves the building is worth closerto $25 or $30 per square foot becauseit doesn’t have designated parkingand needs renovation.

“Nevertheless, you have tenantswho will continue to look for spacedowntown and it has enough archi-tectural bones to it and enough old-time design that, with a meaningfulamount of improvements, it shouldbe able to lease,” Morris said. “It’sstill a good buy at about $30 per foot.”

Kirk Pinho: (313) 446-0412,[email protected]. Twitter:@kirkpinhoCDB

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Triton Capital Partners wants to turnthe Marquette Building into loft-styleoffice space once it takes ownership.


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June 2, 2014Page 10

Wayne Statespinoff getsfunding boost

BY TOM HENDERSON


The Detroit Innovate Fund, anew fund to help launch local high-tech startup companies, has invest-ed $250,000 in Detroit Materials Inc., aWayne State University spinoff thathopes to make cast-steel parts forthe military, mining and off-roadmarkets.

The company will use that mon-ey, and $150,000 awarded this monththrough a phase-one Small BusinessInnovative Research grant from theNational Science Foundation, to dosmall-scale prototyping and valida-tion testing at Michigan Tech Universi-ty. The SBIR grant came with amatching grant of $25,000 from thestate’s Emerging Technology Fund.

CEO Pedro Guillen said he hopesDetroit Materials can start generat-ing revenue next year by sellinggears, wear plates and cuttingtools, such as the teeth on large in-dustrial digging tools.

Guillen said heis in talks withtwo local compa-nies to make hiscompany’s prod-ucts if the testinggoes as hoped atMichigan Tech.He is also lookingfor headquartersspace, with Mid-town the first

choice. Nick Moroz, co-founder of Farm-

ington Hills-based CSquared Innova-tions Inc., a University of Michiganspinoff that makes nanoscale coat-ings for lithium-ion battery elec-trodes and solar cells, is chief tech-nology officer. Guillen said he willsoon hire two engineers to workon product development.

The company would like to sell todomestic auto suppliers, but itneeds to establish a track record inother markets before beginning thelong and costly process of becomingcertified as an auto supplier.

Guillen said he is preparing a re-sponse for a request for informa-tion, due June 24, from the Tank Au-tomotive Research, Development andEngineering Center in Warren aboutlightweight materials technology.

Detroit Materials is based onpatented research by Susil Putatun-da, a professor of chemical engineer-ing and materials science in WSU’sCollege of Engineering, which in-volves austempering, a heat treat-ment for steel and iron that resultsin improved mechanical properties.

Putatunda’s work was previous-ly funded by a three-year NSF grantof $303,461 that began in June 2009.

The school’s office of technologytransfer signed a license to spin offthe technology to the company inMarch following due diligence byAdrian Fortino, a vice president ofInvest Detroit, a community devel-opment organization affiliatedwith Business Leaders for Michigan.Detroit Innovate is an early-stageinvestment fund of Invest Detroit.

Tom Henderson: (313) 446-0337,[email protected]. Twitter:@tomhenderson2

Guillen


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BUSINESS DIARYFINANCE

David Pierle to senior vice president,commercial banking relationshipmanager, PNC Financial ServicesGroup Inc., Ann Arbor, from vicepresident, commercial banking rela-tionship manager. The following be-came senior vice presidents at theTroy location: Timothy Anderson,wealth management team director,from vice president, wealth manage-ment team director; Jeff Ferguson,treasury management officer, fromvice president, treasury manage-ment officer; and Scott Kowalski,corporate banking relationshipmanager, from vice president, corpo-rate banking relationship manager.

HEALTH CARETerry Baer to administrator, Regency

Healthcare Centre, Taylor, from med-ical data set coordinator, Heartlandof Waterville, Waterville, Ohio.

HOSPITALITYKanina Brinkeyto director ofgroup sales,Westin SouthfieldDetroit, South-field, from mid-market accountexecutive, Mar-riott Internation-al Inc., Detroit.

INSURANCEMike Amine to

market leader for Michigan, MetLifeInc., Southfield, from managing part-ner, New England Financial, South-field, a MetLife company.

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERSXanEdu Inc., Ann Arbor, a provider ofcustomized course materials for high-er education, and SharedBook Inc.,New York City, announced the com-pletion of a merger that includesSharedBook’s AcademicPub andnoneducational operations, such asBlog2Print. The combined entityplans to operate under the XanEdubrand. Website: www.xanedu.com.

CONTRACTSGale Group Inc., Farmington Hills,part of Cengage Learning Inc. and apublisher of research and referenceresources, contracted with the TexasState Library and Archives Commis-sion to provide Gale research databas-es to all public school libraries inTexas. Website: gale.cengage.com.Jekyll & Hyde Advertising and Market-ing, Redford Township, will workwith DenTek Oral Care Inc., Maryville,Tenn., to market its nighttime dentalguards. Websites: jekyllhydeagency.com, dentek.com.Detroit-based DTE Energy Co.’s gas stor-age and pipeline segment secured long-term gathering commitments withSouthwestern Energy Co. and Cabot Oil& Gas Corp., both in Houston, that willsignificantly expand the BluestonePipeline. Website: dteenergy.com.Altair Engineering Inc., Troy, an-nounced that Segula TechnologiesInc., Nanterre, France, an engineeringand consulting firm, adopted Altair’ssoftware to monitor and optimize theuse of commercial computer-aided en-gineering and computer-aided designsoftware licenses. Websites: altair.com, segulatechnologies.com.

EXPANSIONSLear Corp., Southfield, a supplier ofautomotive seating and electrical dis-tribution systems, opened a 300,000-square-foot facility in Kenitra, Moroc-co, for the manufacture of wireharnesses for European automakers.Website: lear.com.Art Van Furniture Inc., Warren, isopening an Art Van PureSleep store at 610 N. Lapeer Road, Lake Orion.Telephone: (855) 803-8070. Website:artvan.com.

NAME CHANGEMichigan Association of Certified PublicAccountants, Troy, changed itsacronym from MACPA to MICPA andits website from michcpa.org tomicpa.org. The old site address will con-tinue to function, as will emails sent tostaff using the @michcpa.org domain.Telephone: (248) 267-3700.

NEW PRODUCTSMeritor Inc., Troy, is adding optimizedaxle ratios to its 14X rear-drive axleportfolio. Meritor’s 14X tandem driveaxles with a 2.79 ratio will be availablefor production in June, and a 2.85 ra-tio will be ready this summer. Whenused with the Cummins Inc. and EatonCorp. SmartAdvantage Powertrain,the new axle ratios will improve fuelefficiency for line-haul applicationsthrough “downspeeding,” a processthat maintains vehicle speed at lowerengine rpms. Website: meritor.com.ProQuest LLC, Ann Arbor, announcedthe availability of its new mobile Webedition of eLibrary, which enables ac-cess from smartphones and hand-helddevices to more than 2,500 full-textmagazines, newspapers, books andtranscript titles and a collection ex-ceeding 7 million maps, pictures, Weblinks and audio/video files. Website:proquest.com.

NEW SERVICESCarbon Media Group LLC, BinghamFarms, a producer of digital contentfor outdoor enthusiasts, is offering its proprietary digital network,CarbonTV, to television viewersthrough Roku, a digital media playerthat allows viewers to stream Internetcontent to their televisions. Websites:carbonmedia.com, roku.com.

PEOPLE

AndersonPierle

Ferguson Kowalski

IN THE SPOTLIGHTPlymouth Ventures, an Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm, has

named ChrisFrick its firstCFO. He hadbeen healthsystemcontroller for St. Mary’s of Michigan–Saginaw.Before St.Mary’s, hewas a CPAand a

commercial banker. Frick, 44, earned a bachelor’sdegree in accounting fromMichigan State University and anMBA from Saginaw Valley StateUniversity.

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CALENDARWEDNESDAY

J U N E 4

ImageSoft Government Summit. 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. ImageSoft Inc. Conference onimproving document managementprocesses and efficiency in govern-ment, targeting courts, law enforce-ment, prosecutors and other paper-in-tensive government agencies. Withkeynote speaker David Behen, direc-tor, Michigan Department of Technolo-gy, Management & Budget and chiefinformation officer, state of Michigan;and featured speaker Mark Hackel,Macomb County executive. LansingCenter, Lansing. Free; open only togovernment employees. Call for pric-ing on optional 11:30 a.m.-6 p.m. golfouting and 6-9:30 p.m. dinner June 3.Contact: Beverly Lyons, (248) 948-8100,ext. 330; email: [email protected]; imagesoftinc.com/government-summit-2014.

Project Startup Entrepreneur Forum.5:30-8 p.m. TechTown Detroit. Target-ing entrepreneurs, local businesses,business students and communityleaders in a pitch competition award-ing $20,000 in cash and technology services. TechTown Detroit, Detroit. Free. Contact: Pamela Dover,(248) 233-4537; email: [email protected]; website: projectstartuplive.com/location/detroit.

THURSDAYJ U N E 5

The Meaning and Long-term Impact ofPhilanthropy. 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Info-rum. Fifty-second annual meeting.With keynote speaker Andrew Plepler,global corporate social responsibilityand consumer policy executive, Bankof America; Craig Fahle, host, “TheCraig Fahle Show,” WDET 101.9 FM;

Romy Gingras Kochan, founder andpresident, social enterprise develop-ment firm Gingras Global LLC; DonnaMurray-Brown, president and CEO,Michigan Nonprofit Association; AmyPeterson, co-founder, jewelry-makingbusiness Rebel Nell; Vivian Pickard,president, General MotorsFoundation, and director, corporaterelations, General Motors Co.; andAmanda Van Dusen, principal, Miller,Canfield, Paddock and Stone PLC. De-troit Marriott Renaissance Center, De-troit. $40 Inforum members, $55 non-members, $700 table of 10; $25students. Contact: (877) 633-3500; web-site: inforummichigan.org.

UPCOMING EVENTSThe Big M Manufacturing Conver-gence. 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m. June 9, 8:30a.m.-7:30 p.m. June 10, 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.June 11, 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. June 12. Soci-ety of Manufacturing Engineers. Fo-cus will be on the entire manufactur-ing process from design to production,including innovations that can impactthe process. Cobo Center, Detroit.Contact: Christine Longroy, (313) 425-3137; email: [email protected]; web-site: bigmevent.com.

Strictly Business. 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.June 12. JVS. Annual networking andawards luncheon. With keynotespeaker Mark Fields, COO, Ford MotorCo.; Jacques Panis, president, Shino-la/Detroit LLC, 2014 JVS BusinessLeadership award winner; and MaxSurnow, co-founder, Cooper StreetCookies, recipient of the 2014 JVS Ris-ing Entrepreneur Award. The Henry,Dearborn. $150. Contact: Judy Strong-man, (248) 233-4213; email: [email protected]; website: jvsdet.org/strictlybiz.

Detroit — Engage China Auto Industry.2:30-9 p.m. June 13. Detroit ChineseBusiness Association. Seminar andnetworking with more than 40 execu-tives of Chinese original equipmentmanufacturers and auto suppliers.With Yang Dong, vice chairman andgeneral secretary, China Associationof Automobile Manufacturers.Petruzzello’s Banquet and ConferenceCenter, Troy. $48-$150. Contact: (248)918-0391; email: [email protected]; web-site: dcba.com.

CRAIN’S HONORS20 IN THEIR 20SJoin Crain’s Detroit Business5-9 p.m. June 12 at the GardenTheater, Detroit, for 20 in their 20s,honoring 20 metro Detroiters intheir 20s whose creativity andentrepreneurial spirit arecontributing to a new energy inSoutheast Michigan.In addition to the presentation ofawards and a strolling dinner, theevening will feature “Three Takeson the City from Past and Present20s,” moderated by Craig Fahle,host of “The Craig Fahle Show” onWDET 101.9 FM; “Reshaping LocalPolitics,” presented by BryanBarnhill, chief talent officer, city ofDetroit, 20s class of 2014; “WhatHappens After the Media DeclaresYour Restaurant Will Save Detroit,”Phil Cooley, co-owner, Slows BarBQ, class of 2007; and “HowSocial Entrepreneurship HelpsDetroit,” Veronika Scott, founderand CEO, The Empowerment Plan,class of 2013.Tickets are $35 for 20s alumni,$45 for other guests, and $40each if purchased in groups of 10or more. Preregistration closes at5 p.m. June 9. If space is available,walk-in registration will be $55.For ticket information, call KaceyAnderson at (313) 446-0300,email her at [email protected],or visit crainsdetroit.com/events. Join the conversation with#cdb20s.



BY TOM HENDERSON


Detroit-based Rockbridge GrowthEquity LLC has signed a purchaseagreement to buy a majority stakein Birmingham-based DestinationMedia Co., whose Gas Station TVbroadcasts at gas pumps at 2,600stations in 42 states.

Revenue and sales price are notbeing disclosed, but private equityfirm Rockbridge’s deals typicallyare between $100 million and $200million. This one is expected toclose by the end of June, givingRockbridge 10 portfolio compa-nies.

The current management teamwill remain. Gas Station TV is Des-tination Media’s only operatingentity.

Destination Media was foundedin Oak Park in 2006. It began withfive stations in Texas and now, ac-cording to figures compiled byNielsen Co., reaches 50 million con-sumers a month with its mix ofprogramming, advertising and gasstation promotions.

Non-advertising content in-cludes ESPN, CNN, Bloomberg TVand local weather.

Destination Media’s CEO,David Leider, said the companyplans to grow its footprint dra-matically with Rockbridge’s fi-nancial support. It hopes to be inall 50 states in a year and plans asubstantial international expan-sion.

Rockbridge to buy owner of Gas Station TV“We’ve had inquiries about ex-

panding into Asia, South Americaand Europe, and the partnershipwith Rockbridge gives us the op-portunity,” said Leider.

Rockbridge Partner KevinProkop said: “This is what we do:Invest in fast-growing companieswith strong management teamsand help them continue to build

out their platform. “We’re big fans of this team.

They’ve built this business upfrom nothing.”

Rockbridge was founded in 2007by Prokop, Dan Gilbert and BrianHermelin.

Tom Henderson: (313) 446-0337,[email protected]. Twitter:@tomhenderson2

LaBrant

Rich with history, heritage and cultural influences, Detroit’s doors are open

to all. That’s why faith-based groups including the 2014 International

Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses chose Detroit and Ford Field for

conferences in both June and July. That means 90,000 total attendees

with a direct spending of almost $57 million in The D. So as they experience

our city’s great restaurants, diverse attractions and affordable accommodations,

Detroit’s true spirit will shine. Be part of America’s great comeback city. For more comeback stories, visit meetdetroit.com/comeback-stories.

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Survey: The upbeat goes on for biz■ From Page 3

for those who had a positive out-look was that sales and customerswere increasing, as well an overallimproving state economy.

Those who had a negative outlookmost often cited the opposite, a pooreconomy, and a lack of customers.

Harvey Rabinowitz, president ofWest Bloomfield-based Media…Period,a media planning and buying service,was among those who was only some-what satisfied with the state economyas it related to his business.

He said the economy is notgreat, but it has been worse. Hesaid he’s not sure what it is that isholding things back.

“There is a fundamental fearthat exists that this is short-term,that the bottom could fall out atany minute,” he said.

Robert O’Neill, CFO of ShelbyTownship-based Spec TechnologiesInc., a manufacturer of fixturesand equipment for the automotiveindustry, said for his business,there has definitely been a recov-ery from the ’08-’09 recession.

He said some of Snyder’s changesin tax policy, including the movefrom the Michigan Business Tax tothe corporate income tax, havehelped.

O’Neill said he would support Sny-der’s re-election, because four yearsisn’t enough for anyone to get such abig job done. Snyder has done well inhis first term, he said, and has notgiven voters a good reason why hedoesn’t deserve another term.

“I believe Snyder has made some

people upset, but there isn’t a goodleader that hasn’t,” he said.“There’s a reason why people at thetop don’t have a lot of friends. Infive years from now, if things aregood, people won’t give a darn.”

According to the survey, the ma-jority held the same view as O’Neill,with 59 percent saying they wouldvote for Snyder, while 25 percentsaid they would vote for his oppo-nent this November, former U.S.Rep. Mark Schauer, D-Battle Creek.

The poll also showed that 70 per-cent of respondents had a favorableopinion of Snyder, compared to 14percent for Schauer. The one-termcongressman and former state Sen-ate minority leader also sufferedfrom 32 percent of respondents hav-

ing never heard his name. Every-one polled had heard of Snyder.

Cavanagh said the percentage ofthe business community in thispoll that was unfamiliar withSchauer’s name tracks closely withpolls done of the general public.

He said it is surprising thatSchauer is not yet on the air withads to increase name identification.

Jody Kuhn, owner of BinghamFarms-based Kuhn & Associates, asmall accounting firm, said shewould support Snyder’s re-election.

“I prefer a bean counter, and ourgovernor is one and he balancedthe budget,” she said.

Chris Gautz: (517) 403-4403,[email protected]. Twitter:@chrisgautz

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Look forward to 2015. Crain’s Detroit Business,

POLITICS: THE SURVEY SAYS …� Gov. Rick Snyder led a roster of officeholders and candidates with afavorable rating by 70 percent. He was followed by Republican Secretary ofState Terri Lynn Land, who is running for the U.S. Senate, at 42 percent;President Barack Obama, 41 percent; Democratic U.S. Rep. Gary Peters,also a U.S. Senate candidate, at 31 percent; and Democratic gubernatorialcandidate Mark Schauer, 14 percent.� Obama led the pack in unfavorable opinion at 52 percent, with Peters at35 percent, Snyder and Schauer at 25 percent each, and Land at 20 percent.� 32 percent of those polled did not know who Schauer was, followed byLand at 14 percent and Peters at 9 percent.� 64 percent believe Obama is doing a poor job as president, with 35percent approving of his performance.� 67 percent approve of Snyder’s performance, with 31 percent disapproving.� 59 percent said they are leaning toward voting for Snyder for governorthis fall, with 25 percent leaning toward Schauer.� 45 percent are leaning toward voting for Land as the replacement forretiring U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, with 34 percent learning toward Peters.


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Method: Detroit project slips away■ From Page 1

Among others in Michigan, thesprawling 2.5 million-square-footsite of American Axle & Manufactur-ing Holdings Inc.’s Detroit manufac-turing complex was a contenderfor Method’s plant, said Greg Hu-das, the agent/broker for South-field-based Signature AssociatesInc., a Cushman & Wakefield alliancemember. Hudas evaluated sitesthroughout the state between No-vember 2012 and February 2013.

Method also considered the for-mer Ford Motor Co. Wixom assem-bly plant and RACER Trust sites inFlint and Grand Rapids, as well asother sites in Lansing and insouthern Michigan near Toledo.

“The mindset was triple-green,LEED Platinum, and they were go-ing to have a windmill for electric-ity,” Hudas said.

Too slow off the markHudas said the American Axle

site in Detroit would have been“tremendous” for Method, whichwas founded in 2000 and in 2012 wasacquired by European rival Ecover,creating a $200 million company.

“But I never had a chance to sitface to face with the Method guys,”Hudas said. “There were no meet-ings with the American Axle peopleor the guys who own the FordWixom site.”

What could have been done dif-ferently?

For Lowry, interviewed duringthe Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mack-inac Policy Conference last week,choosing Chicago over Detroitcame down to vision.

Chicago, he said, knew what typeof businesses it wants to grow.Every developer sang from the samehymnbook, knew what types of pro-jects could be expedited. Detroit,meanwhile, was haphazard. It was,at least at that time, economic devel-opment by happenstance, not bygrand vision.

Chicago won the business with abetter pitch and a team in sync.

If the plant had come to Detroit,it would have become just thethird LEED (Leadership in Energyand Environmental Design) Plat-inum-certified building in metroDetroit, joining the 80,000-square-foot Lafayette Place developmentat the former Sears Roebuck & Co.department store location in Pon-tiac and the Kresge Foundationheadquarters in Troy with thatdistinction.

Justin Palm, president of Madi-son Heights-based Lumerica Corp., amanufacturer of LED lights whichhas worked on several LEED pro-jects, said Method’s decision wasn’ta “major blow” to the green build-ing movement or to the region. In-stead, he said, it’s more a reflectionof past missteps.

“I think it reveals what occurredin the past and, I think, lookingforward, the city and state havetaken great steps to address situa-tions like this,” he said. “From ourexperience, we are seeing the cityand state and other entities work-ing in unison quite well.”

Lowry and Ryan, whose prod-ucts are in stores ranging fromWhole Foods to CVS, said they hadvisited Chicago, Detroit and otherlocales, telling the mayor’s office,local brokers and developers theywere looking to rehabilitate an ex-

isting factory or build new on anabandoned site. They knew whatthey wanted — to bring jobs andinvestment into a struggling area.

“We wanted to go into an urbanarea and take something that hadbeen abandoned and turn it into afactory for the 21st century,”Lowry said. “Doing that takes anunusual amount of coordination.We needed a lot of help under-standing what it would take to re-mediate a brownfield site.”

But when Method’s brokers tookthem to see properties in Detroit,they didn’t fit the bill. “It was likethey were just showing us proper-ties they wanted to get rid of,”Lowry said.

Lowry wouldn’t identify exactlywhom the Method team spoke within Michigan — other than to saythe MEDC and the Detroit mayor’soffice — but the parties never coa-lesced in time to help them find theright property and push forward.

“By contrast, Mayor RahmEmanuel himself very quickly gotinvolved in the project.”

Emanuel appointed one of hisdeputies, Steve Koch, to be thepoint person. They got the permitsin 20 days. Emanuel and represen-tatives from Gov. Pat Quinn’s ad-ministration announced the150,000-square-foot plant last July.

A groundbreaking on the plantwas held in March, and construc-tion is expected to be complete ear-ly next year.

Needed: Better coordinationMethod will employ 70 people

there, and a commercial green-house on the roof will bring atleast 30 more jobs. A bottle manu-facturing facility is also scheduledfor the property, which will in-clude a refurbished 230-foot windturbine and solar panels that willgenerate approximately half of theplant’s yearly electrical needs, ac-cording to a press release.

Dan Labes, senior vice presidentin the Southfield office of NewmarkGrubb Knight Frank, said he’s neverheard anyone in his office com-plain about lack of receptivenessor response from the Detroit Eco-nomic Growth Corp. or MEDC.

Finney said the MEDC fell shorton the Method project but hassince become more responsive.

“The situation that happenedwith Method is one that we obvi-ously find less than optimal, butwe’ve taken steps, including theMichigan prospectus and the busi-ness attraction team, whichshould keep us well positioned tonot miss out on potential opportu-nities,” he said.

The prospectus lists shovel-ready sites across the state that

“could be available on relativelyshort notice,” Finney said. Thebusiness attraction team is agroup of about eight MEDC em-ployees who, when corporateprospects such as Method arise, as-sign the interested company to oneperson to see a project through.

In addition, the MEDC and 13 oth-er economic development organiza-tions across the state like the DEGCand the Wayne County Economic De-velopment Growth Engine, or EDGE,now meet monthly to discuss devel-opment issues.

“We spent a lot of our early timefocused on existing business; nowwe are focusing on business attrac-tion,” Finney said.

Finney pointed to Mahindra &Mahindra Ltd. as one recent successstory in Southeast Michigan. TheIndian automaker announced inMay an expected $2 million invest-ment in its Mahindra North AmericanTechnical Center in Troy, and plans toadd 112 engineers. Mahindra alsochose Ann Arbor for a $2 millionplant to build electric scooters.

Last week, the state announcedincentives for other manufacturingprojects. Walker-based ChallengeMfg. Co. LLC received approval of a$2.5 million performance-basedgrant toward a 400,000-square-footmanufacturing plant in Pontiac.The $50 million project is expectedto create 450 new jobs at the formerGeneral Motors Pontiac Assembly.

Also last week, the state saidGreen Box NA Michigan LLC, a sub-sidiary of De Pere, Wis.-based Envi-ronmentally Advanced ReclamationTechnology HQ LLC, will receive upto $125 million in tax-exempt bondfinancing for two facilities. Theproposed $200 million projects in-clude a commercial-waste treat-ment plant in Detroit and a pro-cessing plant in Cheboygan.

The commercial waste, mostlyfrom the restaurant industry, willbe turned into pellets in Detroit,then shipped to Cheboygan, whereit will be converted into bath, fa-cial and napkin products, as wellas biofuels and fertilizer.

The two Green Box projects areexpected to create up to 331 jobs.

Left hung out to dry?The Method project loss, though,

was shock to the representatives ofthe DEGC and city of Detroit whowere sitting in the audience of aMackinac Policy Conference panellast week.

“This wouldn’t have happened ifthey’d called us,” said Olga Stella,DEGC vice president of businessdevelopment.

Waymon Gillebeaux, executivevice president of project manage-ment for the DEGC, had neverheard of the project. Neither hadMarcell Todd, who worked in theadministration of former MayorDave Bing and is now Mayor MikeDuggan’s director of city planning.

Duggan also is laying plans toimprove the city’s chances whenthe next big manufacturer comescalling. He has a lean processesteam evaluating systems like per-mitting and licensing. (See story,Page 1.) Still, Finney said, theMethod project was a missed op-portunity.

“Based on what I’ve seen, wecould have done better.”

METHOD HOME PRODUCTS

Method Home Products founders EricRyan (left) and Adam Lowry said theytried to set up shop in Detroit butfound Chicago more responsive.



Project Lean: Halfway through effort, teams seek ‘quick wins’■ From Page 1

100 city employees across eightcity departments. The goal is toshore up specific city functions, rang-ing from business licensing to distri-butions of city income tax refunds.

A process beginsThe 18 teams will prepare re-

ports for city officials on currentoperations and possible improve-ments by mid-July. Other tasks onthe table for review are city prac-tices in hiring, certificates of occu-pancy, snow removal, purchasingand IT help-desk service time.

The eight-week lean programlargely mirrors a lean processDuggan initiated as CEO of DetroitMedical Center.

The teams have been completingproject charters establishing theirown missions and creating projectplans, and could propose a few easyfixes soon, said Mary Martin, direc-tor of lean process management forDetroit. Martin was formerly thevice president of performance im-provement and radiology at DMC.

“We anticipate in the next twoor three weeks they (the teams)can begin making some smaller-scale improvements — the quickwins we can go after, before wethen begin laying out a larger planfor the future,” she said.

“It (the outcome) is going to de-pend on the projects and what theyfind. For example, I’m working onthe business licensing (project).We’re not only going to work onways to reduce response time andshorten the process, but also lookat what we require business li-censing for and if it’s necessary.”

An example of a lean improve-ment opportunity: Evaluating

whether the city even needs to haveits own licensing process for a busi-ness already licensed by the state.

The volunteer effort was bornlargely out of requests Dugganmade at the Crain’s Newsmaker ofthe Year luncheon in February,and at a meeting of the chamberearlier this year, for business exec-utives to offer leaders willing toteach and apply lean principles togovernment agencies.

“The mayor was talking aboutthis eight-week sprint in variousagencies, and we were thinkinginitially maybe we would pick outone of the 18 projects. But we wereso intrigued by the opportunity —and it was clear to us that the en-tire process would benefit from anumbrella holistic approach,” saidMark Davidoff, Michigan manag-ing partner for Deloitte LLP.

“So we went back to our owndrawing board and ended upproposing not only having owner-ship of a project but heading a pro-ject management office.”

Deloitte is overseeing the pro-ject management office, which setsthe schedule and coordinates the18 eams, and is also lean volunteeron snow removal, one of two pro-jects under the auspices of the De-troit Department of Public Works.

A range of other accountants,consultants, efficiency experts andother specialists are volunteeringservices. (See list, left.)

Repeatable lessonsJohn Boulahanis, owner and

president of Livonia-based JamaConsulting LLC, said he took on Dug-gan’s challenge because he knewhis efficiency training could help.He is volunteering on the certificateof occupancy project team with De-troit’s Buildings, Safety, Engineeringand Environmental Department.

Jama is a business consultingand executive coaching firm thatBoulahanis founded in 2007.

“About 90 percent of what you doin lean consulting involves lookingat … the culture and getting peopleto those ‘a-ha’ moments of claritythat help them feel they have con-trol,” he said.

“But it (Detroit city services) isnot just someone else’s problem.It’s everyone’s problem, but every-one also has an opportunity to cre-ate value and have a significantimpact for the city.”

Marc Voorhees Jr., president ofWaterford Township-based MPMConsulting and a former risk ana-lyst for Ford Motor Credit Co., saidhis great-grandfather owned a con-struction business in Detroit untilthe 1970s. That was inspiration tolend his Six Sigma process im-provement training to the city.

His project, reviewing Detroit De-partment of Transportation bus depar-ture times, will dovetail with hispast research experience studyingNew York City subways as a NewYork University graduate student.

“The people in Detroit havebeen so wonderful and open tochange, and people are passionateabout what they do,” he said.

Besides transportation andbuildings and public works, the ex-ecutives are also handling projectsin Detroit’s finance and human re-sources departments, general ser-vices, purchasing, IT services and

the Public Lighting Department. Oneproject, the review of business li-censing in the city, will be handledinternally by Martin.

All city services under revieware internal except one: a parts re-placement program to equip cityvehicles other than fire ambulanceand DDOT buses that’s now undercontract with the Atlanta-basedNational Automotive Parts Associa-tion. Martin said the lean processreview will not include outsourc-ing any of the other 17 functions.

“We believe that if we can givethe employees the right tools, thenwe can do the task better than any-one else can,” she said. “We’ve hadpeople without the proper tools forso long.”

Davidoff said the city expectsthe eight-week program to be thefirst of many consecutive reviews,with other executives likely to stepup to new roles in later sessions.

“The beauty of the managementapproach is peeling apart theprocess, figuring out the key com-ponents and putting it back togeth-er, and once you commit to the cul-ture of this approach, there’salways a use for it,” he said.

Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796,[email protected]. Twitter:@chadhalcom

PROJECT LEAN TEAM� Advanced Manufacturing Group LLC, Royal Oak. Traffic signs project, toprocess requests for signs, through the Department of Public Works.� Dawn Thompson, independent consultant, formerly of Warner Norcross &Judd LLP, Clinton Township. Facilitate obtaining permits for special eventsand valet services, through Public Works.� Deloitte LLP, Detroit. To find improvements in snow removal processes,driver assignments or materials, through Public Works.� Global Productivity Solutions LLC, Clinton Township. Streamlineprocurement processes, through Purchasing Division of Finance Department.� Grant Thornton LLP, Southfield. Expedite issuing income tax refunds,through the General Services Department. � Jama Consulting LLC, Livonia. Speed up securing a certificate of occupancy,through the Buildings, Safety, Engineering and Environmental Department.� Mary Martin, city of Detroit. Reduce delays and bureaucracy in businesslicensing, encourage development and create a one-stop-shop forassistance. Also coordinating other reviews at the Fire Department andMunicipal Parking Department.� Metro-West Appraisal Co. LLC, Northville. Review methods of maintainingvacant lots, response to complaints, and coordinating with citydevelopmental agencies, through General Services.� MPM Consulting, Waterford Township. Increase the rate of on-time startsof city buses, through the Detroit Department of Transportation.� Osirius Group LLC, Troy; Patriot Systems, Troy. Review the process offollowing up on complaints about lighting and handling repairs, through thePublic Lighting Department.� Plante Moran PLLC, Southfield. Leading two project teams, one tostreamline site-plan review, through Buildings Safety; and another to reviewand prioritize pothole repair projects and follow up on citizen complaints,through Public Works.Companies on the Plante Moran team: Belfor USA Group Inc., Birmingham;Karoub Associates Inc., Lansing Township; Mercy Education Project, Detroit;Wayne County Airport Authority; DAJ Consulting, Laurel, Md.� PMC (Production Modeling Corp., Dearborn); University of Michigan-Dearborn. Select codes for enforcement and streamline processes, andexplore revenue opportunities, through Buildings Safety.� PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Detroit. Reduce the average time of hiringand onboarding from 144 days to 45 days, through the Human ResourcesDepartment.� Vedant Ghang, UM graduate school. Refine the process of evaluating andremoving diseased trees, through General Services.� Weblyn Group, Northville. Reduce response time to respond to and trackIT issues from city employees.� Western Michigan University Bronco Force executive education program,Kalamazoo. Two auto parts replacement projects, for General Services andDDOT.

Duggan’s latestrequest: Teeninternships

Detroit Mayor Mike Dugganis following Project Lean with asecond request for an eight-week time commitment fromthe business community, thistime in the form of internshipsunder the newly created Teen-Work Detroit program.

“The unemployment rate is 50percent for Detroit teens,” Dug-gan told the audience at the De-troit Regional Chamber’s Mack-inac Policy Conference lastweek. “These kids don’t havejobs, and they don’t know peopletheir age who have jobs.”

The Detroit City Council hasallocated $3 million from previ-ous block grant awards to fundthe program, and the city willpay up to half of each teen’s sum-mer employment.

The Skillman Foundation andthe W.K. Kellogg Foundation willassist with funding and haveco-organized TeenWork Detroitwith the city, along with DetroitEmployment Solutions Corp. TheDESC plans to assist in connect-ing students to jobs, along withCity Connect Detroit.

Still needed are donationsfrom businesses in the form of in-ternships that do not requirematching funds. The goal is tohire 5,000 youths for eight weeksnext summer at about $2,000 ateen, for a total of $10 million.

Detroit-based Franco Public Re-lations Group and PracticeSpace,an incubator and residency pro-gram, have already expressedinterest in participating.

— Chad Halcom,Amy Haimerl



www.crainsdetroit.comEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Keith E. CrainGROUP PUBLISHER Mary Kramer, (313) 446-0399or [email protected] PUBLISHER Marla Wise, (313) 446-6032 or [email protected] EDITOR Cindy Goodaker, (313) 446-0460 or [email protected] EDITOR Jennette Smith, (313) 446-1622 or [email protected], DIGITAL STRATEGY Nancy Hanus,(313) 446-1621 or [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR/CUSTOM AND SPECIALPROJECTS Daniel Duggan, (313) 446-0414 [email protected] EDITOR/DESIGN Bob Allen, (313) 446-0344 or [email protected] EDITOR Gary Piatek, (313) 446-0357 [email protected] EDITOR Kristin Bull, (313) 446-1608 [email protected] MICHIGAN EDITOR Matt Gryczan, (616) 916-8158 or [email protected] AND DATA EDITOR Sonya Hill, (313)446-0402 or [email protected] PRODUCER Norman Witte III, (313) 446-6059, [email protected] SUPPORT (313) 446-0419; YahNicaCrawford, (313) 446-0329NEWSROOM (313) 446-0329, FAX (313) 446-1687 TIP LINE (313) 446-6766

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Meat: Recall turns up heat on Wolverine Packing ■ From Page 3

along with the Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention, identified patientssickened by E. coli O157:H7. Thistype of E. coli can cause serious in-fection with symptoms including se-vere cramps, nausea and diarrhea.

Identified were five Michigancases, four in Ohio, and one each inMassachusetts and Missouri. Thoseaffected range in age from 19 to 46.

The meat was sold for restau-rant use, but the federal govern-ment hasn’t disclosed the restau-rants. It has identified the whole-salers and retailers that took deliv-ery from Wolverine, includingGrand Rapids-based Gordon FoodService Marketplace and the M SixtySix General Store in Orleans west ofGrand Rapids.

The meat was bought by retail-ers in Michigan, Ohio, Virginia,Tennessee, Illinois, Minnesota,Georgia, North Carolina, Florida,Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania,North Dakota and Wisconsin.

No deaths have been tied to themeat. The bacteria involved is re-ferred to as Shiga toxin-producingE. coli, or STEC. The bacteria cancause severe disease, includingbloody diarrhea and hemolytic ure-mic syndrome, a type of kidney fail-ure, according to the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention.

A woman filed a lawsuit in Kala-mazoo last week seeking $25,000from Wolverine claiming she wassickened by its meat and hospital-ized for six days. She ate at an un-named Farmington restaurant.

A co-counsel on the case is Seattlelaw firm Marler Clark LLP, which spe-cializes nationally in high-profilefood poisoning outbreaks, and saysit has won more than $500 millionfor clients over the past 20 years.

Founder Bill Marler, who saidhe has sued every major U.S. meatmanufacturer, outlined what heexpects Wolverine’s strategy to be.

“Wolverine is a grinding operationthat likely sourced trim and othermeat to use in producing hamburg-ers,” he wrote in an email. “They willlikely try and point the finger up-stream to one of the sources of themeat. However, they likely used mul-tiple sources of meat to make thehamburger in question, so it will bedifficult, if not impossible, to sort thatout. (Food Safety and Inspection Ser-vices) will not fine them or likely doanything. Civil litigation is the onlyrecourse for the consumer.”

Bad press and lawsuits triggerworry by suppliers, who may turnelsewhere.

“Trying to sell back to that indus-try that is purchasing can be an up-hill battle,” said Ben Chapman, anassistant professor and food safetyextension specialist at North Caroli-na State University. He blogs aboutfood safety at BarfBlog.com.

“The loss of that 1.8 millionpounds is one thing. It’s difficult toput a monetary value on (goodwill);it’s more than just the product.”

Companies that have closed inthe wake of a major recall couldn’tsurvive the combination of lawsuitsand loss of trust, Chapman said.

In Wolverine’s case, he expectscustomers to have questions nomatter what investigations show.

“If everything is up to what’s ex-pected, the buyers may say, ‘Whatare you to doing to address whatwent wrong?’ ” he said. “It’s not arandom act. Something happened.Either the system they have failedor the system they have wasn’tgood enough.”

The amount of meat in questionis small compared to national beeftotals. Nearly 26 billion pounds ofbeef were produced in 2012; abouthalf of that was ground beef.

If beef production has remainedon that pace, Wolverine’s recallwould represent just 0.0069 per-cent of the beef supply.

The Wolverine recall pales incomparison to the largest recalls.

The largest U.S. ground beef re-call was 25 million pounds fromRogers, Ark.-based Hudson FoodsCo. in 2007. Rival Arkansas-basedfood processing giant Tyson FoodsInc. eventually spent $632 millionto acquire Hudson, which had lostits largest client, Burger King, be-cause of the recall. Congresspassed stricter meat quality con-trols after the situation.

Elizabeth, N.J.-based Topps MeatCo. recalled nearly 22 millionpounds of ground beef in 2007 after38 people were sickened with E.coli O157:H7. The company closedwithin two months of the USDA’sinvestigation, and was liquidated.

Kroger stores in 2008 recalled anundetermined amount of E. coliO157:H7-tainted ground beef thathad sickened 21 people in Michi-gan and 20 in Ohio. That meat hadbeen sold in Kroger supermarketsand supplied to other retailers.

Omaha-based Nebraska Beef Ltd.recalled nearly 7 million pounds ofmeat in 2008 after being linked tonearly 80 confirmed E. coli illnesses.

Nebraska Beef, which slaugh-ters cattle for processing, latersued one of its cattle suppliers,Loveland, Colo.-based Meyer Natur-al Foods LLC, over the situation.The case was settled in 2011.

TRACKING RECALLSThere have been periodicoutbreaks over the last severalyears of meat thought to becontaminated, according to theU.S. Department of Agriculture.Below are Class 1 recalls (the mostdangerous of three levels ofseriousness) and how many recallswere tied specifically to E. colibacteria. Tonnage is combined forbeef, pork, poultry and mixed.

201375 total recalls, 13 million tons52 Class 1 recalls, 12.6 million tons9 E. coli recalls, 10.7 million tons

201282 total recalls, 3.4 million tons46 Class 1 recalls, 1 million tons5 E. coli recalls, 63,467 pounds

2011103 total recalls, 39.7 million tons62 Class 1 recalls, 38.5 million tons13 E. coli recalls, 1 million tons

201070 total recalls, 34.1 million tons43 Class 1 recalls, 33 million tons12 E. coli recalls, 2.3 million tons

200969 total recalls, 9.4 million tons44 Class 1 recalls, 5.4 million tons16 E. coli recalls, 1.3 million tons

200854 total recalls, 154 million tons42 Class 1 recalls, 9.8 million tons17 E. coli recalls, 7.1 million tons

The last USDA meat recall inMichigan came in 2013, when about1,000 pounds of salmonella-contami-nated ground beef was recalled bySterling Heights-based Jouni MeatsInc. and Troy-based Gab Halal Foodsafter it was sold directly to con-sumers and to an undisclosedrestaurant in Macomb County.

Wolverine says it sells 4,000products across 250 brands, and

processes 8 million burger pattiesweekly. Besides beef, it deals inchicken, pork, lamb, veal, turkey,seafood, wild game, duck, geeseand organ meats/variety meats.

It opened as a lamb and vealprocessor in 1937, and began pro-ducing beef products in the 1960s.

Bill Shea: (313) 446-1626,[email protected]. Twitter:@bill_shea19



Google: State sees move as validation of effort put into industry■ From Page 1

ship-based Visteon Corp., declinedto verify whether they are in-volved in the project.

While suppliers are eager to workwith Google, the Detroit 3 see the soft-ware firm as a competitive threat.

“Anybody can do anything withenough time and money,” MarkReuss, General Motors Co. productdevelopment chief, told reporterslast week. “If they set their mind to

it, I have no doubt” that they couldbecome “a very serious competitivethreat,” he said.

But for the state of Michigan, andmetro Detroit, Google’s decision val-idates the effort put into the indus-try, said Nigel Francis, senior vicepresident of the automotive officefor the Michigan Economic Develop-ment Corp.

“What you’ve got in California is

really smart people developing soft-ware for consumer products; inMichigan, we’re developing soft-ware for critical systems on the ve-hicle,” Francis told Crain’s prior toGoogle’s announcement last week.

“For as masterfully as Californiacan put together a smartphone,Michigan puts together a muchmore complex, more regulatedproduct called the automobile.”

Francis said the state should seemore and more work coming fromCalifornia as software integrationinto vehicles continues.

“As California and other placesget more and more interested in in-tegrating into the car, they’ll haveto come where integration hap-pens, and that’s Michigan,” Fran-cis said. “We have to keep on ourpoker face, and these companies

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will come here sooner than youthink.”

Julie Fream, president and CEOof the Troy-based Original Equip-ment Suppliers Association, saidGoogle pairing with Detroit sup-pliers provides validation for bothparties.

“The technology demands are dif-ferent … and this is a great recogni-tion that theyneed technicalexpertise to gettheir productsinto vehicles,”she said.“There’s alsosome marketinggoing on here,because if this isdone in the tradi-tional automo-tive space, there is some recognitionand credibility that goes along withthat.”

Google has been developing self-driving vehicle technology since2009, using a fleet of test vehiclesequipped with sensors, lasers,radar and computers that processmapping and drive software to al-low their vehicles to be driven au-tonomously. Google says its origi-nal test fleet has racked up some700,000 miles of autonomous dri-ving.

The Roush-assembled Google pro-totypes are small, pod-shaped carsthat appear to be the size of a SmartForTwo with two seats and twodoors. It remains unclear whereGoogle will source the vehicles.

The cars will be powered by anelectric motor and have a topspeed limited to 25 mph.

In an announcement posted tothe company’s blog last Tuesday,Google said it will begin testingthe prototypes this summer. Earlyversions will include manual vehi-cle controls and will be tested bycompany “safety drivers,” Googlesaid.

A small pilot program in Califor-nia may follow “in the next coupleof years” if steady progress is madeon the project, Chris Urmson, di-rector of Google’s self-driving carproject, wrote in the blog post.

The prototypes, which havesafety items such as additionalfoam at the bumper and a plastic-like windshield, are part of thecompany’s research laboratorycalled Google X, which is led byGoogle co-founder Sergey Brin.

“We took a look from the groundup as to what it would be like if wehad self-driving cars in the world,”Brin said.

“We’ve worked with partners inthe Detroit area, Germany andCalifornia,” he said without givingspecifics. The prototypes let usersask for a destination address andthen drive them to it, Brin said.

Over the next two decades, self-driving cars are going to gain a big-ger share of the market. Such vehi-cles will reach 11.8 million in 2035,according to Egil Juliussen, an ana-lyst at IHS Automotive. And by 2050,he expects almost all cars to be self-driving. They are estimated to fetchpremiums that will start at $7,000 to$10,000 in 2025, Juliussen said.

Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042,[email protected]. Twitter:@dustinpwalsh

Automotive News reporter RyanBeene contributed to this report.

Fream



Automobileeditor out;operations toleave Ann Arbor

ean Jennings resigned aseditor of Automobilemagazine as part of a

reorganization by publisherSource Interlink, AutomotiveNews reported. The keycomponents of Automobile’seditorial operations willmove from Ann Arbor toLos Angeles, and about 75employees in Michigan andFlorida will lose their posi-tions, the company said.Some employees will re-main in a Royal Oak office.

Mike Floyd, an editor atSource Interlink’s MotorTrend who formerlyworked for AutoWeek andthe Detroit Free Press, re-placed Jennings. BonitaSprings, Fla.-based SourceInterlink is restructuringits automotive titles as TEN:The Enthusiast Network.

City sets launch ofentrepreneurs program

� The city of Detroitplans to launch a new pro-gram for entrepreneurs.Mayor Mike Duggan said Fri-day the Detroit City Council re-cently allocated $3 millionfrom federal block grants tolaunch the program.

To lead the effort, thecity hired Jill Ford — no re-lation to the Ford family —under Tom Lewand, thegroup executive for jobsand economic growth. Fordhas spent the past decadeworking with entrepre-neurs, from funding star-tups to angel investing inSilicon Valley. Lewand saidthe new program could im-prove on what exists to sup-port entrepreneurs, andadd services to fill gaps.

More details are expect-ed in the coming month.

COMPANY NEWS� The owner of Supino

Pizzeria is starting renova-tions on a full-servicerestaurant next door to hisEastern Market shop. Hesaid he hopes the LaRondinella will be open bysummer’s end in the formerTaste of Ethiopia space.

� Dan Gilbert bought twobuildings and a 4,000-square-foot vacant lot for anew development in De-troit’s Capitol Park lastmonth. Sale prices were notdisclosed. The 42,000-square-foot building at 119 State St.was listed for $3 million, andthe 10,000-square-footChurch Building at 45 W.Grand River was listed for

$1.5 million, according toWashington, D.C.-based realestate information serviceCoStar Group Inc.

� The Detroit Lions signeda multi-year advertisingdeal with the University ofToledo, becoming the thirdDetroit sports team, afterthe Detroit Tigers and DetroitRed Wings, to establish amarketing relationshipwith the school.

� The Detroit Red Wingsranked fifth in the hockeyfan support index releasedby New York City-basedmarket research firm BrandKeys Inc., based on a surveyof 150 fans of each of the 30National Hockey League teams.

OTHER NEWS� After completing its

first block-by-block surveyof the city, the Detroit BlightElimination Task Force an-nounced it would cost an es-timated $850 million overfive years to remove all resi-dential and commercialblight in the neighborhoods.

� ArtServe Michigan, astate advocacy organiza-tion for arts and culturalgroups, called on arts sup-porters to contact senatorsto oppose a bill, passed bythe House, that would pre-vent the Detroit Institute ofArts from seeking anothermillage to support its oper-ations after the currentmillage expires.

� The Obama administra-tion named SoutheastMichigan one of 12 regionsto receive special attentionunder a new federal pro-gram designed to attractmanufacturers and createjobs, AP reported. The Ad-vance Michigan initiativewill be led by Wayne CountyEdge, Detroit-based Work-force Intelligence Network andthe Ann Arbor-based Centerfor Automotive Research.

� Detroit EmergencyManager Kevyn Orr, wholives full time in Washing-

ton, D.C.,and whose18-monthterm endsin Septem-ber, saidhe is inter-ested inpurchasinga home inone of De-

troit’s historic neighbor-hoods, AP reported.

� The U.S. Department ofHealth & Human Services an-nounced $15 million incombined funding to the Al-tarum Institute, Ann Arbor,and the University of Michi-gan’s Michigan Surgicaland Health OptimizationProgram, AP reported.

� Automotive and tech-nology are converging tohelp make Detroit a techhub, with cars becoming“technology on wheels,”said Quicken Loans founder

Dan Gilbert, one of the speak-ers at a technology eventhosted by Detroit-based MSXInternational and AutoWeek, asister publication of Crain’sDetroit Business.

� Organizers of Tues-day’s “RoboCop Day” in De-troit say an announcementwill be made about the stat-ue of the movie hero expect-ed to be installed in the citylater this year, AP reported.The celebration marks theDVD release of the recent re-make of the 1987 science fic-tion film set in Detroit.

� A reported 107,000 visi-tors attended the Movementelectronic dance music fes-tival at Hart Plaza. Theevent was produced by Fer-ndale-based Paxahau Promo-tions Group LLC.

� Operations returned tonormal at Detroit Metropoli-tan Airport after a more thantwo-hour lockdown prompt-ed by a passenger who en-tered a secure area withouta security check. The U.S.Transportation Security Admin-istration said the passengerarrived at the airport fromLittle Rock, Ark., and mayhave missed a connection toLos Angeles.

� A team from MelvindaleHigh School won first placein the Engineering Society ofDetroit’s EngineeringSMART Michigan Competi-tion at Lawrence Technologi-cal University. Runner-upteams from Melvindale andHamtramck high schoolsalso won four-year scholar-ships to Lawrence Tech.

� Rochester sports entre-preneur and former DetroitPistons executive Andy Apple-by and his co-owners of Eng-lish professional soccerteam Derby County are plan-ning for next season after alast-minute defeat that keptthe team from promotion tothe 20-team Premier Leagueand a $200 million windfall.

� Gov. Rick Snyder signedlegislation to raise Michi-gan’s minimum wage overthe next four years to $9.25an hour from the current$7.40. The organization RaiseMichigan reacted by filing apetition calling for a stateballot initiative to increasethe minimum wage to $10.10an hour by 2017.

� A group of charities,permanent poker room op-erators and gaming suppli-ers filed a motion with theMichigan Court of Claims seek-ing to block charity pokerrules that took effect in May,claiming they are outsidethe Michigan Gaming ControlBoard’s scope of authority.

� Michigan InternationalSpeedway generates $414million in economic activi-ty annually, according to anew report from the Univer-sity of Michigan. About 60percent of the more than385,000 people who visit theBrooklyn facility each yearcome from outside thestate, the report said.

akwood HealthcareInc. has received a$5 million gift to sup-

port women’s health ser-vices programs and equip-ment.

That brings donor KarenColina Wilson Smithbauer’s to-

tal contri-bution tothe hospitalto $7.2 mil-lion, one ofthe largestdonationsfrom a sin-gle donor inmore than60 years, ac-

cording to a news release.Dearborn-based Oakwood

Healthcare plans to use thefunds to double the size ofthe Karen Colina WilsonSmithbauer Breast Care Cen-ter at Oakwood Southshore inTrenton, according to thenews release.

The donation will fund anew pavilion named forSmithbauer at theSouthshore location and anew women’s health centerat Oakwood Hospital-Dearborn. Funds will also beused for equipment andtechnology, and communityoutreach.

Smithbauer, chairwomanof Oakwood’s women’s advi-sory committee, is a breastcancer survivor.

Walsh College credo:‘Honor thy spouse’

It will be a husband-and-wife affair at Walsh College’s103rd commencement cere-mony on June 16 at ZionChristian Church in Troy.

The keynote speaker,who will also receive anhonorary doctor of laws de-gree, will be Jeffrey Bergeron,husband of Walsh President

StephanieBergeron.

JeffreyBergeron,chairman ofthe board ofUnited Wayof Southeast-ernMichigan, re-tired lastyear asmanagingpartner inthe Detroitoffice ofErnst &Young LLP.After join-ing E&Y in2002, he

grew the Detroit office from225 employees to 500.

Also receiving an hon-orary doctor of laws degreewill be Aubrey Lee, a legendin Detroit banking. Lee iscredited with, in 1966, being

the firstAfrican-Americanto reach themanagerialranks at theNationalBank of De-troit, wherehe later re-tired as a

senior vice president.

Motown Queen of Soul nowa Harvard Doctor of Arts

Also picking up an hon-orary degree last week wasAretha Franklin (who hasmany), this one a doctor ofarts from Harvard University.

Seven others also re-ceived the honorary degree,including former PresidentGeorge H.W. Bush and formerNew York Mayor MichaelBloomberg.

Franklin also picked upan honorary degree fromNew York University on May21. She holds other hon-orary degrees from univer-sities that include Princeton,Yale, the University of Michi-gan and Wayne State.

Health equity council to address LGBT issues

As Gov. Rick Snyder andtop business leaders inMichigan expressed sup-port for expanding state civ-il rights law to include les-bian, gay, bisexual andtransgender people, a newhealth equity council wasformed last week in South-east Michigan.

The Ferndale-based Sexu-al Orientation and GenderIdentity Health Equity Councilof Southeast Michigan in-cludes representatives ofBeaumont Health System, CHETrinity Health, Henry FordHealth System, St. John Provi-dence Health System and theOakland County health divi-sion.

The health systemsjoined with lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendercommunity organizationswith pledges to help identi-fy and address health dis-parities in those populationgroups that often lead topoorer health care and med-

RUMBLINGS WEEK ON THE WEBF R O M W W W . C R A I N S D E T R O I T . C O M , W E E K O F M A Y 2 4 - 3 0

$5M gift to aidwomen’s healthat OakwoodO J

ical outcomes.The health council, coor-

dinated by Affirmations, aLGBT community group,plans to meet six times thisyear to develop a plan toclose the health care gap forLGBT people.

In a statement last week,Gov. Snyder expressed sup-port for lawmakers toamend the Elliott-LarsenCivil Rights Act to includeprotections based on sexualorientation and genderidentity before year-end.

CMU sets grand openingCentral Michigan University

plans a grand opening thismonth for the 4,000 squarefeet of space at One KennedySquare that it moved intoearlier this year.

The Detroit office, at 777Woodward Ave., will houseCMU staff devoted to admis-sion and outreach services.Pre-college workshops,summer classes, and dualand bridge enrollment pro-grams will be offered there,said Steve Smith, CMU’s di-rector of public relations.

Locally, CMU also hasspace in Warren, Troy, Livo-nia, Dearborn, Auburn Hillsand Southfield. It joins a ros-ter of public universities, in-cluding Eastern Michigan,Grand Valley, the University ofMichigan and Michigan State,with a presence in Detroit.Wayne State University’s maincampus is in the city.

Pro teams across leaguesmay get a ‘Ballmer boost’

If Detroit native and for-mer Microsoft Corp. CEOSteve Ballmer does, in fact,pay $2 billion for the Los An-geles Clippers of the NationalBasketball Association, pro-fessional sports teamsacross North America couldbe worth more when theycome on the market.

The first franchise to testthe “rising tide lifts allships” theory could be theNational Football League’sBuffalo Bills. Grosse PointeShores businessman RalphWilson paid $25,000 tolaunch the Bills in 1960; hedied in March at age 95.

“The Clippers sale im-pacts the profile for clubssuch as the Lakers, Knicks,

Nets and Bulls, but will alsoraise sale value for small-to-mid-market clubs, justnot at such an exponentialrate,” said Maury Brown,

president of the Portland,Ore.-based Business of SportsNetwork.

The Clippers sale pricewould be $1.675 billion morethan the $325 million TomGores paid for the Detroit Pis-tons in 2011.

Ballmer, 58, CEO at Mi-crosoft from 2000 until thisyear, is said by Forbes to beworth an estimated $20 bil-lion.

Smithbauer

Orr

J. Bergeron

Lee

S. Bergeron


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