20150928-NEWS--0031-NAT-CCI-CD_--
9/25/2015
5:44 PM
Page 1
C R A I N ’ S D E T R O I T B U S I N E S S // S E P T E M B E R 2 8 , 2 0 1 5
HOMECOMING FROM PAGE 1
Tierney said the gift “was a direct consequence” of last year’s Detroit Homecoming, which brought successful Detroit-area natives back to the city and drummed up more than $230 million in pending direct investment through 30 initiatives. “The abundance of value created for my family and the people around me, from my point of view, started at Wayne State University and in Detroit,” Tierney said. “To some degree, there’s guilt for my success, and I could not go forward in my life without paying off the debt owed to the university, so that guilt goes away.” Detroit Homecoming was created to re-engage the expats, many of whom grew up in the city or Detroit suburbs, with their hometown through philanthropy, real estate investment or other tangible contributions. “It has been remarkable to see how anxious our guests have been to re-engage with Detroit,” said Mary Kramer, Crain’s publisher and co-director of the Homecoming. “We are tracking outcomes, and they range from expats bringing business meetings to Detroit, to larger commercial investments, to a major capital raise in the works to create a $200 million real estate investment fund to develop multifamily housing.” A sampling of quantifiable investments: 䡲 The opening of Will Leather Goods in Midtown this month. The deal came together after William Adler, founder and CEO of the Oregon-based purveyor and a native of northwest Detroit, attended the event. 䡲 A pledge of $10 million to the newly launched Detroit Children’s Fund by Adam Levinson, chief investment officer of Fortress Investment Group ’s $2.9 billion Fortress Asia Macro Fund. 䡲 The renovation of the Ransom Gillis mansion in Detroit’s Brush Park by Nicole Curtis, a metro Detroit native, 2014 Homecoming speaker and host of HGTV’s “Rehab Addict.” The rehab will be featured in an eight-part series premiering on the network in November in collaboration with Detroit-based Quicken Loans Inc. 䡲 Capri Capital, a Chicago-based real estate management company with ties to Detroit, launched a $200 million capital raise to develop multifamily real estate downtown. Quintin Primo III, co-founder, chairman and CEO of affiliated Capri In vestment Group , is a graduate of Cass Technical High School . Gwendolyn Butler, vice chairwoman and chief marketing officer, is a graduate of Mumford High School. 䡲 Rheal Capital Management signed on as co-developer of 150 Brewster Wheeler apartments in Brush Park. The investment is part of a $50 million project that will include restaurant, retail and meeting space in addition to the apartments. (See story, Page 32.) 䡲 Seattle-based Code Fellows
31
‘Imported from Detroit’ was important to an author Chrysler’s tagline, “Imported from Detroit,” became immortal when Eminem prowled the streets of Detroit in a Chrysler 200, while a tough-sounding voice-over challenged the viewer: “What does this city know about luxury? What does a town that’s been to hell and back know about the finer things in life? ... When it comes to luxury, it’s as much about where it’s from as who it’s for.” Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss was watching that commercial, David Maraniss: first broadcast during the Inspired by Chrysler 2011 Super Bowl, and it inTV commercial. spired him to take another look at his hometown. The result is Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story (Simon & Schuster). Maraniss will be a featured speaker this week at the invitation-only 2015 Detroit Homecoming. (See story, Page 1.) Ironically, Maraniss discovered in his research that another car company almost took the “imported from Detroit” mantle — in 1964. In the early days of product planning for the debut of the then-unnamed Ford Mustang at the World’s Fair in 1964, a working name for
LLC, which provides tiered instruction on code writing, plans to open a Detroit location to help meet local demand for Web and mobile developers. 䡲 The Wendy Hilliard Gymnastics Foundation plans to open a recreation center in Detroit. Hilliard, the first African-American to represent the U.S. national gymnastics team and a native of Detroit, said gymnastics programs will begin in the fall of 2016. The foundation is working to secure space in the city. 䡲 At least seven Detroit Homecoming attendees have moved back to the city or purchased a home there. This year, Homecoming host committee members urged that the event adopt a theme: The power of professional sports. Host committee members include former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing; Christopher Ilitch, CEO of Ilitch Holdings; Tonya Allen, CEO of the Skillman Foundation ; Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors Co.; and others. The opening dinner will include on-stage interviews by ESPN host Mike Tirico, chatting with Detroit sports legends among a crowd of “expats,” hosts, and business and civic leaders. “Sports are so important to this city,” said Jim Hayes, co-director of Detroit Homecoming and retired publisher of Fortune magazine. “So much of (the expats’) emotional connection to Detroit centers around these teams and allows us to provide some excitement for those attending.” Among new agenda items this year are a business pitch competition for expats wanting to bring an enterprise to Detroit, a CrowdRise fundraising effort for metro Detroit charities and a digital idea-genera-
Book signing, luncheon David Maraniss, author of Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story, will appear at several upcoming local events:
䡲 The Detroit Historical Museum at 11 a.m. Saturday will host a moderated discussion with Maraniss about the book. A book-signing session will follow at noon.
䡲 Maraniss will appear at the Metro Detroit Book and Author Society’s luncheon at 11 a.m. Oct. 19 at Burton Manor in Livonia. The cost is $40. More information is available at bookandauthor.info.
䡲 Maraniss will speak at the annual book fair at the Jewish Community Center of Metro Detroit in West Bloomfield Township at 6 p.m. Nov. 11. Cost is $15. More information is at www.jccdet.org.
the car was Torino. The creative team of the ad agency J. Walter Thompson suggested using a campaign that described it as a “brand new import … from Detroit … inspired by Italy’s great road cars, but straight from Detroit.” The idea was nixed and Torino dropped, Maraniss writes, because Henry Ford II was in the midst of a divorce, and the gossip columns paired him with an Italian divorcee, Christina Vettore Austin (whom he later married). The
tion effort to tap expat expertise in solving city “challenges” Mayor Mike Duggan has identified. Besides Duggan, speakers on this year’s schedule include Gov. Rick Snyder; Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures LLC; David Maraniss, Detroit native and author of Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story; and Mark Reuss, GM’s executive vice president of global product development, purchasing and supply chain. Other big names on the agenda come from a range of industries: Tim Westergren, founder, Pandora Media Inc.; Kevin Plank, CEO and founder of Under Armour; Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkosky, founders, Groupon Inc.; and Roger Penske, founder and chairman, Penske Corp. Detroit native Stephen Ross, CEO of the real estate development firm The Related Cos. and owner of the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League , will address attendees via video to announce a new national initiative. Michael Bolton, best known as a singer and songwriter, will speak about his new documentary, “Gotta Keep Dreaming: The 21st Century Renaissance of Detroit.” Among the confirmed attendees: retired National Basketball Association player and Detroit Country Day alumnus Shane Battier; ABC journalist Bob Woodruff; real estate developer Peter Cummings; Butler (of Capri Capital); Christopher Keogh, chairman of GoldmanSachs Midwest; Deborah Chase Hopkins, chief innovation officer at Citi and CEO of Citi Ventures; and country musician Josh Gracin. Tours oriented around the city’s art and design heritage, technology, sports and entrepreneurship stories are also planned for attendees.
connection to all things Italian could lead to “bad publicity” and gossip. So goodbye, Torino (for now), and hello, Mustang! Maraniss is one of the speakers at the Detroit Homecoming, an event that draws former Detroiters home for a immersion in the city. The author lived in Detroit until age 7, when he moved with his parents to Wisconsin. Maraniss told Crain’s he “wanted to write a book that honored what Detroit has given America: Motown, cars, labor, civil rights and the middle class. Those are the five threads of the book” that came to focus on 18 months in Detroit, from fall 1962 to spring 1964. In that period, he found “the shadow” of Detroit’s eventual collapse, including a sociologist at Wayne State University who predicted the city would lose half a million residents every decade unless structural changes were made. In writing about the auto industry, he focused on the debut of the Mustang at the height of domestic auto sales. He found a largely untapped advertising archive at Duke University that included the J. Walter Thompson files about the Mustang. 䡲 A podcast of Publisher Mary Kramer’s conversation with Maraniss can be found at crainsdetroit.com/maraniss.
Detroit Homecoming receptions were held throughout the summer in New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.,
with more than 150 prominent expats attending. 䡲 Dustin Walsh: (313) 446-6042 Twitter: @dustinpwalsh