Crain's Grand Rapids Business, Aug 7, 2023

SWIMMING IN CASH

Aquarium could pump billions into West Michigan economy as national draw |

An aquarium in West Michigan would be able to compete with other major aquariums on a national level and generate billions of dollars in economic activity over a 10-year period.

at’s according to a recently completed feasibility study con-

ducted by Canopy Strategic Partners in coordination with Grand Rapids-based John Ball Zoo, Kent County and the city of Muskegon.

e study sought to determine whether a large-scale aquarium would be economically viable in West Michigan, and whether it

Acrisure ‘leaving all options open’

Company is aware of IPO rumors

By Mark Sanchez

While Acrisure LLC may pursue an IPO “at some point,” founder and CEO Greg Williams doesn’t see it happening in the immediate future.

Williams told a trade publication last month that an IPO for

the fast-growing, Grand Rapids-based Acrisure “won’t be anytime soon.”

“ is is probably a public company at some point in time.

… Frankly, I don’t know that 2024 is the right time,” Williams said in a July 12 report from Business Insurance, which

should be located in the city of Muskegon or somewhere in Kent County.

While the new study from Canopy Strategic Partners remains unreleased, John Ball CEO Peter D’Arienzo discussed some of the higher-level ndings in an interview with Crain’s Grand Rapids

Business. e partners plan to release the full report publicly in a matter of weeks, he said.

“A good takeaway is the aquarium is absolutely viable, meaning the operating model and market study says it will bring enough people to the state of Michigan that it’s a viable prod-

By Kate Carlson

uct. We just have to gure out the exact location,” D’Arienzo said. “ e model (in the study) is showing more than half the attendance of the aquarium would be coming from outside the state of Michigan, and the reason why

Acrisure could face rising market in 2024

Interest

By Mark Sanchez

ranked the company as the sixth-largest brokerage rm globally. “I’m leaving all options open as it relates to timing, and, again, it’s not a foregone conclusion that that’s what we’ll do.”

HEALTH CARE

New ADHD Online CEO prepares to ‘broaden our aim’

PAGE 3

If Acrisure LLC pursues an initial public o ering next year, the corporation will face a market that has shown signs of picking up after a soft period over the last year.

e IPO market in the U.S. has been what attorney Phil Tor-

CONSTRUCTION

rence, a partner and co-manager at Honigman LLP’s Kalamazoo o ce, calls “not good” and “terrible” because of a variety of factors that include rising interest rates, economic uncertainty and stock market volatility.

“When the market’s bad, it’s tough to get new issues out,” said Torrence, whose practice focuses on corporate and securities law.

MANUFACTURING

Inclusion program drives $20.2M into diverse, local subcontractors

4

American Seating begins renovations on new HQ

PAGE 14

New ADHD Online CEO prepares to ‘broaden

our aim’ Company readies for deeper screenings and other mental health conditions

By Mark Sanchez

Keith Brophy has moved into the CEO position at ADHD Online LLC as the telehealth company enters the second stage of life and adapts to market changes.

Grand Rapids eyes ‘lowest hanging fruit’ policy changes

Far-ranging discussion focuses on growth in residential stock | KATE CARLSON

Raising unit occupancy caps, reducing parking requirements and allowing for more smallscale multi-family projects are all options that Grand Rapids officials are considering to grow and diversify the city’s housing stock.

The Grand Rapids City Commission and Planning Commission held a joint meeting last month to discuss local regulations on accessory dwelling units, raising unit occupancy in dwellings, adjusting group living requirements, reducing parking requirements and allowing for more small-scale residential infill.

No votes were taken, but the

workgroup-style meeting allowed city commissioners to share with city staff and planners their positions on changing various zoning rules to address the citywide housing shortage.

“We all know that we need housing,” said Grand Rapids Planning Director Kristin Turkelson. “We need all types of housing at all price points and every neighborhood will have to allow for more housing. And traffic could increase, but it’s not beyond the infrastructure we have in place.”

The Grand Rapids-based digital behavioral health company envisions a future in further building out a platform that conducts online assessments for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. The platform that ADHD Online developed will evolve to do “deeper and broader” screenings for ADHD and other behavioral health conditions such as depression and anxiety.

“We are going to broaden our aim,” Brophy said. “Now we’re refining the next-stage strategy as we take the business to the next level.”

A veteran tech entrepreneur, Brophy became ADHD Online’s CEO at the end of June, about two years after he joined the company as chief operating officer and “just as we really started to spike up and grow.” Brophy succeeded co-founder Zachariah Booker as CEO at ADHD Online and Mentavi Health, an affiliated company that offers online assessments for mental health conditions other than ADHD.

Booker and Randall Duthler, a family physician in Hudsonville with Corewell Health, co-founded ADHD Online in 2018. After stepping away from the company’s day-to-day operations, Booker remains on ADHD Online’s board of

W. Michigan job growth to outpace state through 2030

New outlook finds there will be demand locally across all sectors

By Mark Sanchez

Job growth in West Michigan should outpace the state as a whole through the end of the decade.

That’s one conclusion from an updated career outlook from the state that projects jobs in Michigan to grow 8.8% from 2020 to 2030.

The 13-county region in West Michigan will do a little better and grow jobs by 9.7%, or 91,000 positions, in the same period.

“It’s a good story here in West Michigan,” said Evan Linskey, research manager with the Michigan Center for Data and Analytics in the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

Linskey presented the updated outlook July 25 at an event hosted by the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce.

The career outlook lists the top 20 occupations for growth across education levels, from jobs that require a high school diploma or

short-term training, to careers for people with two- and four-year college degrees.

Of particular note for West Michigan is the “astounding” diversity of growing occupations that illustrate a dynamic regional economy that’s “creating a place” and attracting talent from elsewhere, Linskey said.

“It’s interesting to see the absolute variety in these lists,” he said. “There’s a number of strong

The mixed-use Victory on Leonard project under construction on Grand Rapids’ west side includes plans for 120 apartments. KAtE CARLsON

Participating in a presentation on the updated career outlook were, from left: Anita Fox, director of the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services; Susan Corbin, director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity; TaRita Johnson, senior vice president of talent and diversity at The Right Place Inc.; and Michigan Department of Education Chief Deputy Superintendent Sue Carnell. | MARK sANCHEZ

Renderings for a mixed-use project proposed at 680 Wealthy St. SE in Grand Rapids’ East Hills neighborhood. LOtt3MEtZ ARCHItECtuRE See ADHD on Page

Business park, bioenergy plant land $10M

Grant, budget funding to support Kent County plan

By Kayleigh Van Wyk

Plans for Kent County’s Sustainable Business Park, along with a bioenergy facility that converts waste into renewable gas and would serve as the park’s anchor tenant, have received $10 million in state funding as the developments make “great progress.”

Kent County Bioenergy Facility LLC, a subsidiary of Burlington, Ontario-based Anaergia Inc., in July was awarded a $5 million Low Carbon Energy Infrastructure Enhancement and Development grant from the Michigan Public Service Commission to support the plant’s development.

Through a partnership with the Kent County Department of Public Works (DPW), the Kent County Bioenergy Facility is intended to serve as the anchor tenant for the broader Sustainable Business Park, a 250-acre site near the South Kent Landfill. State lawmakers allocated $5 million for the business park in the upcoming state budget, which awaits Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s signature.

County officials say the overall project goals are to increase recycling, reduce Kent County’s dependence on landfills, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and produce carbon-negative renewable fuel.

Specifically, Kent County has an ambitious goal of diverting 90% of trash from the local landfill by

2030. Officials say this facility will immediately help capture and divert 50% of landfill trash.

“This facility is designed to take 400,000 tons of what we call municipal solid waste, or trash, and process it, and be able when it’s full scale to process up to 600,000 tons,” said Dar Baas, director at Kent County DPW. “So it can actually be scaled up larger as the county continues to grow.”

The Kent County Bioenergy Facility has been about eight years in the making since the department decided to take a closer look at the amount of material going into landfills.

“We saw a marked increase in the amount going to landfill (at the time) because of the economic engine here in West Michigan and people moving into the area,” Baas said.

The department sent out a request for information to companies around the world, seeking a potential partner that could develop a landfill alternative. After some feedback and visiting various facilities around the U.S., the department selected the bioenergy facility and chose to partner with Anaergia following a request for proposals on the project.

Not only will the facility operate as a mixed waste processing facility, but it also will serve as an anaerobic digestion facility. The 175,000 tons of organic waste per year will be used to produce natural gas and fertilizer.

“You take your organic waste — the food waste and all those types of materials — out of the trash, and you take source-separated organics from food producers and other similar companies, and you make

renewable natural gas through anaerobic digestion,” Baas explained.

For Baas, the $5 million from the Michigan Public Service Commission is a recognition of the facility’s dual capabilities with both solid waste and renewable natural gas.

“Those two don’t intersect much,” Baas said. “The Michigan Public Service Commission recognized the interconnection with those two opportunities, and that funding really helps us move the project forward.”

The facility is designed to encompass 305,000 square feet on a 40-acre lot — seven times larger than the county’s current recycling facility, according to Baas. Roughly 60 new jobs will be created, with 10 employees operating the scale and the inbound material while 50 or so will maintain the overall plant itself.

The Kent County Board of Public Works in July signed off on the project, which is now awaiting review and approval from the county Board of Commissioners.

Board of Commissioners Chair-

man Stan Stek said while the county board appears to support the project, three key components will need to be addressed before voting to approve it. Those questions involve the scope and nature of any ordinance that governs the handling of solid waste throughout Kent County; how much funding the county will contribute for the project; and whether the plans will require any county government restructuring.

Fundamentally restructuring how the county historically has addressed the municipal solid waste management is complex, Stek said.

“From a perspective of a longterm policy strategy, I think I would say that the board likes the idea. … In general, the commissioners like being more innovative and looking in the direction of finding something that is more sustainable long-term — but it’s not an easy call,” Stek said. “The question is whether the project is sustainable, and whether the risks are worth taking compared to the

risks of landfilling. But it is certainly something that has the promise of being able to move us in a completely different direction.”

If progress continues as planned, the facility could be fully operational by early 2027.

In a statement last month, Anaergia CEO Brett Hodson said the bioenergy facility will significantly cut methane emissions and “will do no less than help save the planet.”

“We are grateful that the Michigan Public Service Commission has provided these funds to help make this project happen, and we commend Kent County DPW for leading the way and serving as a scalable model for counties around the country to follow,” he said.

Meanwhile, lawmakers allocated another $5 million in the upcoming state budget to help with the development of the Sustainable Business Park. The budget allocation will support site infrastructure at the park and follows an initial $4 million state investment for the project in 2022. Additionally, Baas said DPW has set aside $10 million to help fund the park.

The total cost of the business park is estimated at $380 million, with 20% being funded by the county and 80% being funded from the partnership with Anaergia. County officials say no taxes will be raised to help fund the project, and about 20% of the bioenergy facility would be funded by issuing bonds.

“We’re at nearly 100% design … we’re making great progress. We’re all but ready — we just need to have that anchor tenant,” Baas said, referring to the bioenergy plant.

Inclusion program drives $20.2M into diverse subs

Grand Rapids labels inclusion plan a success with several positive outcomes

By Kate Carlson

The construction industry spent $20.2 million with minority-owned, women-owned and micro-local subcontractors since 2021 as part of a city of Grand Rapids inclusion program for projects receiving city incentives.

The spending spanned 11 projects since January 2021 that have progressed through the bidding process and are either under construction or completed, according to a progress report presented during a July 11 Grand Rapids Economic Development Project Team committee meeting. The inclusion plan program is part of the city’s Equitable Economic Development and Mobility Strategic Plan.

“The long-term goal is to build up a construction industry that is representative of our community,” Jonathan Klooster, executive director of the Grand Rapids Economic Development Corp., said during the meeting. “The inclusion plan’s contribution to that is to increase

demand for diverse subcontractors in private development projects.”

The city cannot legally set targets for how many minority-owned, women-owned and micro-local subcontractors developers should use in incentive-backed projects. Instead, the city requires developers to create aspirational subcontractor diversity goals as part of the incentive application process.

Developers on the 11 projects that took place over the past two years had aspirational goals to invest a total of $22 million in minority-owned, women-owned and micro-local subcontractors. While developers exceeded their goals with women-owned and micro-local subcontractors, they fell short of their $11.3 million target by spending $6 million for minority-owned companies.

Klooster labeled the inclusion program successful for the most part, with positive outcomes overall. The inclusion program helped 38 diverse subcontractors get busi-

ness ranging from $2,000 jobs up to $5.1 million contracts on the 11 projects the city tracked, Klooster said.

“This is getting easier as time goes on,” he said. “There is more familiarity with this and more recognition that this is a partnership, not a government mandate.”

Carrie Wilson, co-owner of Freedom Construction and Consulting Inc., said she has noticed an increased effort on the city’s behalf to network and engage with di-

verse contractors.

“Getting a foothold as a minority or woman-owned (company) is definitely a lot about who you know and getting in the right circles,” Wilson said. “There is definitely an increased appetite in the city and the community to work with minority-owned and other underutilized businesses, but it is still very much you have to be seen. That presents a lot of other challenges for small businesses.”

Freedom Construction focuses

on increasing bid opportunities on its projects for minority and other women-led contractors, Wilson said.

“It doesn’t mean we wouldn’t hire other businesses that aren’t in those categories, but it’s about ensuring we have bids from (diverse) companies on each project,” Wilson said. “Economic inclusion is everyone’s problem. If we’re not intentional about going outside of established relationships, you do end up getting things that are very monopoly-like.”

Some developers in the city remain unaware of the inclusion program until they apply for incentives, and there are opportunities to get more people involved with the plan, former construction exec Aaron Jonker said at the committee meeting. Jonker, who previously co-owned Wolverine Building Group before he sold his shares of the company in 2022, served as one of the co-chairs for the city’s Equitable Economic Development Strategic Plan.

“I’d love to see the city continue to put focus on (this),” Jonker said. “The results have been good given what we’ve tried to accomplish.”

While developers exceeded their goals with women-owned and micro-local subcontractors, they fell short of their $11.3 million target by spending $6 million for minority-owned companies. | GEttY IMAGES

A bioenergy facility that converts organic waste into renewable gas and fertilizer would serve as the anchor tenant at the planned 250-acre Kent County Sustainable Business Park.

| KENt COUNtY

Former 1940s carrot farm offers acreage, private lake

House in city’s Michigan Oaks neighborhood hits the market for $1M

By Rachel Watson

A farm on a lake is likely not the first mental picture that arises when people think of homes in the city of Grand Rapids. That’s why a local family was surprised and delighted when they found a house in the Michigan Oaks neighborhood fitting that description.

Anne Connette, who works at Catholic Charities West Michigan, and her husband, Tom Connette, fell in love with the property in the Michigan Oaks neighborhood of Grand Rapids after touring nearly 50 homes in their search for a place to spread out with their eight children.

They bought the peaceful estate, which is at the end of a cul-de-sac just off Michigan Street NE, for $535,000 in 2016.

It includes a 3,655-square-foot, five-bed, four-bath main house; an 883-square-foot two-bed, onebath guest house; a pool; 8-acre yard; and two docks on the private, no-wake Middleboro Lake, dubbed Mid Lake for short. Only 13 other homes share access to the lake.

Sometime over the past seven years, when time was rushing by amid the daily hustle, the Connette kids grew up, and the homestead was suddenly too big for the couple’s needs.

“I didn’t think it was going to happen that fast, but it did,” Anne Connette said.

After making extensive upgrades over the years, they listed the property on July 6 for $1 million through John Oleck, a broker at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Michigan Real Estate.

Digging up its roots

The house was built in 1949. A former neighbor who was one of the original occupants on the street told Anne Connette the place was a carrot farm at one point, with the crop planted on a small field on the north side of the house that is now a yard.

As the story goes, this was why the street it’s on was named Littlefield. The Connettes have found evidence of those very carrots still growing on the property, Anne Connette said.

The yard also boasts four large

pear trees, a fenced-in garden and a chicken coop.

“We’ve done a lot of the canning of the pears and taking them to neighbors and friends and that kind of thing,” Connette said. “And my kids would play ultimate Frisbee on the yard, and we’d have our Thanksgiving soccer games there.”

She said she also appreciates the “no power boats” rule on the lake, which allowed her kids to play on water mats off the dock without fear of injury.

A search of the Grand Rapids History Center yielded another tidbit about the home’s history. Its owner from 1953 to 1960 was John L. Stuart, then-manager and president of the John Widdicomb Furniture Co. He later went on to start another furniture company, John Stuart Inc.

According to his New York Times obituary from 1966, Stuart entered the furniture business in 1913. During World War I, he was stationed in Manchester, England, as a liaison of the Grand Rapids Airplane Company, a joint venture established by several Grand Rapids furniture makers to build de Havilland airplanes for the Allied forces.

“My sister was doing genealogy research, and she found out (that) information,” Connette said, adding her sister’s husband’s family just so happened to be part of the furniture company.

Full of personality

It’s no wonder Stuart was drawn to the place — Anne Collette was in disbelief about the amount of acreage within the city limits, not to mention the private lake that she’d never even heard of before

opens onto a side deck that overlooks the pool and yard.

The larger living room has bay windows that let in lots of light, plus a fireplace they converted to gas.

There’s another wood-burning fireplace in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

Both levels of the home have owner’s suites, and all the bedrooms except one have plenty of storage, Connette said.

“I like character,” Connette said.

“I grew up in a 1935 house on the east side of Michigan, and a lot of the newer homes do not (have character).”

A loving remodel

The family was careful to preserve the home’s personality as they gradually made upgrades.

Before they moved in, a dining room was added in the ’80s that connects to the kitchen, with a slid-

The estate includes a 3,655-square-foot, five-bed, four-bath main house; an 883-square-foot two-bed, one-bath guest house; a pool; 8-acre yard; and two docks on the private, no-wake Middleboro Lake.

her first visit.

She also adores the crown molding, wide staircase, high ceilings, extra-large bedrooms with hardwood floors, doorway arches and two built-in wood cupboards on either side of the wood-burning kitchen fireplace.

Off the kitchen, there’s a carpeted family room/office flex room with a long window seat, tons of built-in cabinets, an entertainment center and beamed ceiling. It

ing door that opens onto the patio and a deck that surrounds an aboveground pool they put in in 2020.

Connette said she liked the dining room, but the kitchen wasn’t designed for today’s modern families, so she had it redesigned with a larger, sub-zero fridge; massive island; double oven with a built-in double griddle on the range; and a tiled, tucked-away coffee and wet bar next to the fireplace in one of the arched cupboards.

The other arched cupboard, which likely once stored firewood, now houses Connette’s pots and pans. Next to it on the perpendicular wall is a six-door, nearly floorto-ceiling pantry.

“I set it up just to keep everybody moving and to make it very functional for a big crowd,” Connette said. “I just love it for the flow.”

Other updates include adding a new tile backsplash in the kitchen, refinishing the cabinets and replacing the hardware, and laying down new vinyl floors in the kitchen, larger living room, hallway and laundry room.

They also replaced windows; freshly painted the first floor; restored the stairway and upper landing hardwood floors; added a new furnace, water heater and septic system; installed an underground electric fence on 3 to 4 acres of the property; added a new walkway from the house to the lake with a new deck with railings and a kayak rack; built a new dock; and improved all the outdoor landscaping.

The guest house

Connette said before they bought the property, the guest house was used for an elderly family member, but they updated it so it would be appropriate for all ages.

“We wanted it specifically for some of our adult children who lived out of town or out of state that could come and visit, or as they were of the age to be independent and be able to (live there) until they got out on their own more,” she said. “We do not have elderly in the family, but that’s such a nice, beautiful option, also.”

The guest house is all on one level, with a covered breezeway that connects the house and garage. In-

side the garage is car storage, a workshop and an exercise room.

The house has a combined kitchen and breakfast nook, with cupboards painted a cheerful distressed blue. A separate dining room with a sliding-glass door flows into the cozy living room. There’s a laundry room with washer, dryer and storage; two bedrooms with three beds total; and a full bathroom.

Behind the breezeway that connects the house and garage, there’s a private courtyard with a landscaped patio and fire pit.

Both the main house and the guest house have central air conditioning.

Paying it forward

Connette said she’ll miss Littlefield, which immediately felt like home to her.

“To not feel like you have to go away on vacation, to me that was part of my draw, was to have that peaceful environment and being able to have people over and feel like you’re away,” she said.

The Connette family’s memories at the place included hosting three graduation parties, none of which really needed the provided big tents because the property has so many large, old shade trees near the house that act as canopies.

“Those were probably some of the best memories or experiences that we’ve had as family — the outside parties,” Connette said.

One spring, Littlefield had what she dubbed a “Noah’s Ark Day” because they saw a parade of wildlife surrounding the house and grounds, including deer, turkeys, a fox, owl, frogs and turtles.

“It was amazing, just to see that on the hill,” she said.

The house in the Michigan Oaks neighborhood in Grand Rapids is for sale for $1 million. | NEXt DOOR PHOtOS

State board approves one-year extension for Gotion project

the $2.4B manufacturing plant now is on track for completion in 2031

By Kayleigh Van Wyk

Plans for a nearly $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant near Big Rapids remain on track after a state board signed off on changes to the project’s footprint and anticipated timeline.

The Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) board last month approved an incentives amendment request from Gotion Inc. and economic development organization The Right Place Inc. that removes Big Rapids Charter Township from the project scope and extends the project completion date by one year to December 2031.

As well, the board’s approval extends a request from Mecosta County to reduce the boundary to account for the changes to the project site and allow for a flexible start date conditioned on certain project milestones, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

Gotion’s most recent request aims to address the restructuring of the project since the MSF board initially approved incentives for the project as well as minor delays, according to an MEDC memo to the MSF board.

“The size and scope of this project is relatively unprecedented. As the project moved forward, factors including a change in the original footprint of the project are necessarily reflected in this extended timeline,” Jeremy Webb, managing director of business development projects at the MEDC, said during a media briefing.

While the project’s job creation and investment targets remain the same, the amendment request also accounts for factors such as height restrictions associated with the nearby Roben-Hood Airport in Big Rapids Charter Township and wetland implications that altered the original configuration of the project site.

Gotion — a subsidiary of Hefei, China-based Gotion High-tech Co. — in September 2022 unveiled plans for the $2.36 billion plant to produce cathode and anode materials for battery cells. While the company expects the project to create 2,350 jobs, the project has encountered fierce opposition from critics over Gotion’s parent company’s ties to the Chinese government as well as potential environmental and aesthetic effects on the rural landscape.

The MSF board last fall approved a $125 million critical industry program (CIP) grant to Gotion, a $50 million strategic site readiness program (SSRP) grant to The Right Place, and a 30year MSF Renaissance Zone (MSFRZ) designation for Mecosta County. State lawmakers narrowly approved the $175 million in incentives in April.

In February, Gotion reassessed real estate plans for the project to focus solely on the core 500 acres in Green Township. The original

plan also included 115 acres in Big Rapids Township.

At the time, Green Township Supervisor Jim Chapman said Gotion’s choice to pivot away from Big Rapids Township created an opportunity to help the project move forward in Green Township.

“My take on it all is they are not shutting the door on Big Rapids Township, merely putting that on hold and moving forward on Green Township to get the project going,” Chapman previously said. However, Big Rapids Township

Supervisor Bill Stanek told Crain’s Detroit in February that board opposition could cause the company to take the entire project to Green Township. Meanwhile, Gotion and The Right Place are working on additional land acquisition, and purchase agreements are in place for the parcels that will require nearterm development.

The company is confident that with the MSF’s new approval, the project will be completed within the new timeframe, according to the MEDC memo.

Land in Mecosta County where Gotion Inc. plans to build a $2.36 billion electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant. | BRYAN EsLER

West Michigan luxury home sales dip slightly

Buyers with cash are still interested in residences over $1M

By Rachel Watson

Sales of high-dollar homes in West Michigan are down slightly this year as inventory levels have declined, while buyers are acting fast to snatch up the luxury homes that are hitting the market.

According to MLS data pulled from MichRIC by broker Mike VanderWoude on July 10, so far this year in Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon and Allegan counties, 110 existing homes and condos sold that were priced at $1 million or more, the price that many local Realtors typically consider the luxury home price threshold.

During the same period last year, 131 homes and condos sold at or above the $1 million mark, representing a year-over-year dip of about 16%.

With lower inventory, buyers aren’t wasting their time competing for the pool of available listings. High-end homes are spending an average of about 76 days on the market so far this year, compared to about 99 days during the same period last year, according to a Crain’s Grand Rapids Business analysis of MLS data.

The highest-priced sale so far this year was an 8,262-squarefoot, four-bedroom, five-bath waterfront estate in Spring Lake Township that sold for nearly $4.5 million on May 31. The home has 115 feet of Lake Michigan beach frontage, soaring ceilings, large, light-filled rooms and a vast back deck entertaining oasis.

Last year, the highest priced sale was an East Grand Rapids home that went for $4.25 million on March 1, 2022. The ultra-private custom residence was built in 2014 and features five bedrooms,

seven baths and more than 9,000 square feet of living space.

Sandi Gentry represented both the buyer and seller of the Spring Lake Township home. Gentry said fewer sales may be happening on average this year, but her office at Grand Haven-based The Sandi Gentry Team of Re/Max Lakeshore, is doing even better in 2023 than last year. So far this year, the office has closed 13 luxury home deals, which compares to 11 in the same period last year.

“We have maintained a remarkable (first half of the) year, higher than we were last year,” Gentry said. She said clients typically cite the economy and a gut feeling that it’s a good time to buy.

Gentry believes low supply, rather than a lack of demand, is probably the main factor driving the drop in luxury home sales this year. She said the West Michigan high-end homes market heated up during the pandemic in 2020 when people with disposable income realized the timing was great to invest in real estate, and it’s “not stopped” since.

“A client told me over the weekend, ‘YOLO.’ You only live once,” she said. “‘Life is short, and I’m going to buy what I’m going to buy.’”

Brenda Pratt, a designated luxury real estate agent with Plainfield Township-based Keller Williams GR North, brokers homes in Kent County and along the lakeshore, including recent sales in South Haven, Zeeland, White Lake, Montague and Whitehall.

She has brokered five home sales of more than $1 million in the first half of this year compared to three during the same period last year, three in the first half 2021 and five in 2020.

Pratt said although she personally hasn’t noticed a slowdown in high-dollar deals, she echoed Gentry’s theory that the overall market trend likely is due to lower inventory this year.

According to a Redfin report posted July 17 and based on June data, there’s currently less than a month’s worth of inventory in the U.S. market. The total number of homes for sale in the U.S. dropped 15% year-over-year to an all-time low in June, the biggest annual decline in nearly two years, while new listings fell 30.6% from a year earlier, the lowest level since April 2020. Redfin attributed the drop in new listings to homeowners waiting for interest rates to go down before selling.

Pratt said from what she’s observed at the high end of the market, buyers are still paying cash and therefore aren’t as affected by higher interest rates.

“I could sell $1 million-plus homes that are turnkey dialed-in every day of the week, probably before they even hit the market, but there’s just not enough,” she said.

Her clients who have put their homes on the market this year have usually cited personal circumstances such as retiring or becoming empty-nesters, Pratt said.

“A few have noted that the mar-

Nonprofit leader placed on leave amid independent investigation

By Kate Carlson

A Grand Rapids arts and cultural nonprofit placed its leader on administrative leave last month amid an independent investigation into “internal complaints regarding the treatment of personnel.”

The Diatribe Inc. board of directors on July 21 publicly announced that Marcel “Fable” Price has been on administrative leave since July 10.

The nonprofit’s board appointed an independent law firm to investigate the matter “to guarantee

an impartial investigation and to foster a workplace culture where every employee feels safe and respected,” according to a statement. The investigation could take up to nine weeks, according to the statement, which was posted to

The Diatribe’s social media pages.

Placing Price on administrative leave and conducting an investigation was not related to financial mismanagement of nonprofit funds or “recent personal Facebook posts regarding an intimate relationship,” the statement says.

Price is the chief inspiration architect of The Diatribe and was formerly referred to as the organization’s executive director. He also held the title of Grand Rapids poet laureate from 2017-2020.

Price could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Diatribe board appointed interim co-executive directors Vanessa Jimenez and Megan Smith Jovanovic to temporarily take over leadership duties and responsibilities. Jimenez was previously the executive director of the Latina Network of West Michigan, while Smith Jovanovic has served as The Diatribe’s head of philanthropy for the past three years.

The Diatribe serves mostly youth in the community through various programming, including summer workshops, community events, speaking engagements at schools and other community venues, listening sessions, and The 49507 Project — a community art and education program that connects local artists with local businesses. The organization also has focused on housing and

high-end broker designation as of last year defined the luxury price point as anything above $500,000, which is closer to the price tier he brokers.

He said his office doesn’t publicly disclose complete sales data, but noted that they’ve closed homes in that price range since opening in February 2020.

VanderWoude said buying behavior on the high end of the market is driven more by “want” than “need,” and therefore high-networth individuals or investors can afford to wait out periods of higher interest rates and lower supply until they find what they want.

“I think we’re dealing with human behavior and not so much any kind of crash going on. I just think people are just kind of going to the sidelines,” he said.

ket seems brisk in the upper tier, so now, based on their life situation, it’s a good time to sell,” she said.

Other buyers are “sitting on” huge homes and wanting to downsize but not seeing enough options on the market for where to go next, she added.

Pratt said COVID-19 kicked off a trend of buyers from places like New York, California and Chicago snapping up homes sight-unseen.

“We were getting an influx of people from other places (because) Michigan is so cheap in comparison — for $1 million here, what you can get is amazing,” she said.

However, Pratt now feels that because of the scarcity and a lack of move-in ready properties, the luxury price point in greater Grand Rapids is actually more like $1.5 million.

“If you’re looking at East Grand Rapids, $1 million doesn’t get you something turnkey,” she said. “Forest Hills maybe, Rockford maybe, but not nearer the city.”

VanderWoude, a Realtor with Edison Brokers & Co. LLC, said his

He believes it’s also important to distinguish that the MLS shows activity in the existing home sales market and doesn’t include custom luxury homes built for specific clients by West Michigan builders like Cranbrook and Engelsma.

The Homebuilders Association of Michigan did not immediately respond to requests for data on luxury home starts in West Michigan this year.

From VanderWoude’s perspective, this year’s drop in sales activity for existing luxury homes contrasts with the boom years of the early pandemic, when “human behavior changed drastically” and sight-unseen sales based on video tours became common. He thinks that trend was driven by remote work, when Grand Rapids’ market suddenly looked pretty good compared to bigger Midwest metros. Now that the pandemic is waning, he thinks that trend may be, as well.

“I think at the end of my career, me and my colleagues are going to look back and go, ‘Man, 2020 and ’21, that was crazy stuff,’” he said.

to a request to comment.

The Diatribe recently received $3.5 million in state budget funding to support a capital campaign for its Emory Arts and Culture Hub development. The $6.2 million project calls for a full renovation of the building at 2040 S. Division Ave., which The Diatribe recently purchased for $400,000.

redlining on the south side of the city.

The board statement encourages people with additional information or concerns to share them with the independent investigator, who is listed as Julie Janeway at Principled Consulting LLC. Janeway did not immediately respond

Plans for the multipurpose cultural hub were first announced in early 2022 and include renovating the 18,341-square-foot building into administrative offices and programming space for The Diatribe, eight live/work spaces designed to use as studios and living spaces for artists, affordable retail space for local business owners, and a venue called “The Retort” that will serve as a venue for local artists to perform and organizations to rent out.

Prior to the state funding, Price was a vocal critic of the Kent County Board of Commissioners, which voted to deny federal American Rescue Plan Act funding for The Emory project.

Marcel “Fable” Price was placed on administrative leave on July 10 amid an independent investigation into internal complaints. | tHE DIAtRIBE INC.

This Lake Michigan home in Spring Lake, which sold for nearly $4.5 million on May 31, is the highest-priced home sale in West Michigan so far this year. | tHE SANDI GENtRY tEAM, RE/MAX LAKESHORE

CRAIN’S LIST TOP AREA COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE LENDERS

f 726-1500

ChoiceOne Bank

109 E. Division Ave.

Sparta 49345

p (616) 678-5914

f 612-3069

choiceone.com

First National Bank of Michigan

141 Ionia Ave. NW Grand Rapids 49503

p (616) 242-6500

f 242-7708

fnbmichigan.bank

Macatawa Bank

10753 Macatawa Drive Holland 49424

p (616) 820-1444

f 396-7369 macatawabank.com

Lake Michigan Credit Union

P.O. Box 2848 Grand Rapids 49501

p (800) 242-9790 lmcu.org

West Michigan Community Bank 5367 School Ave.

Hudsonville 49426

p (800) 664-1778

f 669-7496 wmcb.com

Greemann Capital

6140 28th St. SE

Grand Rapids 49546

p (616) 974-0245

f 957-4776

greemanncapital.com

Independent Bank

4200 East Beltline Ave. NE

Grand Rapids 49525

p (616) 447-3942

independentbank.com

Union Bank

670 Cascade W Pkwy. SE

Grand Rapids 49546

p (800) 974-3273

ubmich.com

First Community Bank 4455 Cascade Road SE Grand Rapids 49546

Kelly Potes Bradley Henion

Daniel Bitzer Jefra Groendyk Mike Hollander

adjustable, construction, fixed interest rate SWAP’s

$657MDND DNDDNDDNDPurchase, construction, refinancing, income property, owner-occupied, farm loans, VA, FHA, home equity

$606.61M80%$13,500,000241$146.85MConventional, bridge, interim, special circumstances, SBA, develop Michigan mezzanine

Ronald Haan$537.6M80%$15,000,000192$216.71MConventional, construction, purchase, refinancing, SBA 7(a), SBA 504, income property, owner-occupied

Sandra Jelinski James Maskell

Philip Koning Jim Bishop Rick Wieringa Mike Skinner Dan Pickard

$467.24M65% DND202$202.56MNew construction/ development, purchase, refinance, mini-perm, term debt, SBA-504

$366.57M71%$11,000,000113$135.61MVacant/raw land, bridge, construction, purchase, refinance

Apartments, multi-family, industrial, health care, mixed-use property, assisted living, offices

Office, retail, farmland, multi-family

Owner-occupied commercial real estate, non-owner-occupied income producing, multi-family, office, retail, hospitality, mixed-use, industrial

Apartments, office, mixed-use, industrial, retail, care facilities, hospitality, agriculture, manufacturing, nonprofit

Owner-occupied, office, mixed-use, industrial/warehouse, apartment

Agriculture, apartments, offices, mixeduse, industrial, retail, care facilities, special-use, hospitality

Ben Greemann$325M75%Unlimited10$57MIncome property loansApartments, offices, special use, care facilities, industrial, mixed-use, retail, hospitality

Joel Rahn Scott Rowley

$282.5M80%$20,000,00041$84MAcquisition, development, construction, term, bridge, purchase, refinance, SBA

Industrial, medical, multi-family, office, senior living, retail, residential, mixeduse

Cortney Collison

Christine Fortier

Janet Torres

$90.86M66%$5,000,00039$39.22MCommercial real estate: Purchase, refinancing, bridge loans, land loans, interim financing, income property, etc.

Mark BrantDNDDND

Together, we create successful outcomes

DNDDNDDNDOwner-occupied, investment property, refinance, purchase and construction loans

Agriculture, apartment buildings, offices, industrial, retail, mixed use, golf courses, restaurants, care facilities, churches, recreational, etc.

Office buildings, mixed-use, industrial, retail, multi-family

p (616) 454-8447

f 454-2465

firstcb.com

Crain's Grand Rapids Business list of top area commercial real estate lenders, ranked by current West Michigan commercial real estate loan portfolio, is the most comprehensive available. Crain's Grand Rapids Business defines "West Michigan" as Allegan, Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon counties. Crain's Grand Rapids Business surveyed 49 commercial real estate lenders; 12 returned surveys and 10 are listed. To be considered for future lists, email danielle.nelson@crain.com DND = Did not disclose

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CRAIN’S LIST TOP AREA COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS

Ranked by square footage under development

Parkland Properties

75 W. Walton Ave., Suite A Muskegon 49440 p (231) 722-7001 f 722-7002

parklandmi.com

Granger Group 2380 Health Drive SW, Suite 210 Wyoming 49519 p (616) 248-3566 f 248-9098

grangergroup.us

303Adaptive redevelopment of Watermark/Shaw Walker Furniture Company, Lake House Waterfront Grille, Walker's An American Brasserie, Shoreline Inn Hotel & Conference Center, Delta Hotels by Marriott Muskegon Convention Center, VanDyk Mortgage Convention Center, and others

14Reserve Flats multi-family, Acme Village Flats multi-family, U of M Health West Village multifamily, and U of M Health West medical/office building

Building rehab, office buildings, condominiums, apartments, retail, vacant land, home sites, waterfront, marinas, hotels, restaurants, bars, luxury vacation home rentals

Real estate development, investment services, financial services, property management, and architectural design services

Wheeler Development Group 32 Market Ave. SW, Suite 500 Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 437-1459

wheelerdevgroup.com

3Village East of Ada, Evergreen Townhomes, Meadowood Townhomes, Hotel Rose, Cardinal Senior Management Norton Shores

Multi-family, hospitality, mixed-use, medical office, and commercial development Rockford Construction 601 First St. NW Grand Rapids 49504 p (616) 285-6933 rockfordconstruction.com

Real estate development, investment, sale/leaseback, build-tosuit, design/build and planning services, property management, facilities management, construction management, public private partnerships

Multi-family,

Front Ave. NW

Rapids 49504

(616) 617-4444 f 451-0860

LIST STORE: Download this list now at

Rapids Real Estate dba of Byron Center Real Estate, Inc 47 100th St. SW

Center 49315 p (888) 227-2220 ext 1 grandrapidsproperties.com

We develop land not buildings. In addition to land development, we serve as a development consultant and expert adviser for vacant land owners to help them invest a little money and time so they can get approvals and plans to sell their land at a much higher price than it was worth initially.

Crain's Grand Rapids Business Journal list of top area commercial real estate developers, ranked by square footage under development, is the most comprehensive available. The list is based on responses to Crain's Grand Rapids Business surveys. Crain's Grand Rapids Business defines "West Michigan" as Allegan, Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon counties. Crain's Grand Rapids Business surveyed 76 companies; 12 returned surveys and 10 are listed. To be considered for future lists, email danielle.nelson@crain.com. DND = Did not disclose

Grand Rapids 49504

p (616) 285-6933

rockfordconstruction.com

5 6 7 8

Pinnacle Construction Group Inc.

1000 Front Ave. NW Grand Rapids 49504 p (616) 617-4444 f 451-0860 askourclients.com

Geenen DeKock Properties LLC

12 W. Eighth St. Holland 49423 p (616) 396-4950 f 396-6599

gdkproperties.com

Veneklasen Development

5000 Kendrick St. SE

Grand Rapids 49512 p (616) 957-3731 f 957-4085

Michael Garrett1996

Douglas DeKock Charles Geenen

headquarters, Michigan State University

Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building, Walkerview build-to-suit

Place, DP Fox, Extreme Car Audio, HELP, Kum & Go, 974 Front, Samaritas, Hillcrest Apartments, JW Marriot, Care Resources, Goodwill

R & D Facility, Sligh Apartments and Townhomes - Zeeland, Battle Creek multitenant, downtown Holland mixed-use

suit, design/build and planning services, property management, facilities management, construction management, public private partnerships

Multi-family, industrial, nonprofit/ community, affordable housing, retail, office, health care

Mixed-use, industrial, retail and commercial development

Health Drive SW, Suite 210 Wyoming 49519 p (616) 248-3566 f 248-9098 grangergroup.us

veneklasenconstruction.com

Ben M. Muller Realty Co. Inc. 1971 East Beltline Ave. NE, Suite 240 Grand Rapids 49525 p (616) 456-7114 f 456-6025 mullerrealty.com

Anchor Properties 44 Grandville Ave. SW Grand Rapids 49503 p (616) 451-2525

Construction 601 First St. NW Grand Rapids 49504 p (616) 285-6933

anchor-prop.com

Grand Rapids Real Estate dba of Byron Center Real Estate, Inc 47 100th St. SW

Front Ave. NW

Rapids 49504

(616) 617-4444 f 451-0860

Brian

Silvernail2004

East of Ada Evergreen Townhomes Meadowood Townhomes Hotel Rose Cardinal

320516 Alabama multi-family, 616 Bridge, 45 Ottawa NW, Perrigo North American Headquarters, Michigan State University Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building, Walkerview build-to-suit

Place, DP Fox, Extreme Car Audio, HELP, Kum & Go, 974

Real estate development, investment services, financial services, property management, and architectural design services

Multi-family, hospitality, mixed-use, medical office, and commercial development

Real estate development, investment, sale/leaseback, build-tosuit, design/build and planning services, property management, facilities management, construction management, public private partnerships

84th Street Development Site Wayland Commerce Center

We develop land not buildings. In addition to land development, we serve as a development consultant and expert adviser for vacant land owners to help them invest a little money and time so they can get approvals and plans to sell their land at a much higher price than it was worth initially.

Multi-family,

We develop land not buildings. In addition to land development, we serve as a development consultant and expert adviser for vacant land owners to help them invest a little money and time so they can get approvals and plans to sell their land at a much higher price than it was worth initially.

Crain's Grand Rapids Business Journal list of top area commercial real estate developers, ranked by square footage under development, is the most comprehensive available. The list is based on responses to Crain's Grand Rapids Business surveys. Crain's Grand Rapids Business defines "West Michigan" as Allegan, Kent, Ottawa and Muskegon counties. Crain's Grand Rapids Business surveyed 76 companies; 12 returned surveys and 10 are listed. To be considered for future lists, email danielle.nelson@crain.com. DND = Did not disclose

Industrial real estate is scarce as demand eases

Vacancy rates still check in under 3%

By Danielle Nelson

Industrial real estate vacancies increased slightly in areas of West Michigan during the second quarter, though experts say opportunities for industrial buildings and vacant land remain scarce.

Quarterly reports from local brokerages indicate industrial vacancy rates between 1.6% and 2.9%, covering areas that span the lakeshore to M-66 east of Grand Rapids.

Colliers International’s West Michigan office, for example, reported a slight vacancy rate increase, from a record low of 2.1% in the first quarter to nearly 2.7% in the second quarter of this year.

NAI Wisinski of West Michigan reported a 1.8% overall vacancy rate across five submarkets of West Michigan, from Muskegon to Saugatuck along the lakeshore to around Greenville and Hastings east of Grand Rapids.

Chris Prins, partner and senior vice president of industrial brokerage at NAI Wisinski of West Michigan, noted that a “continued supply issue” for both sales and leases is the main factor affecting the region’s industrial market.

“There are simply not enough industrial buildings on the market for sale or for lease,” Prins wrote in a recent second-quarter market report. “Common sense would tell you that the solution would be to construct more industrial buildings. However, with rising interest rates, high construction costs and a shortage of industrial vacant land, the rent required to make the overall project cost viable is keeping several developers on the sidelines. … Without the economies of scale that come along with constructing a large building, it is difficult to get construction costs down to where it makes sense relative to market rents.”

Randy Bronkema, owner of Grandville-based Independence Realty, noted that the acceleration of demand for industrial facilities that was driven by low interest rates is now starting to balance out.

“We are starting to see more buildings on the market and a little bit more marketing time,” he

said. “We are going to go back to a little more buyer-seller market versus buildings that were put on the market and were selling more or less instantly.”

Bronkema added that “location, location, location” remains the primary driver of whether industrial buildings and properties are leased or sold.

With prime industrial buildings generally located near freeways, Bronkema said that the M-6 interchange near Byron Center and M-37 through Kentwood has been growing, along with areas around the Gerald R. Ford International Airport. Areas in Walker near Fruit Ridge Avenue also have experienced strong industrial growth, according to local brokers.

Multiple brokerages also noted American Seating Co.’s recent announcement that it is relocating its office and manufacturing operations from the west side of the city of Grand Rapids to a former Steelcase building on the city’s south side. Company officials said future plans for American Seating’s legacy manufacturing operations, which has shrunk over the years, are still undetermined.

Meanwhile, brokers also reported an increase in overall asking lease rates during the second quarter. Asking lease rates are trending upward, ranging from $4.94 to $6.59 per-square-foot.

Brokers at real estate services firm JLL noted that a $4.94 per-squarefoot average asking rent during the second quarter is a 15.9% increase from the same period last year.

As well, the region’s low supply of industrial space has contributed to increased activity in the sublease market this quarter, according to Advantage Commercial Real Estate.

“As the supply of new space stays low, companies look to absorb current space through subleasing. This surge is reflected in the absorption of sublease space over the past few months,” according to Advantage Commercial Real Estate’s second-quarter market report.

Of more than 805,000 square feet of sublease space listed at the start of the second quarter, more than 272,074 has been absorbed.

Construction on an industrial property between 84th Street and 100th Street south of Grand Rapids. | COuRtEsY OF BRIAN sILVERNAIL, BYRON CENtER REAL EstAtE

American Seating begins renovations on new HQ

Officials expect to move into former Steelcase site by end of year

By Kate Carlson

American Seating Co. has started renovations to a former Steelcase facility on Grand Rapids’ south side, where the transportation seating company is relocating its corporate headquarters and manufacturing operations.

The company is renovating the more than 210,000-square-foot existing facility at 1040 40th St. SE for its new operations. Company leaders say they expect to begin moving into the new site at the end of the year. The new location, which is secured under a long-term lease, is 7 miles from the company’s current site on Grand Rapids’ northwest side, where the seating manufacturer has been since its founding in 1886.

“Our new headquarters and manufacturing plant is an important and significant commitment to our employees, our community, our customers and the transportation-seating industry,” American Seating President and CEO Thomas Bush said in a statement. “We’re excited to share these major plans for the next chapter in our history as a company.”

The company is timing the move to have minimal disruption to operations for its customers, according to a statement. American Seating employs about 200 people, which it expects to grow by about

10% by the end of this year.

The company said it expects to draw from a larger labor pool in its new location because it has more access to all corners of the city and surrounding communities, as well as proximity to The Rapid bus routes.

“This new space is such a cool step in our legacy, and our employees are excited about the new location,” American Seating Director of Human Resources Tasha Wright said in a statement. “It will be a bright, inclusive place of interaction and engagement that will support our team, help us to recruit new people and promote our brand to our customers and the community.”

Ghafari Associates is serving as the architect for the company’s new headquarters. First Companies Inc. is acting as the construction lead on the $8.6 million renovation project.

American Seating has been collaborating with United Auto Workers Local 135 leadership, which represents the majority of American Seating employees, on designing the work environment.

Project plans include tearing down a small office space at the north end of the building and constructing a new entrance, redoing the parking lot, and renovating the entire interior into an open workplace. The building will include product development and show-

casing areas, team meeting and training space, a cafe and break room with 20-foot-high glass walls that let in natural light, as well as an adjacent outdoor relaxation area.

American Seating intends the new space to unite the office and manufacturing teams under one roof, creating more integration and communication across employees. The development also aims to increase production capacity with new equipment and by making the flow of product from design to dock more efficient.

The plant design also includes a mezzanine balcony where people will be able to view the entire manufacturing process.

“Having this vantage point to literally see how our products are made from start to finish will be fantastic for training our employees and for demonstrating our quality process to customers,” Bush said. American Seating’s manufacturing and office employees currently work in separate buildings along Broadway Avenue between 7th Street and 11th Street. The company’s offices are in American Seating Park at 801 Broadway Ave. NW, while its expansive manufacturing plant, most of which has become obsolete, occupies part of a nearly 17-acre site at nearby 901 Broadway Ave. NW. Maneuvering semi-trucks has become “nearly impossible” on

the site, according to the company.

OST is set to relocate its headquarters into American Seating’s 33,000-square-foot offices at the American Seating Park, as Crain’s Grand Rapids Business previously reported. American Seating coowns American Seating Park with other companies and has no plans to sell the property.

As for the legacy manufacturing site, American Seating plans to use the facility until it is fully moved to the new headquarters. A spokesperson said beyond that, the company “will look forward to working with the city of Grand Rapids and various stakeholders to identify the right buyer for the property.”

The company considered constructing a more modern building on its existing site to bring everyone under one roof, but the location has become less conducive to manufacturing over the years as it transitioned into more of a residential and retail area. The new location is strategically located in close proximity to the U.S. 131 and M-6 freeways, rail lines and the Gerald R. Ford International Airport, according to the company.

The move to a new location is part of a continued effort for the compa-

ny to bolster its transportation seating operations, which American Seating has focused on after a series of divestitures in recent years.

The company was founded in 1886 as Grand Rapids School Furniture — known for creating the first combined student desk and chair unit — before changing its name in 1906 to American Seating Co. The furniture company began manufacturing seating for city buses in 1931 as its first foray into the transportation business, which continues to be its main focus.

American Seating designs and manufactures transportation seating and related products for local municipalities, public transit, rail, motorcoach and ADA securement markets. The company makes seating products for The Rapid buses in Grand Rapids and across West Michigan, as well as for a number of other major transit systems in North America including in New York City, Baltimore, Miami, St. Louis, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

“Staying right here in this city, where we were founded 137 years ago, is so important to us,” American Seating Chairman Edward Clark said in a statement.

Gordon Food Service mum on Denver plans

Structure is significantly larger than sites of its other retail stores

By Abby Poirier

Food distribution giant Gordon Food Service Inc. is staying quiet about its plans for a sprawling former Kmart retail store location that it bought in June in a suburb north of Denver.

A Delaware corporation affiliated with Wyoming-based Gordon Food Service paid $16.5 million for the retail property in a transaction that closed at the end of June, according to property records. The deal includes a 192,500-square-foot former retail store that was built in 1994.

New York City-based Seritage KMT Finance LLC was the seller in the deal.

The Grand Rapids-based law firm Miller, Johnson, Snell & Cummiskey PLC worked with Gordon Food Service on the property transaction.

Gordon Food Service currently operates more than 175 stores, none of which are in Colorado.

A spokesperson for Gordon Food Service told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business the company had “no information to share” about its plans for the Denver-area property.

The Denver Post reported on the deal last month, noting that a fitness tenant was currently leasing about 52,000 square feet in the building. Kmart had operated at the location until it closed in 2016, according to the report.

The facility, located in the Denver suburb of Thornton, Colo., is far larger than Gordon Food Services’ typical retail format.

For example, Gordon Food Service recently expanded into Texas, where it opened four stores and has plans for two more in the greater Houston area that range between 25,000 square feet and 30,000 square feet.

By comparison, its store in the Diamond Place development along Michigan Street in Grand Rapids is about 16,000 square feet.

The company spokesperson said it was “premature” to speculate on what Gordon Food Service could do with the new property and noted it had “no plans at present for any store in Colorado.”

Rendering of American Seating’s new headquarters and manufacturing facility at the former Steelcase campus. GHAFARI ASSOCIAtES

State approves additional $5M for MSU-backed fund

Foundation helps high-tech startups commercialize products

By Mark Sanchez ing technologies in the advanced automotive, manufacturing, materials, information technology, agricultural processing technology, alternative energy, homeland security and defense technology, and life sciences industries. Investments go to companies that can demonstrate a strong market potential, have been in business for seven years or less, and have key founders and the majority of their full‐time employees based in Michigan.

An early-stage investment fund the Michigan State University Research Foundation administers received another $5 million in state capital that will go to support high-tech startup companies.

The funding that the Michigan Strategic Fund board approved last month adds to past allocations for the Michigan Rise PreSeed Fund III LLC, which initially received $6.5 million two years ago from the Jobs for Michigan investment fund and another $8 million in October 2021.

Since the original allocation, the Michigan Rise Pre-Seed Fund has invested nearly $12.8 million in 61 promising high-tech startup companies, building a “diverse and high-quality portfolio,” according to a Michigan Economic Development Corp. staff memo

The fund also provides up to $500,000 in loan financing for

companies to fulfill purchase orders before payments are received from clients.

Companies that receive an equity investment or loan can also access additional support from the MSU Research Foundation, which “maintains active engagement with portfolio companies, including mentorship, access to an extensive professional network through (the foundation), assistance with additional grant funding, and investment syndication,” according to the MEDC memo.

When

to Strategic Fund board members. About 30% of the portfolio companies the fund backed were spun out of universities in the state, and about 70% are led by diverse and underserved founders.

Startup companies the fund invested in went on to collectively attract more than $341 million in follow-on capital and create 571 new jobs, according to the MEDC.

“We need to make sure that companies feel as if they can achieve their success and have either a public or a strategic exit growing here in Michigan, and these pre-seed funds are vitally important to make sure that research goes from the lab bench to the marketplace,” said MEDC CEO Quentin Messer Jr. “The Michigan Rise team has done very solid work in their investments.”

The Michigan Rise Pre-Seed Fund also provided $1.35 million in loans to five companies, two of which paid off the debt, and has another 13 startups in the pipeline for debt financing that totals $3 million.

“Based on the Pre-Seed Fund’s performance to date, the reinvestment and repayment terms, and (MSU Research Foundation’s) strong track record for successful early-stage investments, MEDC staff believes the (Michigan Strategic Fund) will realize a return on its investment into the Pre-Seed Fund,” Fred Molnar, senior vice president for entrepreneurship and innovation at the MEDC, wrote in the staff memo to the Strategic Fund board.

Michigan Rise Pre-Seed Fund offers up to $250,000 in equity investments to startups that are in the early stages of commercializ-

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Entrepreneur aims to simplify NIL deals for student-athletes

Basepath’s software handles the back-end details

By Kayleigh Van Wyk

A Grand Rapids-based entrepreneur’s software company is offering automated solutions for collegiate student-athletes as name, image and likeness deals remain shrouded in state and federal regulatory uncertainty.

Founded in 2021 and officially launched about a year ago, Basepath serves as a back-end operations and payment software that processes NIL deals between student athletes, athletic departments, collectives, fans and sponsors.

The rules surrounding the monetization of an athlete’s NIL underwent a seismic shift in 2021 when the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) reversed course and adopted a new policy allowing athletes to be compensated. The policy came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA’s caps on student athlete academic benefits, such as reimbursements and pay for academic-related expenses, because of antitrust law.

However, a patchwork of state laws involving NIL has created ongoing uncertainty about how athletes receive payments, experts say.

Basepath came about as an opportunity to address some of these emerging NIL needs for athletes to remain in compliance with state laws and tax regulations, said Thomas Thomas Jr., co-founder

and CEO of Basepath.

“When the Supreme Court ruled that student athletes can now receive monetization for their name, image and likeness, we looked at that change within the intercollegiate athletic industry, which I had some experience with prior to starting this company … (and) we started off with the mindset of providing solutions within the space,” Thomas said, referring to fellow co-founder Andrew Dennison.

According to Thomas, two types of software exist within the NIL space: Activation programs that connect athletes and brands, and operations software that helps manage contracts. Companies early on were eager to deploy activation software solutions, such as connection points between brands and athletes. However, Basepath sought to forge a more unique path with operations software.

Basepath’s software — which is available as a free mobile app for student athletes — handles the more tedious aspects of NIL deals, such as contract management, task facilitation and management, proof of work validation, tax documentation, payment facilitation and compliance disclosures.

Thomas said athletes typically will download the app through invitations from NIL collectives or a third party interested in a deal. A notification is sent with the terms of the deal and any specific instruc-

tions, such as an image or written copy for a social media post, for example.

Once athletes accept a deal, Basepath generates a contract in real time and organizes the next steps and timeline that need to be executed. The athlete then will complete the task and provide proof of the work, and Basepath will direct the payment to an athlete’s bank account and help handle any necessary tax documentation.

To date, Basepath has worked with 50 collectives that have processed more than $10 million in transactions to more than 2,500 student-athletes. NIL collectives are pools of donors that are formed independently from schools to support student-athletes’ NIL deals.

As well, Basepath recently launched a new athlete ambassador program to enhance the functionality of Basepath’s software through feedback from the athletes’ perspective and allow athletes to stay at the forefront of the newest NIL developments.

Basepath was formed to give student-athletes protection when it comes to complying with NCAA regulations and state laws, according to Thomas.

“(Athletes) don’t ever have to worry about the NCAA or anyone coming and knocking on the door saying, ‘What did you do for your payment?’ It’s all within the system,” Thomas said. “All the re-

ceipts are kept so that should anyone ever need some proof of work, it’s there.”

Although the NCAA’s policy was established in 2021, NIL regulations continue to evolve. The NCAA recently released a statement directing schools to adhere to NCAA policy when it conflicts with state laws, which is in response to recent legislative moves by some states to prevent the NCAA from investigating NIL activities.

In Michigan, a bipartisan bill introduced at the end of June would amend the state’s NIL law to say that the NCAA and schools can’t prevent athletes from earning NIL compensation, and that schools can facilitate deals. House Bill 4319 is sponsored by state Rep. Angela Witwer, D-Delta Township, and co-sponsored by Rep. Carol Glanville, D-Walker, and Rep. James DeSana, R-Carleton.

Meanwhile, the IRS has recently asserted that many NIL collectives are not tax-exempt under nonprofit 501(c)(3) status because the collectives substantially benefit the private interests of student-athletes.

For Thomas, the dynamic and ever-changing NIL landscape hasn’t experienced a significant shock just yet, though he says it would be “an interesting day” if the NCAA were to back federal legislation to override state laws.

“That would create, I think, a lot more clarity and simplification at the very least in terms of what the standards are from state to state. But I think until that happens, or if it ever does happen, you’re going to see kind of a game of ‘chicken’ between folks that are going to push the envelope and whether or not the NCAA’s going to push back and what the implications of that will be,” he said.

Thomas said he feels Basepath is well-positioned to handle any changes to the state of NIL regulations, as the goal is to provide transparency and ensure deals are executed the right way — something he thinks most involved in the industry are aiming to do.

“I would say a lot of the folks that are trying to deliver value with NIL are trying to do things the right way,” Thomas said. “I think you’ve got a lot of folks who are trying to figure out the best path forward and the right way to get something done within the parameters of the

law, tax laws, and NCAA regulations. … We’ve been very fortunate with a lot of the partners we have who are trying to do things the way they should.”

Meanwhile, law firms also are adapting to ever-changing regulations within the NIL landscape. Varnum LLP last year launched a practice group focused on representation with NIL, responding, responding to a need for higher education-focused attorneys comfortable with sports law to help navigate NIL contracts.

“NIL definitely isn’t going away. It just continues to change, and I think the need for legal guidance in this space is becoming even more obvious and prevalent,” said Jessica Visser, an attorney with Varnum’s corporate practice team and cochair of the firm’s NIL practice.

Visser said the new practice provides legal expertise for areas such as the formation of NIL collectives, group licensing deals, and advising higher education institutions on compliance since it can be challenging for athletic departments and coaching staffs in particular to balance compliance with coaching and supporting their teams.

“There are some areas of law that haven’t changed in 20 years, but it seems like every month there’s some sort of different development (with NIL),” Visser said.

Visser also said she foresees a bolder stance from the NCAA in light of the recent memo concerning state laws.

“I think the NCAA is trying to crack down and say, ‘Hey, here’s our guidelines. If you’re a member school, you need to abide by these no matter what your state law says.’ And in the beginning, we weren’t seeing much enforcement by the NCAA, and I feel like as time goes on, they’re starting to enforce some of these guidelines a little more,” she said.

Visser said Varnum’s NIL practice will continue to navigate the landscape and aim to provide education for NIL clients.

“If you’re entering this space and you’re not well-versed in NCAA compliance and state law in Michigan or otherwise, it’s overwhelming,” Visser said. “Something that we’ve tried to do is put out education pieces and what we call legal advisories to help people navigate this a little bit better because it is very complex.”

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Basepath provides operational support for student-athletes to remain in compliance with their NIL deals. | BASEPAtH

Alcohol wholesalers remember Brien Fox as ‘tremendous leader’

Henry A. Fox sales Co. indicates it will close by sept. 15

By Mark Sanchez

Brien Fox, the third-generation president and CEO of the family-owned beer, wine and spirits distributor Henry A. Fox Sales Co. based in Kentwood, is remembered as an industry leader who had what one colleague called a “rare combination of infectious enthusiasm and business acumen.”

Fox, 48, died July 18 after a bout with cancer, according to his obituary. He is survived by his wife and three sons.

His passing came a week after the company filed a notice with the state indicating that it was closing by Sept. 15. Sources within the alcoholic beverage industry told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business that his death came as the company was proceeding with a sale for parts of the business.

tion at every level of our governance,” Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America President and CEO Francis Creighton said in a statement. “He will be profoundly missed by our WSWA team and membership. His passing is a terrible loss, and we offer our condolences to his family during this tragic time.”

Dawson Hobbs, executive vice president of government affairs

for the national trade association, called Fox “a tremendous leader” who “exemplified the best elements America’s family-owned wine and spirits wholesalers.”

In the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America statement, Doug Epstein, principal and managing director of regional sales at Norton, Mass.-based Horizon Beverage Co., said Fox’s

“positive approach to leadership and consensus building was a model for association governance.”

“Brien possessed the rare combination of infectious enthusiasm and business acumen,” Epstein said. “His WSWA engagement, uplifting energy and life-long friendship will be missed.”

In a 2019 MiBiz executive roundtable, Fox talked about the intricacies of leading a family business, calling it “one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. You can really grow your family relationships stronger through family business. There are always stories of the negative. I would just say the positive is unbelievable.”

Henry A. Fox Sales Co. currently employs 114 people, according to the document filed with the state under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

The company’s distribution portfolio included major beer brands Pabst Blue Ribbon, Guinness, Beck’s, Harp and Genesee, as well as numerous craft breweries; dozens of wine brands such as Barefoot, Gallo, Moet & Chandon, and Sutter Home; and a range of spirits. Its distribution territory is focused mainly on West Michigan, although it covers the entire Lower Peninsula for some brands, according to its website.

Fox served two terms as chairman of the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association and served for 20 years on the board of directors at the Washington, D.C.-based Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, including a term as chairman from 2015 to 2016.

“Brien’s industry leadership, business insight, and deep understanding of the beverage alcohol ecosystem made a lasting impression on his peers and our association. We at WSWA will miss him especially after his years of enthusiastic participa-

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Brien Fox, Henry A. Fox Sales Co. COuRtEsY WINE AND sPIRIts WHOLEsALERs OF AMERICA

“He will be profoundly missed by our WSWA team and membership. His passing is a terrible loss, and we offer our condolences to his family during this tragic time.”

Francis Creighton , Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America President and CEO

Studio wants to help indie bands get their music on vinyl

European record-cutting lathe produces albums one at a time

By Abby Poirier

The owner of a Grand Rapids-based recording and audio production studio plans to begin producing short-run vinyl albums, offering artists a new way to get physical copies of their music into the hands of fans.

With a background in audio production for live musical events, George Paulin worked as an audio engineer in Chicago and moved last year to West Michigan, where he opened Grand Rapids Voice Over from his home.

Paulin recently invested about $3,500 to buy a T560 vinyl record-cutting lathe, which will allow his company to produce lathecut albums by hand, one by one.

“It’s a very fragile art,” Paulin said. “A hand-cut record cannot be exact every single time, like a pressed record. Because of that, hand-cut records are seen as a rare and sought-after thing. There’s less of them and they’re all unique.”

The traditional method of record-making, such as what’s practiced at Jack White’s Third Man Records in Detroit, involves pressing a master disc into a heated vinyl to mass-produce identical copies. However, lathe-cut records are made by cutting grooves directly into a polycarbonate disc using a special record-cutting machine. When done correctly, the lathe-cut process can produce a

single, unique vinyl in a matter of minutes from pre-recorded audio. While lathe-cut records are more popular in Europe among younger listeners, they have been slow to catch on in the U.S.

“Here in the United States, there’s no one really trying to manufacture something like this,” he said. “(With) my system, I’m able to do it in a six-by-six room and I can make records all day.”

To purchase the machine, Paulin recently traveled to the small German village of Hosskirch, where he met with Ulrich Sourisseau, an engineer who has been building T560 vinyl record cutting lathes for the last 13 years. While in Hosskirch, Paulin learned in-person how to operate and record on the lathe, which Sourisseau requires before selling the machine to customers.

With his newly acquired skills and record-cutting lathe, Paulin now plans to start his own label, tentatively called Great Lakes Records.

“I’ve been producing music for a long time,” he said. “As a kid, I had records pressed and lathe-cut for bands and my own music, and this was just the next step in my adventure to continuing using vinyl as my platform.”

Paulin hopes his company will be able to offer small, independent artists more opportunities to market their music and get in on

the vinyl craze without the lengthy lead times at commercial record pressing plants, which extend as long as 12 months, according to an industry report last year. That compares to lead times of four to six weeks as recently as five years ago.

“Having records gives artists a way to make income for their band because it’s easier to sell a T-shirt or vinyl than to get a million plays on Spotify,” Paulin said.

For more than a decade and a half, vinyl albums have been enjoying a renaissance, especially among younger music fans.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America’s 2022 end-of-year revenue report, vinyl records (41 million units) outsold CDs (33 million units) for the first time since 1987. Record sales last year spiked 17% to $1.2 billion, the 16th consecutive year of growth for the vinyl format.

Vinyl accounted for nearly 71% of physical music format revenues, per RIAA data.

As well, entertainment industry data platform Luminate reported last year that Gen Z music listeners are 27% more likely to purchase a vinyl record than the average listener and found the average vinyl listener spends 109% more on music monthly than the average listener.

“Do all those people have turntables and listen to the vinyl?

| JOE BOOMGAARD

Probably not so much,” Paulin said. “But it’s not just the music. It’s the cover art, the label on the record, having information like who was the mix engineer, who was the drummer, what instrument was used. It’s something that’s missing in the digital Spotify world now.”

Noting the endless possibilities that come with lathe-cut records, Paulin has the ability to make vinyl albums of all sizes and colors and “they all have their own unique sound,” creating one-of-a-kind recordings.

Paulin aims to start producing albums in less than three weeks at a rate of around 50 per day. He’s also looking for a new space to move his recording operation, which currently operates out of his home.

“It’s definitely our goal to become an actual facility and host people to come watch their records get cut,” he said.

He plans to market his vinyl-cut-

ting service to artists in the Midwest and throughout the Great Lakes region, using his connections as an audio engineer to find signed and independent artists who are looking for individualized albums. He also envisions his label working with independent artists around the Great Lakes region.

Since he will create each vinyl by hand, Paulin has no minimum order for albums, making his service accessible for small artists. By comparison, commercial vinyl production facilities require minimum orders in the thousands of units, a difficult investment for many smaller artists.

“The vinyl machine is another way of giving power back to the independent artist. If you’re an independent artist, it’s almost impossible to get a record (pressed),” Paulin said. “Grand Rapids has its own vibrant vinyl scene with two big record stores and it’d be nice to see local talent have their own vinyl in there.”

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Koops

aims

to create ‘automation destination’

Firm’s fourth facility is located in its Holland business park

By Kayleigh Van Wyk

Koops Automation Systems has opened its fourth Holland facility, enhancing the company’s automation production capabilities and West Michigan presence as market demand remains strong.

The new 45,000-square-foot building that was renovated from a previous use is located within Koops’ business park on Productions Court in Holland, where the company also is headquartered.

The building provides additional manufacturing space and houses additional offices while offering a “modern and efficient work environment,” according to company officials.

“The new building is going to help with larger-scale projects. … We’ve really had that need as we’ve continued to grow,” said Mike Slager, Koops’ director of business development.

Since its founding in 1989, Koops has emerged as a full-ser-

vice automation solutions provider, serving customers in the aerospace, defense, automotive, medical device and consumer goods industries. In 2012, the company transitioned from a single owner to employee-owned through an employee stock option plan (ESOP).

As Koops aims to grow its presence in Michigan, Slager also sees this new space as part of the company’s local epicenter for customers as demand for automation solutions continues to grow.

“Not only are we able to draw from local demand, but also create kind of an automation destination here where customers can travel from all over to come and have their needs met,” he said.

Prior to this new building, Koops launched its third expansion project in 2020 to increase and diversify in-house manufacturing capabilities. Last year, the company acquired Saginaw-based Wright-K Technology Inc., which added “welding excellence” to Koops’ offerings, company officials said at the time. As part of the deal, Koops added Wright-K’s Saginaw headquarters.

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Vinyl albums were the top-selling physical music format last year, outselling CDs for the first time since 1987, according to data from the Recording Industry Association of America.

Upscale Peruvian-Mexican restaurant coming to 28th Street

Owner inspired by growing worldwide popularity of Peruvian cuisine

By Abby Poirier ruvian flavors.

After seven years, the former Chinatown restaurant on 28th Street is coming back to life, this time as Rio Peruvian and Mexican Cuisine, an upscale eatery offering the best of both cultural flavors.

Andy Rosario, who also owns Maya Mexican Grill and Bar, purchased the location at 69 28th St. SW a year and a half ago for $375,000, according to Kent County property records. Since then, he has spent his time transforming the 8,000-square-foot facility into a space for diners to indulge in new flavors.

“Everybody told me not to get into it, including my wife. She told me not to purchase it. But I went with my gut. I took the risk,” he said.

After months of work, Rosario has completed renovations and the new restaurant, which will seat 279 customers, and is getting ready for a mid-August grand opening.

Rosario said he was inspired to open Rio by seeing the growing worldwide popularity of Peruvian cuisine.

To that end, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, a list produced by the U.K. media company William Reed, listed Peruvian restaurant Central, in Lima, as its No. 1 restaurant in 2022. It was the restaurant’s seventh consecutive year in the top 10. As well, the World Travel Awards listed Peru as the world’s leading culinary destination in 2022, 2021 and for seven consecutive years from 2012 to 2019.

“We need something new in the community,” he said. “I feel like everybody wanted to open a Mexican restaurant, but there’s more to offer than Mexican food. I feel like Peruvian food can be more creative.”

Rio’s kitchen will be helmed by Chef Luis Robles. Julio Beltran, who is of Peruvian descent and a friend of Rosario, is serving as a consultant for the restaurant, helping to craft a diverse, authentic menu with both Mexican and Pe-

“The idea is just offering the best of those two worlds,” Beltran said.

The restaurant’s Peruvian menu will include a variety of seafood options cooked using traditional Peruvian flavors, as well as iconic dishes like ceviche, made with raw fish or shrimp marinated in citrus.

Beltran also said Rio will offer

“leche de tigre,” or tiger’s milk, a drink made using the marinade from ceviche pureed with fish and

vegetables. The drink is reminiscent of a Bloody Mary and is served as a shot alongside ceviche. Meanwhile, the Mexican menu will offer traditional dishes like fajitas and tacos.

“Andy’s been really into (Peruvian) cuisine, so he thought it was a really good idea just to bring that experience to Grand Rapids,” Beltran said. “Something very unique and new — that’s what we are working on right now.”

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Rio Peruvian and Mexican Cuisine plans to open this month at 69 28th St. SW. | COuRtEsY PHOtOs

Interior shot of Rio.

not you.

Barbecue restaurant Butcher Block Social plans August opening

Caledonia eatery will feature local smoked meats and fresh vegetables

By Abby Poirier

A collaboration between Wildwood Family Farms and barbecue catering service Saladino Smoke is opening a new restaurant in Caledonia Township that will offer a rotating menu focused on smoked meats and locally-grown produce.

Justin Heyboer, co-founder of wedding venue and produce farm Wildwood Family Farms in Alto, is partnering to launch Butcher Block Social, his first restaurant, at 9900 Cherry Valley Ave. SE in Caledonia. The eatery, which he expects to open in early-to-mid August, will offer 100% wood-smoked barbecue staples like pulled pork and brisket from Saladino Smoke backed by fresh vegetables from Heyboer’s farm.

Heyboer plans to offer a wide range of food and drink options for every palate, from cocktails and charcuterie boards to baby back ribs and beer.

“We want to be really creative in the kitchen,” Heyboer said. “It’s a barbecue restaurant, but you can have really good salad here with something that is either off the smoker or not. We’ll have some pretty good vegan options available, too.”

Heyboer met Saladino Smoke owner Mike Saladino at a wedding event held at Wildwood years ago.

“He was (catering) a wedding and he gave me the burnt end of a brisket and we’ve been friends ever since,” Heyboer said. “We always joke that maybe someday we’d (open) a brick and mortar when we got a little more experience under our belts.”

When a liquor license became

available through Caledonia Township, the pair partnered in March 2022 with Brian Witvoet, the former owner of C.G. Witvoet & Sons Co., to create the concept for Butcher Block Social. They purchased the former InstaCar dealership on Cherry Valley Avenue for nearly $1.2 million in November 2022, according to property records, and started converting the space into a restaurant.

The partners handled most of the work on the project, given that “all of us somewhat come from a construction background.” For work they were unable to handle on their own, they turned to Steadfast Construction and a group of community connections who were willing to pitch in and help bring the vision to life.

Currently, Heyboer and Saladino are putting the finishing touches on the Butcher Block menu in preparation of opening this month.

The more than 9,000-squarefoot restaurant will seat around 225 diners for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Butcher Block Social also boasts a built-in stage for live music and a patio for customers to relax with drinks.

“(We’re) trying to think completely outside the box as far as music goes,” Heyboer said. “It’s hard to find any live music around our area. (In) downtown Grand Rapids, it’s obviously more prevalent, but there’s just not much out here.”

Butcher Block Social will have a rotating menu including burgers, ribs, pork chops and steak, allowing the kitchen team to “get creative.”

“The whole idea is that we’re going to change up the menu so our customers don’t get sick of the same thing,” Heyboer said. “You’re always getting the basics that you expect at a barbecue restaurant, but we also want to surprise people with some things. We’ll probably even have a Sunday brunch option, too.”

Butcher Block Social is taking shape at 9900 Cherry Valley Ave. SE in Caledonia Township. The 9,000-square-foot restaurant will seat around 225 people. | COURtESY PHOtO

Experts gather in Traverse City to discuss major health care priorities

By Crain’s Content Studio

“To provide leadership for the promotion and advocacy of high quality, a ordable, accessible, equitable health care for the citizens of Michigan.”

at vision statement from the Michigan Association of Health Plans (MAHP) was evident throughout the nonpro t’s recent Summer Conference, which focused on health equity, at the Grand Traverse Resort. Now in its 38th year, the conference invites health care-focused organizations from across the U.S. to gather for networking, idea-sharing and discussions about the biggest opportunities and challenges ahead in health care.

e legislative panel during the conference provided a glimpse into Michigan’s latest health care challenges from the perspectives of Sen. Kevin Hertel; Sen. Sylvia Santana; Rep. Curt VanderWall; Rep. Graham Filler; Rep. Angela Witwer; and Rep. Julie Rogers, moderated by David Waymire, co-founder of public relations rm Martin Waymire.

e session began with an overview of the impact of COVID-19 on health care, where longstanding issues became all the more evident.

“ e infrastructure for our health care system is where we need to focus our priorities, and we also need to make sure that the process for health care is seamless for those operations,” Sen. Santana said. “Most importantly, we must nd ways to x our mental health system to ensure people have access to care.”

Solving the challenges of Medicaid redetermination

Medicaid redetermination had been on hold since January 2020 due to the pandemic.

However, starting in June, Medicaid bene ciaries were required to reapply for bene ts, which will impact individuals who are not aware of the renewal requirement or who no longer meet the income criteria for Medicaid.

is is an area where we need to use some innovation, technology and navigators, Rogers emphasized.

“Under President Biden’s In ation Reduction Act,” she said, “people who no longer qualify for Medicaid can nd an a ordable product, but I think they need a human navigator helping with the process.”

During a separate conversation led by MAHP Executive Director Dominick Pallone, Director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Elizabeth Hertel said her team is advocating for the federal government to allow extra time for Michigan residents to complete the Medicaid redetermination process. “We all have the same objective: to keep people covered,” she said.

Creating legislation to regulate prescription drug prices

Rising pharmacy costs are a major driver of health care and insurance costs. A recent report from the Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) O ce of Health Policy found U.S. prices increased at about $150 per drug on average in January 2022, with several drugs increasing prices by over 500 percent.

“We know that health care a ordability is still the single largest public policy issue that our industry faces,” Pallone said during his opening remarks. “Tackling prescription drug costs by increasing competition and lowering the acquisition costs, not just focusing on co-pays, will lower overall health care costs.”

Another priority for MAHP is tied to transparency on regulating costs. A drug transparency bill (HB 4409) was introduced this past year, requiring drug manufacturers to notify the state when they increase a prescription drug cost above 15 percent annually. Similar legislation can be found in 19 states.

Another recently introduced bill, HB 4890, introduced by VanderWall, would help lower insulin costs, allowing for an FDA-approved insulin operation in Michigan.

“We could deliver insulin to people for under $60 a month,” he said. “ is gives Michigan an opportunity to be a leader.”

Improving access to behavioral health

e issue of behavioral health received resounding attention from policymakers during the conference. For Anita Fox, director of the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services, the pandemic highlighted the lack of a ne line between physical health and mental health.

“We know that 40 percent of Michiganders who have a mental health issue don’t seek care, and that’s a problem,” she said.

One way to address this issue, Rogers said, is through the Certi ed Community Behavioral Health Clinic model, which integrates physical and mental health care into one communitybased center.

“ is is a data-driven, evidence-based model — my town in Kalamazoo was one of the pilot projects,” she said. “Now we’re working within our budget to bring more communities online. It’s working in our state and in other states.”

VanderWall and Santana echoed the importance of data, and the need for assistance to help gather behavioral health data while also striking the balance of being scally responsible.

“As legislators, we need to look at how can we bring in outside entities to help support the gathering of that information and support a larger dialogue around behavioral health issues,” Santana said.

Closing the gap

With many health care policy e orts underway, the MAHP acts as a partner for legislators, providing important resources and education, and using its members as a resource, Pallone said.

He pointed to a prime example of MAHP’s policy work: the passing of “the Healthier Michigan Plan” into law, which started as a collection of policy ideas from a number of its members. e legislation eliminates the possibility of the Healthy Michigan Medicaid Plan, which covers about one million individuals, from being repealed if its operating costs outweigh its savings, and removes additional restrictions that limit accessibility of services.

“Policymakers trust that we’re honest brokers who are intent on nding compromise and solutions to some of the most di cult health care policy issues facing our state,” Pallone said.

To read more content from the MAHP Summer Conference, visit crainsgrandrapids. com/mahp-summer-conference

MAHP Executive Director Dominick Pallone leads a conversation with Elizabeth Hertel and Anita Fox with the State of Michigan. Photographer: Robert E. Kline

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The Winchester adds

‘Barking Lot’ for dogs

Owners also are putting a former food truck to use

By Abby Poirier

An addition at The Winchester is breathing new life into its food truck to offer dining options in a pet-friendly outdoor environment.

The Winchester, 648 Wealthy St. SE, launched the “Barking Lot” in July in its small side parking lot to offer an area where customers can bring their pets and drink and dine alongside other dog owners.

“Tons of our customers that come in on a regular basis have dogs, and I think that will be ex-

cheese sandwiches, including classic, chili honey grilled cheese, sun-dried tomato, pork and pickle, and a pot roast option. The food truck also offers snacking items, cocktails and wine. For four-legged patrons, the truck will serve up pup cups with dog treats and cream.

“It’s a totally different menu; you can’t order our burgers from there,” Beachum said. “The idea behind that was to not over-extend our kitchen. Our kitchen is a pretty small space, and we crank out a lot of food and we couldn’t handle any more. So, it was the happy medium of utilizing the space and not bogging down our kitchen.”

citing for them, to be able to bring their dogs,” said Winchester General Manager Natalie Beachum. “And it’s in an area that’s not our actual patio, so it works for people that maybe are allergic or afraid of dogs or whatever. I think it’s a winwin for everybody.”

The Barking Lot offers a new menu at The Winchester, made in the restaurant’s old food truck, formerly known as What The Truck, which owners Paul and Jessica Lee launched in 2010. After the truck sitting unused for the past several years, the leadership team decided this summer to bring the truck out of storage for a fresh start.

Customers at the outdoor lot can order from a range of grilled

The Barking Lot seats around 64 people and is open from 4-9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. While Winchester doesn’t have a closing date in mind, it hopes to continue offering outdoor dinner there into the fall, Beachum said.

“We don’t really know what to expect,” Beachum said. “This is a whole new avenue for us, but I think it’s going to go well, and I think there’s a lot of support from our regular customers.”

With this addition, Winchester joins a roster of dog-friendly restaurants around Grand Rapids. Just down Wealthy Street, Outside Coffee Co. welcomes dogs to its outdoor coffee shop, while restaurants like Maru Sushi, Brewery Vivant, Harmony Brewing Company, The Old Goat, Tupelo Honey and others allow dogs to accompany patrons on their patios.

The Winchester opened the “Barking Lot” as an outdoor, dog-friendly dining space.

| ABBY POIRIER

“Tons of our customers that come in on a regular basis have dogs, and I think that will be exciting for them, to be able to bring their dogs.”

Natalie Beachum, Winchester General Manager

Backlash ensues after developer buys properties along city park

Neighbors don’t want high-density housing near Huff Park

By Kate Carlson

Residents in Grand Rapids’ Creston neighborhood are concerned that high density development will encroach on a beloved community park after a developer bought up nearby property, even though the company has not finalized plans and aims for a small infill housing project.

An entity affiliated with Grand Rapids-based CopperRock Construction has purchased several properties over the past two years south of the 87-acre Huff Park on the city’s northeast side. The six properties on Joan Avenue and Knapp Street, acquired for a total of about $1.35 million, include both vacant lots and some with existing single-family homes, according to property records.

CopperRock Construction President Dean Rosendall met with the Creston Neighborhood Association during the group’s Land Use Committee meeting in April. No solid plans were presented, and the meeting was more about information gathering, Rosendall said.

Rosendall said that while detailed development plans are not

yet ready, his goal with the properties is to save some older homes and do some small-scale infill development to help meet the city’s housing needs. He hoped to present more detailed plans to Creston’s Land Use Committee at its Aug. 2 meeting if they were ready in time, he said.

“We fully intended to save the existing homes, that’s always been a driver for us,” Rosendall said.

“They’re nice and we want to save what’s there and do a nice rehabilitation on them and have a tasteful infill development because that is sustainable and paying homage to the neighborhood.”

Gregg Hampshire, executive director of the Creston Neighborhood Association, confirmed that the neighborhood group has not yet voted in favor or against the development as the group awaits more information. The association has heard many neighbors voicing concern for the past six months at its land use meetings about potential development near Huff Park, Hampshire said.

A recently created “Preserve Huff Park” online petition that garnered more than 4,000 signatures by the

middle of last month was directed to the Grand Rapids Planning Commission. In letters to the city planning commission, residents cited Huff Park’s value in providing biodiversity, outdoor recreation and birding opportunities.

“We oppose granting a special use permit that would allow multi-family housing in this location adjacent to Huff Park,” reads part of the petition language.

“Please stop the development of those complexes and dedicate the area to remain undeveloped or expand Huff Park for the livelihood of the wildlife, plants and people.”

However, CopperRock has not requested a special use permit from the city for the property.

Hampshire said he is not surprised by the petition, based on what he has heard from neighbors and during neighborhood meetings.

“Huff Park is a very important part of Creston and our greatest concern is maintaining a beautiful community asset,” Hampshire said.

Kim Kibby, who lives in the Creston neighborhood near Huff Park, said she is among residents who oppose any higher-density developments, such as an apartment

complex, along Knapp Street near the park.

“Right now, it’s just small homes and there is a buffer between the homes and the park,” Kibby said. “We want to keep it low-density and add some more homes if needed there, that’s fine, but just more common-sense, lower impact development.”

Rosendall said he is not sure what a unit count or type would be for any future development on Knapp Street, but he said he is taking neighbors’ concerns into account and planning a low-density project, with ample onsite parking and an architectural design that fits in with the neighborhood.

“I just think Grand Rapids is in desperate need of housing and there is a lot of vacant space here,” Rosendall said. “We just wanted to do a tasteful infill and not be overly

dense, and we really are working to listen to the neighbors’ concerns and have already made numerous adjustments to our early designs based on what we’ve heard.”

Development plans for Knapp Street are still in the early stages, which is why additional plans beyond the April neighborhood discussion have not yet been presented to neighbors, Rosendall said. He has had “high level” discussion with city staff, which developers typically dovetail with neighborhood presentations and discussions, Rosendall added.

Rosendall said he is unsure if he will need to apply for rezoning or a special land use for the potential project.

“We want to answer the neighbors’ concerns the best we can and also work with what the city would like to see,” Rosendall said.

HOW THE MANUFACTURERS COUNCIL FACILITATES CROSS-INDUSTRY COLLABORATION AMONG BUSINESSES IN WEST MICHIGAN

By Crain’s Content Studio

manufacturers. Because of their scale, they’re forced to do things differently.”

Through on-site company tours held throughout the year, the council fosters hands-on learning sessions and hosts events that even include councils with different specialties, such as artificial intelligence.

reaching students from elementary schools to colleges and universities in the region. The council recently partnered with the organization, Discover Manufacturing, to host 8,000 high school students at DeVos Place for interactive simulations related to construction, health care and various sectors tied to manufacturing.

“We are looking to diversify our membership to include smaller companies and a diversity of owners,” Bardeggia said. “When we invite potential new members to an event, we have an initiative that focuses on how to make newcomers feel welcome from moment one.”

The council’s high-level vision, Bardeggia said, is to advance West Michigan as a global center of manufacturing excellence.

In today’s rapidly evolving global economy, the manufacturing industry plays a pivotal role in driving innovation, economic growth and job creation. As manufacturers navigate the challenges and opportunities of a dynamic marketplace, having a supportive ecosystem that fosters collaboration, advocacy and knowledge-sharing becomes crucial.

Enter The Right Place | The CenterWest Manufacturers Council. Since

1989, the council is focused on best practice-sharing, empowerment and propelling manufacturing-focused companies to new heights.

“There’s a secret sauce here in West Michigan around collaboration,” said Manufacturers Council Chair Chris Bardeggia, who also serves as vice president of global quality and learn at office furniture company, Steelcase. “It’s been great to compare notes with not just large manufacturers but also smaller

“Through the Manufacturers Council, I’ve learned about what the Going PRO Talent Fund and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation offer as far as programs for upskilling employees and potentially getting funding,” said Vice Chair James Kolodziej, who works as operations manager at Flexco, an industry leader in conveyor belt systems.

Bardeggia and Kolodziej also noted the council’s dedication to

“It opens up students’ eyes to the types of careers that they could possibly have in a manufacturing company, and then from the manufacturers’ side, it’s keeping that talent pipeline fed,” Kolodziej said.

One of the council’s current goals is to add more diversity among its members and industries. As it stands, there are 38 members in major industries including automotive, diecasting, furniture, home goods, sheet metal and electrical assembly.

“It’s about promoting manufacturing and to get better at understanding what the best practice ecosystems are for manufacturing. What can we learn from them? And how do we continue to evolve?”

For details on joining the Manufacturers Council, contact Program Manager René Booker at 616-301-6247 or bookerr@ rightplace.org.

CRAIN’S CONTENT STUDIO

“There’s a secret sauce here in West Michigan around collaboration.”

- Chris Bardeggia Manufacturers Council Chair

CopperRock Construction is in the early stages of potentially developing a small-scale housing project after acquiring parcels along the south end of Huff Park in Grand Rapids.

| KAtE CARLsON

Square Roots closes all but one West Michigan location

Indoor hydroponic farm founded by Elon Musk’s brother moves to new model

By Abby Poirier

New York-based agricultural startup Square Roots has abruptly closed several locations, including one of its West Michigan operations, as part of the company’s shift to a new “farming as a service” model.

The widespread closures signal a change of concept for Square Roots, co-founded by Elon Musk’s brother, Kimbal Musk, as a techbased indoor hydroponic farming company. Founded in 2016, Square Roots initially drew attention for its strategy to use shipping containers to grow hydroponic plants vertically in an indoor, man-made environment.

The company said in a statement it is now operating its controlled climate farms “exclusively for our strategic partners — whether that’s to immediately secure the supply of high quality

crops, or to explore novel ways of profitably growing high calorie food indoors for a near-future world facing climate crisis.”

In the statement, Square Roots said it had to “pause” production “in some of our facilities while we reconfigure them to be more suitable for servicing customers under the Farming as a Service mode.”

The closures affected one of two farming operations that Square Roots co-located at Gordon Food Service’s headquarters in Wyo-

sha, Wis., Springfield, Ohio, and Shepherdsville, Ky., a facility which opened three months ago. Earlier in March, the company announced it had closed its flagship farm in Brooklyn and laid off 49 people.

The New York farm, which opened in 2016, was the only operation not co-located at a Gordon Food Service facility.

A spokesperson for Gordon Food Service did not respond to requests to comment.

In ad statement in March,

to be alert to the wider economic environment and stay ahead of it,” Peggs wrote at the time. “With the benefit of hindsight, I now see that we hired too aggressively last year, pushing our operating expenses too high. So the tough decisions we’ve now made will help us streamline and stay more focused with our strategic partners as we continue to grow this year, while working within the realities of the current climate.”

and financial news publication that the closure was “framed as a temporary thing, but the layoffs didn’t feel temporary.”

In a statement, the company said it would “look forward to bringing these facilities back on line in the future.”

ming, according to reports. The single remaining location at the site is “already servicing customers under Farming as a Service contracts,” according to the statement.

The changes also affected Square Roots operations in Keno-

co-founder and CEO Tobias Peggs apologized for the closure and cited abnormal economic circumstances as a factor behind the decision.

“We feel confident that our partner-centric business model is a winning strategy. But we also have

According to a report by Louisville, Ky.-based WDRB, the company has already stopped production at the locations slated for closure.

Meanwhile, Insider spoke with a former Square Roots employee in Grand Rapids who said Peggs announced the closure and layoffs during a Zoom call, adding that “everybody was kind of shocked.” The employee told the business

Square Roots’ first West Michigan location opened in 2019, followed by a second in 2021. The hydroponic farms, located at 1300 Gezon Parkway SW in Wyoming, have the capacity to produce over 2.4 million packages of produce annually.

The operation produces herbs and greens, which have been available via Gordon Food Service and local grocery stores including D&W Fresh Markets, Family Fare, South East Market and Kingma’s Market. The company also distributed products widely throughout Michigan.

HERE’S WHAT TO EXPECT AT THE SECOND-ANNUAL TECH WEEK GRAND RAPIDS

Tech enthusiasts and business leaders to showcase momentum in the sector

By Ashley Zlatopolsky for Crain’s Content Studio

advance tech sector strategy across the greater Grand Rapids region, enabling our companies to remain globally competitive while growing great job opportunities for area residents,” said Randy elen, president and CEO of e Right Place. “Events like Tech Week Grand Rapids play a vital role in bringing that vision to life.”

structured format, Tech Week Grand Rapids takes a di erent approach, providing attendees the ability to create a custom schedule by registering for their preferred events.

As a celebrated showcase of the region’s technology sector and innovation taking place in the region, Tech Week Grand Rapids is back for its second year. e multi-day collection of events, which take place September 18-23, shines a spotlight on the region’s vibrant tech community.

e Right Place, Inc., a regional economic development

organization, is leading Tech Week Grand Rapids in collaboration with over 25 community and business partners. is event is part of the 10-year regional tech strategy e Right Place launched last September. e strategy’s vision is to grow the Greater Grand Rapids region into a leading tech hub in the Midwest.

“One of our overarching goals over the next ten years is to

Renee Tabben, president of Bank of America in Grand Rapids and this year’s premier sponsor, added, “Whether you’re a business or tech startup leader, or navigating your education and career, Tech Week is an opportunity to engage, learn and grow your network.”

“Tech Week Grand Rapids will showcase the momentum Grand Rapids has in the tech industry,” said Jeremiah Gracia, director of economic development for the City of Grand Rapids and Tech Week sponsor.

Unlike traditional tech conferences, which have a

With something for everyone, events span hands-on tech exhibits and panel discussions, to pitch competitions and networking opportunities for the thousands of tech enthusiasts who attend. e Right Place will host a variety of events, and several more are in the works that will be announced in the coming weeks.

Visit techweekgr.com for a full list of events and sponsorship opportunities.

Monday, Sept. 18

3:30 – 6:30 P.M. GLC Live at 20 Monroe 11 Ottawa Ave. NW

This must-see kick-off event features keynote speaker, Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell is a Canadian journalist, author and public speaker. He has been featured in TIME’s “100 Most In uential People List” and has written “New York Times” bestsellers including “Outliers,” “Blink” and “David and Goliath.”

Panelists discuss technology trends at Tech Week Grand Rapids 2022.

One of Square Roots’ indoor farming operations off 60th Street SW on the Gordon Food Service campus in Wyoming. | FILE COURtESY PHOtO

“We feel confident that our partner-centric business model is a winning strategy. But we also have to be alert to the wider economic environment and stay ahead of it.”

Tobias Peggs, Square Roots co-founder and CEO

Theater renovation project nabs $100K grant from Lowe’s

Four star in Burton Heights envisioned as a ‘world-class’ arts and culture hub

By Abby Poirier

The long-running renovation at the Four Star Theatre in the Burton Heights neighborhood of Grand Rapids received a $100,000 funding boost recently, just as backers kicked off the second phase of the $5 million project.

Home improvement retailer Lowe’s backed the theater renovation via its Hometowns program, a $100 million initiative supporting community projects across the U.S. Marcus Ringnalda, founder and president of Friends of Four Star Inc., a nonprofit focused on renovating the theater, said the Lowe’s grant “confirms the importance of this project in our local community and the region.”

Ringnalda originally purchased the 11,000-square-foot theater for $160,000 in 2017 and has been working since then to bring the building back to life.

The theater, built in 1938 by B&J Theaters Inc., is located at 1944 S. Division Ave. and operated for nearly 60 years, originally as a single-screen theater seating 925 people and later as a Carnival night club in the 1980s and a youth center in the 1990s.

Before Ringnalda purchased the building, it had been vacant for a decade. Now the former Wolverine Building Group project manager hopes to turn the facility into a “world-class” arts and culture hub. He started raising funds for the project in 2021 when he founded Friends of Four Star.

Ringnalda said he was directed to the Lowe’s Hometowns grant by U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten’s office. He believed the theater would be a “perfect project” for the grant and applied.

“They are really about putting the community first,” he said. “It was really rewarding to hear from them (that) our project is really elevated and that it’s relevant on a national scale.”

With the grant funding, work on the second phase of the Four Star theater project kicked off in late July. Funding from Lowe’s will help complete the restoration of the theater lobby and add new front entrances and bathrooms, key elements in need of repair.

“By the end of (August), we’ll get our new front doors,” Ringnalda said.

Tylor Devereaux, CEO of Grand Rapids-based Tylor Devereaux In-

terior Design LLC, said he hopes to bring back some of the art deco style of the theater, combining old and new to create a fresh, modern space that retains its historic charm.

Friends of Four Star has invested $250,000 in the restoration through phase one of the project.

The Kent County Board of Commissioners also approved a $500,000 American Rescue Plan Act grant to restore the theater’s marquee.

Ringnalda expects to wrap up phase two construction in November, with the theater remaining

SPONSORED CONTENT

open for select events.

He anticipates the final phase of the restoration project to require around $4 million, an investment that will include the addition of a new roof and accessibility upgrades.

The board at Friends of Four Star currently envisions the theater will host around 200 arts, culture and corporate events per year, with hopes to attract 50,000-plus visitors.

“We’re going to measure success here by the number of people who visit and by the number of events we have,” Ringnalda said, adding

FIND INNOVATION, INSPIRATION AT THE 2023 ADVANCED MANUFACTURING EXPO AT DEVOS PLACE

With more than 250+ exhibitors in the Automation, Metalworking, and Mechanical Halls — plus two days of demonstrations, panels, and opportunities to learn and connect — the annual Advanced Manufacturing Expo will o er boundless inspiration and innovation.

Among this year’s highlights are a famous robot dog, welding art demonstrations, podcaster Jake the Manufacturing Millennial, an Industry 4.0 pitch event and much more.

Here are some highlights and headliners from this year’s event:

Podcasting from the Expo!

On his popular podcast, “ e Manufacturing Millennial,” Jake Hall talks about the latest technology in automation and manufacturing while making it engaging for all audiences.

is year, Jake will be recording his podcast live from the Advanced Manufacturing Expo.

Industrial Control hired Jake Hall in 2003 as a sales engineer in West Michigan. A er almost seven years of providing manufacturer’s some of the

highest technology solutions, such as 2D & 3D machine vision, laser markers, and robotics, Jake started making videos, eventually creating a brand for himself as the Manufacturing Millennial.

Meet Spot the Robot Dog

e Gray Solutions Team is showcasing “Spot” the Boston Robotics robotic dog at this year’s expo. Spot is an agile mobile robot that navigates terrain with unprecedented mobility, allowing you to automate routine inspection tasks and data capture safely, accurately and frequently. e results? Safer, more e cient and more predictable operations.

Garage” on Discovery Channel, and has been published in “Welder” magazine. Find Rae demonstrating her artistry live from 12:45-1:45 p.m. and then 2-3 p.m. Wednesday and ursday at Booth 1320.

Autonomous Anything? Wheel_Me demo

Check out Wheel_Me in the Automation Hall demo area sponsored by Industrial Control. ese self-driving wheels work together as a swarm — just build the frame, mount the wheels and watch them crab crawl right to le and move forward and backward. Wheel_Me, from Oslo, Norway, came to Michigan with the help of Centrepolis Accelerator in South eld.

that his goal for the Four Star is “really to build a versatile venue for all kinds of events, corporate meetings, concerts. We’re talking about stage productions, museum style exhibits. (We want to) make a place that it’s a jack of all trades.” Other Michigan projects receiving funding from the Lowe’s program included a recreation center at Grayling-based USO Camp Grayling, kitchen upgrades at the Ruth Peterson Senior Center in Pontiac, and food pantry and kitchen updates at the Ishpeming-based Salvation Army of Marquette County.

features pitch competitions, panel discussions and reside chats. Connect with industry leaders and gain insights on the newest tech impacting manufacturing. Be part of the conversation as i4.0 continues to advance! Find a full agenda and pitch schedule at advancedmanufacturingexpo.com/i40-pitchevent.

Get smarter with MMTC

At AME 2023, the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center ( e Center) invites you to the Smart Manufacturing Zone to meet with their team and get hands-on with technology that can help your business. From cobots to additive manufacturing to system integration, the Smart Manufacturing Zone has the solutions you need to remain competitive.

ADMISSION IS FREE

The Advanced Manufacturing Expo is free and open to the public. It runs 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 9-10, 2023, at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids. Find a full agenda and list of exhibitors at www.advancedmanufacturingexpo.com.

Making Metal into Art:

Welding demo with Rae Ripple

Sculptor Rae Ripple will be demonstrating her welding skills, sponsored by Creston Industrial Sales. Metal materials have been donated by JR Automation of Holland. Rae has been featured on the “Down to Business” podcast, “Monster

i4.0 Accelerator Pitches and Panels

e i4.0 Accelerator’s annual Corporate Partner event will take place during the Advanced Manufacturing Expo! e event

The Four Star Theatre at 1944 S. Division Ave. in the Burton Heights neighborhood of Grand Rapids. ABBY POIRIER

America trusts small businesses. Let’s support them

Michigan cracked the top 10 in CNBC’s annual “Top States for Business” list. While the categories, weighting and methodology of that ranking are debatable, Michigan is better as a result of more than a decade of work to remake our business climate, getting government out of the way and allowing innovators to thrive. But there’s no guarantee of this status, and if many of the current legislative proposals are any predictor, we could quickly lose this ranking and tip back into the anti-business abyss of pre2011.

While the state has enjoyed some success in luring investment from big businesses to Michigan, small businesses are increasingly concerned about bills that would be extremely damaging to entrepreneurs. All of this is happening as businesses large and small continue to face several major challenges, including our inadequate labor market and successive years of fast-rising costs. Our economy doesn’t thrive unless small businesses thrive so there is a serious cause for concern. A prosperous economy needs small businesses to succeed. There are some bills in the works that have the potential to irreparably harm the small businesses that Americans place their faith in.

Independent contractors are small businesses, and many small businesses use independent contractors to grow. Independent contractors would be severely restricted in the type of work they could do under proposed limitations. If enacted,

COMMENTARY

these restrictions would be the strictest in the nation. Small businesses could not use independent contractors or operate as independent contractors unless the work being performed is outside the “usual course” of the payer’s business. Small businesses rarely grow in full-time employee increments. Fractional services from independent contractors are an essential part of the small business growth process.

For small companies that lack the scale to access to corporate resources and large workforces, a second bill in the works would be extremely punitive, requiring a

concept called predictive scheduling. This legislation would require many retail, hospitality, and food service establishments to provide a schedule 14 days in advance, including on-call shifts. It carries huge costs for deviations from that schedule without 14 days notice. The structure of this bill limits “at-will” employment options with respect to scheduling issues. With an ailing labor market and a massive tourism industry based around a seasonal calendar, Michigan employers already have a hard time accommodating fluctuating labor needs. This would deepen that wound. SBAM’s long-held position is

clear: Any legislation that interferes with the at-will relationship between employees and employers should be opposed. These two proposals are just the tip of the iceberg. There are literally dozens of proposals that would add onerous regulations and higher costs, placing the biggest burden on small businesses. If we want to be a state where mom-and-pop shops remain in our neighborhoods and on our main streets, we have to reject the push to impose new requirements that could decimate them. Americans have put their trust in small businesses – now let’s hope the Michigan government does, too.

National mental health crisis helpline is crucial

July 16 marked one year since our nation transitioned to 988, the easy-to-remember, nationwide mental health crisis helpline. This number connects callers with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline). Congress designated 988 in 2020 as a part of the federal government’s commitment to addressing the mental health crisis in America. Unprecedented federal resources also have been invested to scale up crisis centers in support of the 988 helpline.

It is imperative, whether at home or in the workplace, that everyone spreads the word: Help is available.

The 988 national helpline is confidential, free, and available 24/7/365, con-

necting those experiencing a mental health, substance use, or suicidal crisis with trained crisis counselors. Access is available through every land line, cell phone, and voice-over-internet device in the United States and call/text services are also available in Spanish, along with interpretation services in over 150 languages.

Since the launch of 988 in 2022, data show an increase in overall calls, texts and chats — all while answer rates are significantly improving. More people are getting connected to care (and connected sooner) than ever before.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA):

w 98% of people who contact 988 are helped by a trained crisis counselor, resources are shared, and community connections are made (without the involvement of 911) during the call/text/chat.

w 9,360 is the average number of daily contacts to 988.

w About 1% of people who contact 988 agree to have their crisis counselor call 911 because of serious risk to life.

w In fewer than 1% of 988 calls, the crisis counselor must call 911 without consent because of serious risk to life.

All this is to say those suffering emergency mental health issues have no reason to wait as immediate assistance is available.

If someone is experiencing an emotional crisis or thoughts of suicide, call 988 or

seek help at a licensed behavioral health facility. 24/7 assessments also are available at Forest View Hospital by contacting us directly. As a behavioral health care provider right here in Grand Rapids, our team at Forest View Hospital is dedicated to support individuals in a manner that promotes hope, resiliency, connectedness and recovery. We also are proud to partner with the local 988 network and often serve as a resource for individuals referred for help. We appreciate the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those in need.

Michael Nanzer is CEO and managing director of Forest View Hospital in Grand Rapids.

It is imperative, whether at home or in the workplace, that everyone spreads the word: Help is available.

Brian Calley is the former lieutenant governor of the state of Michigan and president and CEO of Small Business Association of Michigan.

Walker manufacturer lands $300M defense contract

Plasan North America is tasked with making military vehicle components

By Kayleigh Van Wyk

A U.S. military and commercial automotive manufacturer recently selected Walker-based Plasan North America Inc. to produce components for a fleet of armored combat vehicles.

The five-year, roughly $300 million subcontract with South Bend, Ind.-based AM General LLC will allow Plasan to make major subcomponents of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) A2’s armored cab.

In February, AM General was awarded a $4.65 billion contract to manufacture an estimated 20,000 JLTVs, along with approximately 10,000 trailers and associated technology enhancements for the U.S. Armed Forces.

Plasan North America has a longstanding relationship with the JLTV program, and for the last seven years has provided armor components for the vehicles. Company executives say the new contract will allow Plasan to further contribute to the JLTV program.

“This is a milestone for us and the kind of contract we’ve been looking for the last couple of years,” John Cavedo Jr., president at Pla-

JOBS

From Page 3

opportunities in the area and they’re really not just from only one industry. They’re really spread out across all industries — manufacturing, medical, professional trades, anywhere.”

For example, among 20 high-demand, high-wage occupations that require a four-year degree are positions that span across health care, manufacturing and engineering. High-demand, highwage jobs that require a two-year degree or long-term training such as an apprenticeship are dominated by skilled trades such as electricians, tool and die makers, machinists, carpenters and machine mechanics.

Anita Fox, director of the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services, pointed to the industry she regulates. People often think of the insurance and financial services industries as bank tellers and insurance agents, but the two industries also need marketing, IT, and administrative and other talent, she said.

“There are so many more jobs,” Fox said in a panel discussion on the career outlook. “These are powerhouse job opportunities in the state of Michigan, but the biggest challenge I think we have is letting people know — whether they’re young people, people returning to the workforce, people who want to move to Michigan, people who want to stay in Michigan — (about) all of the jobs that are available.”

The insurance industry employs 140,000 people in the state, Fox said.

The West Michigan Career Outlook covers Allegan, Barry, Ionia,

san North America and retired U.S. Army colonel, told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.

The company anticipates hiring 170 highly skilled professionals over the next 18 months to help meet the requirements of the new contract.

“The labor market is still not fully recovered from what it was like pre-pandemic,” Cavedo said.

He said Plasan North America is starting to work with staffing agencies and is hiring internal human resources specialists to assist with recruiting for positions such as welders, CNC machine operators and quality engineers.

“It is a big task ahead of us, but fortunately we don’t have to hire 170 people in one day,” Cavedo said.

The partnership with AM General also will enable Plasan North America to make additional capital investments to grow production capabilities.

Cavedo said the company already has the space to complete this work after taking over affiliate Plasan Carbon Composites’ nearly 200,000-square-foot building at the same campus in Walker, after that

Kent, Lake, Mason, Mecosta, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, Osceola and Ottawa counties.

Training and creating the workforce needed to fill the new jobs projected for the region requires a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion and connecting with underrepresented populations, said TaRita Johnson, senior vice president for talent and diversity at The Right Place Inc. in Grand Rapids.

“When you look at this talent landscape, we need everybody,” Johnson said.

Johnson noted that West Michigan’s population is becoming increasingly diverse ethnically and racially. By 2045, the Hispanic population locally will grow a projected 130% and the Black population will expand by 40%, she said.

“Everybody needs to have this diversity, equity and inclusion lens,” Johnson said. “We have to understand all layers, not just race and ethnicity, but gender and sexual orientation (and) all of those layers of diversity. We all have to have that lens, and what that means is that we have to put people at the table. We can’t design programs for people, and the people that we’re designing programs for are not at the table.”

The career outlook “is another strategic way to broaden the conversation and continue the integration of talent and economic development, connecting the education, community and economic systems to collaborate to provide inclusive opportunities,” Johnson said.

That work should include “developing a robust talent ecosystem which intentionally eliminates barriers and provides access, education and up-skilling opportunities,” she said.

entity scaled back on its operations.

“In my opinion, that could have been one of the differentiators between Plasan North America and some other companies AM General was considering: We already had adequate space to do this and scale up,” Cavedo said.

The company will focus on fully ramping up its staff to meet growing demand in 2024.

“We have a list of parts and components of the JLTV, and those quantities will continue to increase throughout 2024, and we’ll be building progressively more quantities of those same parts,” Cavedo said.

The JLTV Family of Vehicles, an Army-led joint program with the U.S. Marine Corps, aims to close capability gaps in the light tactical vehicle fleets. JLTVs are designed to perform multiple mission roles and provide protected, sustained, networked mobility for personnel and payloads across the full range of military operations.

Early studies for the program received approval in 2006, and an RFP for the program’s engineering and manufacturing development phase was released in early 2012. Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Corp. secured the initial production contract in 2015.

For Cavedo, who was the colonel project manager for the JLTV program in its competitive phase from

2012 to 2015, the latest contract allows him to come full circle professionally. Cavedo enlisted in the Army in 1985 and was stationed in Panama, where troops widely utilized Jeeps before transitioning to Humvees.

“I spent most of my Army career riding around in Humvees, and then as a colonel leading the program that was going to mostly replace the Humvee called the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle,” Cavedo said. “Eight years later, I’m now the president of the manufacturing company that is going to be manufacturing a substantial portion of the armored cab. It really is full circle … there’s a lot of personal and professional pride at stake here for me.”

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE

ADVERTISING, MARKETING & PR

Truscott Rossman

Truscott Rossman welcomes vice president, Ryan Gajewski. With a proven track record in industries ranging from professional sports to economic development to consumer packaged goods, Ryan’s success extends beyond conventional and industry boundaries. He has earned a reputation for his innovative approach to digital content strategy and social media marketing and is always looking ahead to leverage cutting-edge trends to bene t clients. TR: Michigan roots, national reach, winning results.

BANKING & FINANCE

Flagstar Bank

Flagstar Bank has hired Tim Doyle as commercial banking market manager-West Michigan Region. Doyle brings over 30 years’ experience and a track record of success in commercial banking and lending. Prior to Flagstar, he held leadership positions at Union, Macatawa, and Fifth Third banks. A 20-year resident of West Michigan, Doyle is past president of the Michigan Bankers Association and is active with the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan and the Heart of West Michigan United Way.

Rotary Club of Grand Rapids

Shaun Shira has been appointed 2023-24 president at the Rotary Club of Grand Rapids. Shira is Major & Planned Gifts Director at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. Shira holds a Master of Public Administration in nonpro t management and a Bachelor of Business Administration in marketing from GVSU. He holds a Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy® designation from The American College of Financial Services. He also serves on the board of the Western Michigan Estate Planning Council.

BANKING & FINANCE

Old National Bank

Old National Bank is pleased to announce the addition of Jennifer Curtis as a Commercial Relationship Manager, VP. Jennifer is responsible for expanding the Bank’s commercial lending portfolio in Grand Rapids. Jennifer is a seasoned banker with 15+ years of experience most recently serving as a Portfolio Manager, VP with Old National. Before that, she worked at Merrill Lynch in Chicago serving as a senior credit manager. She has a bachelor’s degree in nance from Michigan State University.

Thacker Sleight

Thacker Sleight, a boutique West Michigan law rm, is pleased to announce Corey Volmering has joined the rm as an Associate Attorney. Corey Volmering is dedicated to providing his clients top-notch legal services in both family law and estate planning matters. Corey mainly concentrates his practice on divorce, custody, parenting time, child support, paternity, and guardianship cases. He also handles matters involving adoption, grandparenting time, and LGBTQ+ law. Corey is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and is active in the Grand Rapids Bar Association, the Ottawa County Bar Association, and the Kalamazoo Bar Association. In addition, he is a proud veteran of the United States Air Force.

Crystal

Bloomberg reported recently that Acrisure had been interviewing investment banks about a possible IPO in 2024. Company officials have otherwise declined to comment publicly on the report.

Over the last decade, Acrisure has grown rapidly by pursuing an aggressive M&A strategy to become a top 10 global insurance brokerage. Acrisure had until recently ranked as the largest acquirer of insurance agencies and brokerages in North America, a ranking it held for years.

That M&A strategy, including the 2020 deal for Pittsburgh-based Tulco LLC’s insurance business and transactions to expand into other lines of business such as cybersecurity and title insurance, drove Acrisure’s revenue from $38 million to more than $4.1 billion last year.

MARKET

Acrisure closed on 780 acquisitions from 2013 to 2022, according to Optis Partners LLC, a Chicago-based insurance agency M&A firm that tracks deals in the industry. Acrisure closed on 107 deals in the last year alone.

“It has been an impressive record of growth, there’s no doubt about it,” said Steve Germundson, a partner at Optis Partners. “We haven’t seen anybody that acquisitive before.”

However, the company’s dealmaking activity, at least for insurance agencies and brokerages, has cooled in the first half of this year. Through June 30, Acrisure closed just 10 deals for brokerages and insurance agencies, although the company’s M&A continues to extend into other industry areas.

The latest Optis Partners quarterly report does not list Acrisure as a top 10 acquirer through the first half of 2023, the first time in years Acrisure did not lead the list. Acri-

the largest since November 2021.

sure remained the top acquirer for the 12-month period from mid2022 to mid-2023, closing 79 deals, according to Optis Partners. Hub International was second at 65 acquisitions.

The reduced overall pace of agency M&A “tells us that things are afoot” and that Acrisure also may have shifted its focus to “integrate and digest” its many previous acquisitions, Germundson said.

“Their model has sort of been, euphemistically, ‘Buy you and leave you alone,’” he said. “At some point, you have to start doing something with what you bought, and so now that’s what they’re doing.”

Little known outside of its industry, the company has been trying to build greater brand name recognition among consumers through securing naming rights for sports and entertainment venues. They include the former Heinz Field that’s home to the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steel-

ers and is now known as Acrisure Field. The company bought the naming rights as part of a 15-year deal that was worth a reported $150 million.

Some of the reduced agency M&A volume also could be the result of a “lot more” buyers becoming active in the insurance industry, which has become “a very crowded space” among acquirers, Germundson said. Private equity-backed High Street Partners Inc., which is based in Traverse City, also now ranks among the top 10 buyers nationally, according to the quarterly Optis M&A report.

“Acrisure has a model that others followed,” Germundson said.

Even with fewer deals this year for insurance agencies and brokerages, Acrisure remains committed to an M&A strategy, Chief Communications Officer Elliott Bundy told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.

Bundy noted that Acrisure has been completing other deals be-

yond insurance brokerages and agencies as the company extends into other lines of business.

In his interview with Business Insurance, Williams said that Acrisure had closed on or has signed letters of intent for 40 deals as of mid-June.

“I would still expect our M&A pace to be very meaningful, both in terms of the number of acquisitions as well as acquired revenue or acquired EBITDA,” Bundy said. “In M&A, we are looking increasingly at different lines of business in addition to our healthy pace of insurance brokerage M&A. When you’re doing that, that’s a bit of a different beast in terms of size of deals and pace of deals that become meaningful.

“It’s never been about the numbers for us. The numbers have been what they were because that’s where our strategy was, but we’re looking at a multitude of different business options right now, too.”

“It’s been down and probably started going down the second half of last year significantly, although there were signs it was starting to dry up even in the first half of 2022,” Torrence said. “It will eventually come back.”

Bloomberg reported recently that the fast-growing, Grand Rapids-based Acrisure had been interviewing investment banks about a possible IPO in 2024. Acrisure has declined to comment on the report, although founder and CEO Greg Williams later told trade publication Business Insurance that an IPO “won’t be anytime soon.”

A quarterly report from Ernst & Young Global Ltd. suggests that a potential Acrisure IPO, if it were to happen in 2024, would likely occur as the market rebounds.

EY Global’s second quarter report on global IPO trends notes that “many of the headwinds that contributed to the dearth of activity (had) begun to subside” in the first half of 2023.

The 64 U.S. IPOs in the first half of this year raised $8.8 billion for issuers, increases of 87% and 25%, respectively, compared to the same period a year earlier. However, EY Global said the higher proceeds largely resulted from a $4.4 billion IPO in May that was

From Page 1 AQUARIUM

From Page 1

that’s so important is that is what drives net economic impact. We’re talking in the billions for economic impact in a 10-year period.”

Partners have yet to select a site for the aquarium, as planning discussions are ongoing and “still at the 50,000-foot level,” said Kent County Administrator Al Vanderberg. If the project ends up coming to fruition in Kent County or Grand Rapids, it would be another largescale cultural asset that makes the area a destination and serves as an economic driver, Vanderberg said.

Previously, Grand Action 2.0 in-

“Equities have rebounded from (2022’s second-half) lows, inflation may have peaked, interest rate increases could be nearing an end and volatility has subsided to pre-COVID lows,” authors at EY Global wrote in the report.

“With some of the market challenges of the past few years as a backdrop, corporates have been actively exploring ways to unlock value and drive shareholder returns. Two of the top five largest U.S. IPOs in Q2 2023 were carveouts from corporates, with a number of similar transactions in the pipeline.”

Even with the softness in the IPO market since 2022, “well-managed, profitable organizations, particularly companies that have strong cash flow from their operations, are going to succeed” if they go public, said Jack Kristan, a partner at the Southfield office of Plante Moran PLLC.

“Generally speaking, capital markets reward well-run organizations,” Kristan said.

Kristan attributes the cooling in the traditional IPO market partly to the rise of special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, that some companies have used to go public. That includes Traverse City-based specialty vehicle insurer Hagerty Inc. (NYSE: HGTY), which became a publicly traded company in late 2021 through a merger with Aldel

cluded a downtown aquarium in a 2021 conceptual plan for development possibilities in downtown Grand Rapids along the Grand River and Market Avenue corridors. Planning and design firm Populous developed the riverfront plan in partnership with Grand Rapids-based architecture firm Progressive AE Inc.

“The educational impacts this would have for high school students, university research opportunities, potential for doing maritime and aquatics research — it really would become the kind of institution that would have a major impact on the community from a number of different perspectives,” Vanderberg said. “The cultural, educational

Financial Inc., an Itasca, Ill.based SPAC that formed in late 2020.

The quarterly report from EY Global shows SPAC deals have cooled significantly this year. SPAC IPOs in the U.S. involving companies now listed on Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange declined from 72 in the first half of 2022 to 17 in the first half of 2023, according to the report.

“Now, I think, organizations are coming back to the focus of the more traditional-style IPO,” said Kristan, who believes more companies are planning to go public in the year ahead to access public capital markets and finance growth.

Torrence at Honigman believes that larger private equity-owned companies whose investors want liquidity could become a potential driver for a rebound in IPOs.

For investors to get their money out of the business, it needs to go through an IPO or a sale to another private equity fund, a prospect currently hampered by higher interest rates, he said.

“Given the current interest rate environment and the efficiencies and synergies that have been achieved with these private equity-backed and -run enterprises, I think there’s going to need to be another catalyst, and personally believe that access to the public markets might be that,” Torrence said. “If that’s the case, that could

and economic development impact would be tremendous.”

Based on early design concepts, partners expect the aquarium to draw people on a national scale and compete with the country’s top aquariums such as Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, and National Aquarium in Maryland, D’Arienzo said.

“When you only have a handful of destination assets, you can’t outcompete other major U.S. cities. But when you build an aquarium of this size, it’s so large that it has a net economic impact for the U.S. and is projected to bring people from out of the country,” D’Arienzo said.

John Ball Zoo has been explor-

really in parallel drive the IPO pipeline. There’s a lot of companies waiting for the window to open back up that are wanting to go public.

“Once those markets open up even a crack, I think there’s going to be a flood of new issues that come to market or at least file to come to market.”

Torrence said he remains skeptical, although hopeful, that the flood could occur next year. The presidential election and uncertainty that goes along with it “creates additional headwinds for 2024, but we shall see,” he said.

Should directors at Acrisure decide to pursue an IPO, “the sheer size” of the company and “the sheer size of the type of IPO that they would do” should be viewed favorably by the market, Torrence said.

Acrisure closed in May 2022 on a $725 million preferred equity raise led by a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The raise, which the company said it planned to use to support further global expansion, valued Acrisure at $23 billion.

“A lot of those types of companies actually have the benefit of being able to go out and do a successful IPO even in tough markets because there are so many interested buyers, both institutional and others, that would be very interested in owning a piece of

ing the idea of building an aquarium for several years. Preliminary plans for the aquarium call for interactive exhibits and expansive, million-gallon tanks filled with both saltwater and freshwater that would include tunnels for visitors to walk through.

The aquarium would include a range of saltwater species, including sharks and stingrays, along with freshwater fish. Exhibits would tell the history of underwater volcanoes and subduction zones in oceans, as well as discuss the fisheries in the Great Lakes region, D’Arienzo said.

“The front entrance will tell the story of how water connects us all,” D’Arienzo said. “We are trying

that business,” Torrence said. “They’ve achieved full scale.” Acrisure until recently was the largest acquirer of insurance agencies and brokerages in North America.

The acquisition strategy, including the 2020 deal for Pittsburgh-based Tulco LLC’s insurance business, along with the company’s extension into other lines of business such as cybersecurity and title insurance, drove Acrisure’s revenue from $38 million to more than $4.1 billion in 2022.

Acrisure going public “makes sense” given the company’s growth and size, said Steve Germundson, a partner at Optis Partners, a Chicago-based insurance agency M&A firm. Today’s higher interest rates make raising further private capital to support growth more expensive, he said.

One hurdle for an IPO is whether Acrisure can sustain revenue growth organically, said Germundson, who noted the market likely will question “can they continue the top-line growth and can they get any margin expansion going forward in their operating margin?”

Despite the potential challenges, Germundson echoed Torrence in believing Acrisure’s size and breadth should play to its favor in the market.

“They certainly have the scale to go public,” he said.

to get an animal from each continent at the front entrance.”

The aquarium project would cost an estimated $300 million to $400 million if everything was ready to go and construction started today, D’Arienzo said, adding that cost estimates could change given the timeline for construction. He estimates it could open sometime between 2030 and 2034.

“The construction timeline is three years, then there is something called conditioning the bioload — basically you can’t just put a bunch of water in a tank and put fish in it,” D’Arienzo said. “It can take nine months to make sure things are balanced right. Some of that can overlap with construction.”

ADHD

From Page 3

directors, and he and Duthler are still “very engaged shareholders,” Brophy said.

Since Booker and Duthler formed the company, ADHD Online’s platform has assessed more than 137,000 patients for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Brophy said. Doctorate-level psychologists review assessments and provide a diagnosis.

About 30,000 patients who underwent an assessment from ADHD Online receive ongoing treatment for their condition, either through their own doctor or from a care provider that’s part of a contracted provider network.

The company recorded about $20 million in revenue in 2022, Brophy said.

“The business has grown rapidly to get to this point,” he said. “It’s a large patient panel that we have.”

As ADHD Online plots further growth, leaders face two significant barriers to overcome: regulatory changes and drug shortages.

Medications to treat ADHD that are in short supply “cause a giant backup” and complicate care for patients, Brophy said.

On the regulatory front, the ex-

HOUSING

From Page 3

Turkelson noted that zoning regulations are the most effective lever that local officials can pull to grow the city’s housing stock. Across the country, zoning regulations can either hinder new housing builds or ensure new projects are built, she said.

“When we pair zoning reform with other economic development tools, that’s how we get more affordability and supply into the pipeline,” said Ryan Kilpatrick, senior adviser at nonprofit housing organization Housing Next.

The 2023 Kent County Housing Needs Assessment determined that the city of Grand Rapids needs an additional 14,106 units by 2027 to stabilize the housing market.

Most of the city commissioners were on board, at least to some degree, with the various zoning proposals that staff will now examine further and plan to bring back to the planning commission later this year. A target date for the city commission to adopt zoning changes is at the end of 2023, Turkelson said.

Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) provide a single housing unit on the same lot as an existing residence. The proposed changes for ADUs are to streamline the approval process and eliminate the current requirement that the primary or existing residence on the lot of an ADU must be owner-occupied. Turkelson noted that the city has not seen many requests for ADU projects, partly because of zoning restrictions. Financing and lending for an ADU are also obstacles, she said.

City commissioners Lisa Knight and Kelsey Perdue voiced concerns about the difficulty in financing ADUs, and how that

piration on May 11 of the U.S. public health emergency for COVID-19 means that physicians are no longer allowed to prescribe medications without seeing a patient first. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has proposed a regulatory change to require an in-person visit before doctors can prescribe stimulants for an ADHD patient.

“We’re doing a strategy refinement because of the industry headwinds,” Brophy said.

ADHD Online intends to evolve its assessment platform to integrate more behavioral health screenings, including social media behavior issues and risk factors, plus build out Mentavi Health to “tackle a broader range of conditions” in mental health, Brophy said.

Rather than building assessments for anxiety and depression into ADHD screening as is now the practice, the company will adapt the platform and questionnaire to offer separate online assessments that begin with those conditions, he said.

The company is “going carefully with our road map” and deciding the order in which it will tackle other conditions, Brophy said.

“Over time, we’re going to build more front doors into the assess-

could potentially create inequities among neighborhoods in experiencing such projects.

Kilpatrick noted that “targeted programs” with local lenders could help solve some of those financing issues for ADUs.

“For aging homeowners, going up and down the stairs is not viable, but they might not want to leave their home,” Kilpatrick said.

“Building an ADU for the homeowner and renting out their home allows them to pay for their own retirement plan. What we need to do is have financial partners come alongside financial regulatory reform so everyone has access to the capital (to build ADUs). In most neighborhoods, there will be enough rental income to help support the cost (of an ADU). It’s the upfront financing that’s the problem.”

The city currently prohibits more than four unrelated people from living in a single dwelling unit. One proposal would increase that number to allow up to six unrelated people living in one residence.

“Lifting the cap, even if it just goes to six (people), would make it easier to provide safer, more sustainable housing options,” Kilpatrick said, referencing many nonprofit housing projects that would be possible with the zoning change.

Setting a unit occupancy is a common rule for municipalities and is put in place to mitigate and control potential effects on neighborhood traffic and noise, Turkelson said.

“I’m in support of changing the number, and six seems reasonable to me,” Commissioner Jon O’Connor said. “Often I’m supportive of letting the building code drive decisions. I understand that with the increasing of this cap there would be increasing pressures, but I also

ment,” Brophy said. “The reality of mental health is we usually don’t have one crisp issue. It’s often a blend. We want to be that mental wellness assessor where you can come with a ‘what’s going on with me?’ question and get a combination of diagnoses.

“The way to think of it is there’s no wrong front door. The patient should not have to identify their condition.”

All of the screenings the company intends to offer will operate off “one assessment engine that, depending on where you’re starting, is going to bring you through that condition,” said Keith Boswell, Mentavi Health’s vice president of marketing.

“But then it’s also going to take you through the other conditions that may have co-morbidities,”

look at the problem staring at us in the face of what is the easiest path of getting more individuals with roofs over their heads. If we’re really serious about trying to tackle this problem, this is the lowest hanging fruit of all of it.”

The commissioners voiced general support for increasing the minimum occupancy rate, with a few exceptions. Knight said her only concern with raising the occupancy minimum is to ensure houses are still maintained. City commissioner Nathaniel Moody said he was concerned about too much street parking with an increase in occupancy.

“With all of these recommendations or starting points, it’s also about making sure our code compliance team is mitigating impacts — that’s critical,” Turkelson said.

The city also lacks avenues for transitional living situations, room and board houses, or other communal and co-op style living situations, and leaders are considering changes that would allow such housing on a small scale in some residential districts. This is different from licensed rehabilitation housing, which is zoned separately, Turkelson said.

“Right now these developments are not even an option, so putting it in the use table right now would be a good step,” Turkelson said. “These types of uses are looked at a lot by nonprofits — there is a lot of opportunity there to look at.”

The target demographic for this use is often citizens who served time and are returning to society with very little income, Kilpatrick said.

“Having options that are lowcost and low-barrier is critical,” Kilpatrick said.

Turkelson proposed potentially allowing this type of housing on a small scale in some residential neighborhoods if the minimum

Boswell said.

As ADHD Online and Mentavi Health begin the drive toward the next stage, they closed last month on the first $2 million of a Series AA capital round led by Michigan Capital Network; Grand Rapids-based Wakestream Ventures LLC, an early-stage investment fund founded by Rick DeVos; and Indianapolis-based Boomerang Ventures.

Michigan Capital Network first invested in ADHD Online in 2021 and anticipates high potential for digital and virtual health care providers coming out of the pandemic, which gave a major boost to the telehealth industry. Consumers today are much more apt to access a care provider virtually.

“The culture changed virtually overnight,” Brophy said.

The pandemic also accelerated rising incidence rates of mental illness at a time when care providers are in short supply.

High growth rates for telehealth providers have since eased, although accessing a care provider virtually now has a permanent role and a far larger role in the health care system than prior to the pandemic.

“You have more demand than you have providers, and that’s going to continue,” said Michigan

tenancy period was increased from 32 to 90 days. This would not affect homeless shelters, which is a separate use, she clarified.

Meanwhile, small-scale, multi-family developments are rarely financially viable in the current market, based in part on lot width and area requirements. City officials are considering changes that include reducing lot width minimum and area requirements along certain vital streets that would feasibly be able to handle more density, as well as streamlining the approval process.

“By allowing for a more streamlined review process for smaller infill developments, we could consider allowing them by-right on streets that can support higher levels of development,” Turkelson said. “I think we absolutely need to look at reducing a minimum lot width and area requirements to allow for smaller infill that can happen on smaller lot sizes without the acquisition of more property.”

Knight and Mayor Rosalynn Bliss expressed concerns about developers coming into neighborhoods and buying up single family homes to build apartment projects, causing a huge change to neighborhood characteristics.

“I actually think this helps prevent that scenario you’re con-

Capital Network Managing Partner Dale Grogan, who serves on the ADHD Online board. “The opportunities are there. COVID really highlighted that here is a dislocation of just being able to get to a provider for an assessment. It’s shone a light on there is a gap, and telehealth plugs that gap.”

In setting up the operations for the next stage, ADHD Online and Mentavi Health have been building a deeper management team.

This year, they hired a chief financial officer, a chief medical officer in Dr. Barry Herman and have assembled a team that has experience in digital health, Brophy said. A board-certified psychiatrist, Herman has 25 years of executive leadership experience, co-founded a digital health and wellness company and “is one of the nation’s leading thought leaders in the mental health space,” Brophy said.

ADHD Online wants to form partnerships with care providers around the U.S. to go with its contracted network of about 125 psychologists, physicians and nurse practitioners.

“We see more advantage in partnering with the health system than trying to be an ‘other,’” said Boswell, noting that “80% of what we’re doing is non-competitive.”

cerned about,” Turkelson countered. “In order to do a multi-family development, you currently must acquire multiple properties. If you’re going to acquire them, you might as well do a lot for the whole proforma to make sense. Our code is written to support that. This proposes we undo that and say if you have a single-family home, it could allow for the conversion of that into a fourplex.”

Knight said the zoning change must be approached carefully, comparing it to potential zoning that is similar to redlining.

“We’ve got to be really careful of allowing that cycle to happen,” Knight said. “This is a piece that’s really triggering me right now.”

Allowing for housing options other than predominantly single-family homes will make it easier for neighborhoods to stabilize, Kilpatrick argued. He stressed that other economic development tools must be used to make smallscale infill developments affordable to help with the issue.

“All of these are really great opportunities, but this one excites me the most,” Perdue said. “I think we need that and it’s also a more accessible open door for local folks to get involved in small-scale development.”

Keith Brophy, AHDH Online. COuRtEsY PHOtO

Mr. Burger’s Andrew Christopoulos balances family legacy with fresh perspectives

As a child, Andrew Christopoulos grew up in the shadow of his parents’ business, the iconic West Michigan familystyle restaurant chain, Mr. Burger. Peter and Maria Christopoulos, his parents who immigrated from Greece to Michigan, founded Mr. Burger in 1967. They proceeded to bring up their children, Jim, Helene and Andrew, in and around their restaurants over the ensuing decades. As a result, Andrew Christopoulos has always been in the family business, initially playing in the back room as a child and later lending his parents and siblings a hand with clearing tables. It was there that he learned the ins and outs of the hospitality industry firsthand from his father. Christopoulos, who also moonlights as a DJ for Grand Rapids Soul Club, now runs Mr. Burger alongside his parents, where he’s offering a fresh perspective on the operations that have grown to more than 200 employees and seven locations throughout West Michigan, with an eighth set to open in Allendale in 2024. He spoke with Crain’s Grand Rapids Business about his parents’ legacy, their current involvement in the business, and growing up with Mr. Burger.

Are your parents still running Mr. Burger?

Pretty much. They’re not (running) day-to-day operations, but at the end of the day, they’re the ones who started it, so we include them in every single decision. It’s just how it is. Honestly, over time, I’ve become increasingly more grateful that they are still here and that we are able to do that.

With your parents’ involvement, does the company have a formal succession plan in place?

I’m sure something exists on paper, but … I’m personally seeing how things go. I accept the realities of life, which is that we’re not here forever, but we don’t talk about specifics like that. It’s almost like that’s the only way my parents know how to survive because of where they came from and how they have survived. It’s just continuing to look forward and be present.

It sounds like they continue to identify with the business and that’s working for everyone involved. For sure. Both my mom and dad were at the Lake Michigan (Drive) location yesterday for I couldn’t even tell you how many hours. They’re 80 and 88 years old. I was like, ‘What are you guys doing?’ But at the end of the day, I think it kind of contributes to their vitality, too.

It’s their life’s work. Obviously, there’s also their work in the Greek community and the Greek church, and — I like to think — their children. But really, (the restaurants are) a huge part of both of their identities.

Do they get recognized around town?

It’s weird. My dad will be wearing a Mr. Burger hat on the beach in Florida, and people will be like, ‘Mr. Burger from Michigan?’ He’s like, ‘I’m Mr. Burger.’ Literally!

Have you always worked in the family business? Is this something you grew up planning to doing?

I did grow up working there. You could walk to the first Mr. Burger location from my house, and my parents would let me hang out

in the back office. I always had a little space cut out in the back for me. My earliest childhood memories are sitting in the backroom office just doodling in the back of Mr. Burger or stuff like that.

My mom always loves this story — one I used to be embarrassed by, but now I’m not. Apparently, I used to have this little ukulele that I would walk around and like to sing to people while they ate their food. I’d sing ‘You Are my Sunshine’ until I was about four and then I outgrew it.

As I got older though, they would assign me little things to do here and there and slowly it became a little bit more. But I was never forced to be on a schedule.

Did you ever step away and work somewhere else?

I left Grand Rapids when I was 18 (and) went to Chicago. I wanted to study finance. I wanted culture, more diversity in music, people and all of that. I switched up majors to something that was easier but still business related, marketing, and got into music.

I didn’t intend on even coming back to work at the family restaurant, to be honest. But it was always in the back of my mind because I grew up there. I never really counted it out fully, either.

About 2010 to 2011, a number of important things brought me back here. I started taking more responsibility around 2013, so it’s been a good 10 years of pretty heavy involvement.

Was there a point where you started helping make decisions, or did that just happen gradually?

It definitely happened gradually. However, it’s always been part of the family. We talk a lot about business. So I’ve always been included in decisions, even if I wasn’t here, even if I was in Chicago. They would cue me in and I was able to give my input. But when it started becoming more serious was after I had spent more time here, post-2013.

How would you describe your current position in the Mr. Burger business? What title would you give yourself?

|

By Abby Poirier

I never really have. I mean, technically, I’m a partner or an owner of sorts. I do a little bit of everything, from paying and reviewing bills from multiple locations, approving hours. There’s a lot of intangible stuff that I feel like I provide value with, and part of that comes from going and doing my own thing. I feel like sometimes people get locked into their business zone and it’s hard to see outside of that, so I always try to provide perspective.

Growing up, did you learn about the business from your parents?

I could not escape that if I tried! My dad especially had a very business-minded approach to a lot of things in life. My parents just have very practical and logical ways of looking at things. My dad would love to share that kind of stuff with me from a very young age.

You mentioned wanting to experience a diversity of music. How did you get into DJing and starting GR Soul Club?

It’s a genuine, cultivated interest that has spanned since I was a child. My brother and sister are older, so they had vinyl in the basement. If I needed to zone out, I would just play records. That was like my own little world. Because they were older, there were times when I was like an only child. Right from the beginning, (music) was an outlet for me.

After graduating high school, going to Chicago really turned me onto so many different styles of music, but a lot of that was based on what was sampled for hip hop. I started seeking that music out. A lot of that was soul, funk, jazz, psychedelic rock. I started digging for records in the late ’90s, early 2000s, and was really fortunate to have a lot of people in Chicago that were extremely knowledgeable. I started spinning out there with some friends. The concept for Soul Club actually came from the U.K. They would do soul all-nighters — kind of like soul raves, essentially. A lot of them really care about the music and preserved a lot of sounds that I liked.

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Andrew Christopoulos runs the Mr. Burger restaurants with his parents, Peter and Maria.

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MICHIGAN

PURE OPPORTUNITY ®

The right workforce is everything. At MEDC, we connect your business to services and partners across the state to attract, train and upskill the talent you need to get ahead. It’s how Michigan companies grow their world-class teams of tradesmen and engineers. Seize your opportunity at MICHIGANBUSINESS.ORG