The Ticker
PEAK SAVINGS
AT A TIME when energy costs are on the rise, the City of Dearborn is sitting in comfort due to a novel program that saved the municipality more than $600,000 per year. The multiyear project was designed to turn the city’s 80acre building complex, located across Michigan Avenue from the Ford World Headquarters, into an energy-efficient, sustainable municipal campus. “There are numerous elements of the Dearborn project that, combined, make it quite unique and innovative,” says Vytau Virskus, principal of Millenium Energy Co. in Dearborn. “The Central Powerhouse and much of the energy infrastructure were built in the 1960s, and the energy costs had risen to over $1 million per year.” To turn the tide, the company, along with Larkin Engineering in Williamston (near Lansing), utilized Millenium’s patented E-flow control system, which uses a control algorithm to satisfy a building’s real-time heating and cooling demand to deliver the right amount of hydronic energy — a water or steam heat-transfer medium — at the right time to each of the buildings and heating/cooling systems on the campus. “This project is bringing the City of Dearborn to the forefront of municipal energy management and efficiency, and the energy cost savings alone are estimated to be upward of $600,000 per year,” Virskus says. He adds that there are more than 1 trillion square feet of public and commercial buildings nationwide that could benefit from this type of energy infrastructure upgrade. — By Tim Keenan
Brand Awareness
How a Detroit startup made it to the big leagues. BY R.J. KING |
T
MATTHEW LAVERE
emeria Heard, an aspiring entrepreneur, was working as a marketing manager for a Detroit-based automotive supplier when she came across a Detroit Tigers booth at a Pure Michigan business matchmaking event in 2015. “As I left the event, I saw a sign for needed services, and one was for promotional items for the Detroit Tigers,” Heard says. “I had launched Corporate 52 Marketing Group two years prior, and I was trying to figure out which direction to take it. Perhaps it was fate.” Following a meeting with the director of procurement for the Tigers organization, Heard landed her first purchase order — several dozen crystal wine stoppers. The decorative corks proved popular, and in addition to taking more orders from the team for an array of branding items, Heard began working with Major League Baseball. A year later, in 2016, her side business received national attention when the Detroit Tigers and Major League Baseball named Heard the recipient of the 10th annual Jackie Robinson Most Valuable Diverse Business Partner award. The program cultivates minority-owned and women-owned businesses to boost procurement opportunities within professional baseball. “I quit my job in November 2016 to become an entrepreneur full time, and moved into an office near Greektown. As much as I loved the space, my business
started to grow and in 2018 I moved to a larger office in the New Center One Building,” Heard says. “It was challenging. I had doubts. But I became my own best cheerleader, and we kept growing.” As part of her work, Heard was invited to the annual MLB winter meetings, where she met with several teams. That experience created new opportunities to expand Corporate 52 beyond branding to include marketing, commercial printing, corporate gifts, graphic design, consulting, and photography. The added services helped draw more accounts like the Detroit Public Schools Community District, MGM Grand Detroit, Rock Ventures, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Brooklyn Nets, The Lip Bar, and more. “We treat each of our clients like a luxury brand, and we can create gift bags for them like the Oscars or the Grammys,” says Heard, who grew up in Detroit, became a police cadet, and joined the ROTC, where she competed in national drill competitions. She’s also a classical violinist. “My best advice for entrepreneurs and startups is to believe in yourself.” Looking to give back to the community, she launched Swaggles in 2019, which supports local and national animal shelters through the sale of paw-branded apparel and gift items designed by Heard. “I love dogs, and the name came from combining Swag with my dog, Snuggles.”
MARKET PERFORMER After Temeria Heard received the Jackie Robinson Most Valuable Diverse Business Partner award in 2016, she threw out the first pitch at a Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park.
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