Traverse City Business News - December 2025

Nonprofits Face Critical Giving Season

Taylor Moore of Food Rescue and his peers set their annual wish lists

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PITCH WINNER: SampleCSI

SampleCSI, a mobile-and-cloud platform that helps law enforcement capture, label and track crime scene evidence in real time, won first place and a $5,000 award at last month’s TCNewTech pitch competition. The pitch was presented by Russell Schindler, CEO of SampleServe, a Traverse City company he founded in 2001. The $2,000 second place award went to Safety Straw, a product that changes color from yellow to red when exposed to a date rape drug. The Safety Straw pitch was presented by Jack Rushlow. TCNewTech, a recurring pitch competition supported by tech enthusiasts, businesses and entrepreneurs, is a program of 20Fathoms.

HOUSING DOLLARS FOR TALENT

Ten individuals in northwest Michigan will receive housing stipends and other benefits from Make Your Home in Northwest Michigan, a new talent retention and attraction program of Traverse Connect, in partnership with the Alliance for Economic Success, Networks Northwest and area chambers of commerce. The program awards $5,000 in housing assistance to individuals who are relocating to or securing new housing in northwest Michigan. Each recipient has either accepted a local job offer or is currently employed by an area business. The program is funded through the Make MI Home program, a statewide talent attraction and retention initiative.

BRENEMAN ADVISORS EXPANDS

Breneman Advisors, a business brokerage, valuation and advisory firm headquartered in Traverse City, has opened a new office in Kalamazoo to serve business owners throughout southwest Michigan and northern Indiana. Services include business brokerage and merger and acquisition advisory, business valuation, succession and transition planning, and value optimization consulting. The firm also has an office in Marquette.

GRANT SUPPORTS HOUSING DEVELOPMENT

A grant from Huntington Bank will help support the development of a 40-unit affordable housing community in Leelanau County. The new community, developed by nonprofit community land trust Peninsula Housing, will include both rental units and homeownership opportunities. The 11-acre site – formerly unused farmland – is located at 980 Herman Rd.

in Suttons Bay. The project is slated to break ground in 2026.

LOCAL ATTORNEYS HELP VETS

Members of the Grand Traverse–Leelanau–Antrim Bar Association, along with other local legal and health care volunteers, recently provided free estate-planning services to more than 36 veterans and their spouses as part of the annual Wills for Veterans program. Participating veterans received complimentary wills, durable powers of attorney, and designations of patient advocates. The following attorneys donated time and expertise: Greg Theis, Ryan Hulst, Julius Moss, Judge Michael Haley, Mark Dedenbach, Andrew Shotwell and Larry LaSusa, as well as paralegals and notary publics Kathy Ann Blunk and Stacey Bivona.

NEW: THE DANDY & MORE

New brunch spot The Dandy has opened at 115 East Front St., the former home of Green House Café. It is owned by Chad Hall and Joshua Anderson, who also own and operate Red Spire Brunch House at The Village at Grand Traverse Commons. The Dandy is open daily from 8am-3pm, offering breakfast, lunch and a full bar. Also downtown, Tarra Warnes is opening a new photography studio - The Open Aura - in the TC Lofts building at 340 East State St. described as Traverse City’s “first and only aura photography studio.” Finally, new café

Right Bower Kitchen & Coffee, owned by Victoria Levinsohn, recently opened its doors inside the Seven Hills complex on Old Mission Peninsula, occupying the former Mission Proper space.

RECOGNITION FOR BEACHES & WINE

Forbes magazine recently praised the Leelanau Peninsula wine scene. The article, penned by Forbes contributor Tom Hyland and titled “Leelanau Peninsula—Dynamic Wines From Michigan,” highlights the “many impressive examples” of Michigan wine being produced at Leelanau vineyards. Specifically mentioned in the piece are Good Harbor Vineyards, Verterra Winery, Shady Lane Cellars, Rove Winery, Bel Lago, Blustone, Black Star Farms, and Boathouse Vineyards. Meanwhile, Traverse City has been named a top beach vacation spot in Good Housekeeping’s 2026 Travel Awards. “Receiving recognition from Good Housekeeping, which is widely recognized for its high standards, is something the entire region can be very proud of,” said Traverse City Tourism President, Trevor Tkach.

Six years ago, our region faced a crossroads. After years of steady declines in the working-age population, leaders from every sector – business, education, government – came together with a bold goal: reverse the trend and grow our core working-age population of 35- to 49-yearolds by 5% by 2030.

Today, I’m proud to report that not only have we met that goal, but we’ve surpassed it. The Grand Traverse region now stands at 8% growth in this crucial demographic – a testament to the power of collaboration, vision and relentless commitment, as well as a little bit of luck.

Our journey began with a clear-eyed look at the data. Population forecasts for Michigan and the Grand Traverse region painted a sobering picture: Michigan’s population was barely growing and, without intervention, would begin to decline within a generation – even under optimistic scenarios for domestic and international immigration.

The first report in the Citizens Research Council of Michigan and Altarum’s five-part series, “Michigan’s Path to a Prosperous Future,” made it plain: By 2030, Michigan’s working-age population is projected to shrink by more than 150,000 people, while the retirement-age population will grow by more than 450,000.

These trends represent fundamental challenges for our state’s prosperity. Too many young people are leaving and the population is aging. But here in northern Michigan, we choose to see opportunity. Six years ago, we set out to build a regional strategy that attracts and retains talent and offers lifestyle and career options that rival anywhere in the country.

Central to our strategy has been Michigan’s Creative Coast, launched in 2020

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TURNING THE TIDE

Northern Michigan a model for sustainable population growth, talent attraction

with foundational support from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and the Michigan Film and Digital Media Office’s Creative Chambers grant. This initiative has expanded on the notion of creative professions, underscored the economic impact of the arts and culture sector, and helped position our region as a magnet for talent.

Our timing was fortuitous to say the least. The COVID-19 pandemic struck just as our regional marketing and recruiting strategy was rolling out. Suddenly, the world faced a changed work environment with a broadened scope of what was possible and where work could be done. Our

sharing resumes from its own local portal and the state’s career portal with local employers in bi-weekly emails. These programs work together to highlight the careers and lifestyles available throughout Michigan, ensuring that our region remains top-of-mind for those seeking new opportunities.

This year, Michigan’s Creative Coast expanded to include Boyne City, Cadillac, Charlevoix, Elk Rapids, Manistee and Petoskey. Toolkits and playbooks are helping rural counties beyond Grand Traverse establish their own talent attraction programs, sharing best practices for community ambassador programs, place-making brands, relocation exploration and career resources.

Six years ago, we set out to build a regional strategy that attracts and retains talent and offers lifestyle and career options that rival anywhere in the country.

region was well-positioned to welcome relocating professionals, remote workers, entrepreneurs starting new endeavors and people in every employment sector seeking a better quality of life.

The Michigan Enhancement Grant in the 2022/23 budget fueled a national marketing campaign, engaged young professionals on social media, and forged partnerships with Cherry Capital Airport, 20Fathoms and other organizations. These efforts have driven traffic to the Michigan’s Creative Coast Job Board, now a key resource for local and national job seekers, with more than 143,000 job views to date.

Michigan’s Creative Coast is also a vital partner of state programs – You Can in Michigan and its Michigan Career Portal –

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A new Northwest Michigan Remote Worker Study, funded by the MEDC and conducted in partnership with 20Fathoms, Alliance for Economic Success and Traverse Connect, is helping us understand the impact of remote work and inform ongoing talent attraction and retention efforts. Focus groups held across the region this summer will inform the final study, which is expected to be published soon.

Our commitment to talent attraction is more than just numbers – it’s about people. The 2025 Northern Explorer event, part of the statewide Back to Michigan coalition supported by You Can in Michigan, brought aspiring residents to Traverse City in early November. These “explorers,” including both newcomers

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and “boomerangs” with ties to the region, experienced our outdoor and cultural amenities, networked with employers and attended the Annual Economic Summit.

The cohort represented a diverse range of industries, including communications and technology, education, finance, human resources and arts administration.

The Michigan Growth Office’s Make MI Home Grant – a $5,000 housing stipend for those working and living in our 10-county region – has been awarded by Traverse Connect and partner organizations, helping newcomers settle in and make northern Michigan their home. These investments, combined with our ongoing marketing and engagement efforts, are creating a welcoming environment for talent from across the country.

As we close out 2025, northern Michigan stands as a model for sustainable population growth and talent attraction. Our success is rooted in collaboration –across sectors, across regions and across generations. With continued support from state partners, innovative programs like Michigan’s Creative Coast, and a commitment to inclusion and opportunity, we are building a region where people want to live, work and thrive.

The work isn’t finished – especially at the state level. 2026 promises to be a year of change in state politics, public policy and economic development strategy. As Michigan looks to the future, our region offers an example of how cross-sector collaboration and intentional place-based branding can drive growth toward a vibrant, diverse and prosperous Michigan.

Warren Call is president and CEO of Traverse Connect.

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COMMENTARY BY WARREN CALL

FROM THE DESK OF...

Warren Call, President and CEO of Traverse Connect

By Art Bukowski

Warren Call is president and CEO of Traverse Connect, a regional economic development organization focused on advancing the economic vitality of the Grand Traverse region through the growth of family-sustaining careers (and also the successor organization to the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce). We thank him for showing us around his office in the always busy Traverse Connect building along Grandview Parkway. If you have an idea for a From The Desk Of feature, please email Art Bukowski at abukowski@tcbusinessnews.com.

1. This is a poem my wife Marina wrote for me. It’s all about the trials and tribulations of life, and sticking together. She’s definitely the exact opposite of me. I’m structured, into finance, organizational management –things go in boxes. But she’s the creative one. It’s a really good balance.

2. This is graphic representation of Napoleon’s march to Moscow in 1812. He got there, but he destroyed his own army. He left with 422,000 and ended up with 10,000 by the time he was back home. So this is the perfect graphical representation of hubris and overextending yourself, and it’s a good reminder to not do that.

3. Chewie’s five-and-a-half. He was a COVID puppy. For a long time, I was the only one in the office, and Chewie and I were here together. And then once people started coming back to the office, I was worried it wouldn’t work. But he’s actually been a pretty good office dog. The staff loves him.

4. That’s a bolt from the Triborough Bridge in New York City where I used to live along with a piece of ancient concrete from the Roman Forum, Constantine’s Basilica to be specific. I lived in Rome for a while and met my wife in Italy. I feel pretty lucky to have grown up in northern Michigan, and I feel pretty lucky to live in northern Michigan now. But I’m also really glad that I took the opportunity to go out and see these places, live in other places, really live in that culture. I’m glad that I had that kind of well-rounded experience.

5. I stand up a lot when I’m working; more often than I sit. I’m a ski racer and I’ve hurt my back a number of

times, so that’s part of it. But also, I think better when I’m standing up.

6. I was the captain of MSU’s ski team when we won the divisional championship in 2001. Skiing is one of my favorite things. I still race in the [Mt.] Holiday beer league.

7. This is a gift from my Spanish wife. It’s a letter opener from Toledo, Spain, which was famous for making swords.

8. Sofia, 21, is a senior at Loyola Chicago. Winston, 17, is a senior at St. Francis. They’ve both taught me far more than I’ve taught them.

9. These were put in on the [Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce’s] 100th anniversary in 2015. So for 110 years now, [our organization has] been focused on driving development and growth and business success in the region. That’s pretty remarkable.

THE NONPROFIT HOLIDAY WISH LIST:

Seven local nonprofits share their needs

By Craig Manning

Year after year, nonprofit organizations lean on the the spirit of holiday giving, courting mission-sustaining philanthropic donations.

Amid funding cuts, inflation and a lingering hangover from the longest federal shutdown in American history, organizations are turning to every possible lifeline – from micro-donations to major gifts – to stay afloat.

In light of this challenging time, we asked seven local nonprofits to think about their needs in small (less than $100), bigger (less than $500) and biggest (sky’s the limit) categories, with the caveat that they can’t just wish for cash.

>> FOOD RESCUE

A program of Goodwill Northern Michigan, Food Rescue works to rescue food that would otherwise go to waste, diverting it to food pantries and community meal sites throughout the five-county Grand Traverse region. According to its website, Food Rescue distributes 2.2 million pounds of food – worth $3.7 million – each year.

Less than $100: Compostable bags, food-safe gloves and Food Rescue hats for volunteer repackers. “These simple supplies keep thousands of pounds of rescued produce moving safely and efficiently to food pantries and community meal programs,” said Deb Lake, chief philanthropy officer for Goodwill Northern Michigan.

Less than $500: “High-visibility winter coats to keep our Food Rescue drivers safe and warm,” Lake said. “Our drivers are out in every kind of weather, picking up and delivering food daily across a rural region twice the size of Rhode Island. Better cold-weather gear keeps the team protected and helps us move food quickly to where it’s needed most.”

Sky’s the limit: New sprinter vans and box trucks to improve the safety, reliability, fuel economy and temperature control of Food Rescue’s fleet. According to Food Rescue Director Taylor Moore, fleet improvements would increase Food Rescue’s ability to deliver perishable foods like fresh produce, dairy and protein. “Every extra pound of food we can move right now matters, and these tools help us keep families fed when they need it most,” Moore said.

>> GENERATIONS AHEAD

Founded in 2019, Generations Ahead works to “help young parents overcome the obstacles of teen pregnancy by helping them complete their high school education, fostering independence and building trusting relationships so they may lead fulfilling lives with a stable family environment.” Support services include social work, mentoring, family activities, parent education, career internships and a baby pantry.

Under $100: Baby wipes; diapers (Sizes 4–7); pull-ups (sizes 2/3T, 3/4T, 4/5T and 5/6T); multiple Baby Trend Lil Snooze Deluxe II Nursery Center pack-n-play cribs; gift cards for groceries and essentials at stores like Walmart, Target, Meijer, Aldi and AutoZone.

Under $500: According to Operations and Communications Manager Lauren Brandstatter, transportation is sneakily one of the biggest challenges young families face. “Reliable transportation means they can get their children to daycare, make it to work and continue their education, thereby building the foundation for a more secure and successful future,” she said. Locals could help by covering the cost of driver’s training for a teen parent or two, or by donating an Omni Plus Modular Travel System from Evenflo – a stroller that can double as a rear-facing infant car seat.

Sky’s the limit: Brandstetter said Generations Ahead is always looking for people to donate things like new tires or car repairs – essential and often unexpected needs that can add up quickly in terms of expense.

>>

GRAND TRAVERSE INDUSTRIES

>> INLAND SEAS

Grand Traverse Industries (GTI) offers “vocational training, employment, and habilitation services” to people with disabilities in seven counties. This year, budget cuts at the Northern Lakes Community Mental Health Authority – which contracts with GTI – has threatened the nonprofit’s programming.

Less than $100: Cover transportation for one week for a GTI participant to get to work or volunteer sites; provide canvases, brushes and adaptive tools for GTI’s Art Able Connections program; fund a “Team Member of the Quarter” recognition prize and certificate.

Less than $500: Fund a full-day community volunteer project for GTI participants.

Sky’s the limit: “We envision a fully accessible community garden and greenhouse at our Mancelona location — a space where individuals of all abilities can grow, learn, and connect,” said GTI Executive Director Cindy Evans. “With support to fund the design, greenhouse, irrigation, and adaptive features, this project would not only transform our program but also benefit the greater community by providing shared space for learning, collaboration, and access to fresh, locally grown produce. It’s a vision that grows inclusion and community from the ground up.”

Based in Suttons Bay, the Inland Seas Education Association (ISEA) works “to inspire a lifetime of Great Lakes curiosity, stewardship and passion in people of all ages” by providing learning experiences aboard tall ship schooners. In June, ISEA went public with an $11.1 million fundraising effort, dubbed the Campaign for the Future of the Great Lakes. Among other things, the fundraiser will enable ISEA to accommodate growth by expanding its Suttons Bay campus.

Under $100: According to ISEA Executive Director Fred Sitkins, more affordable items on ISEA’s wishlist this year include replacement student rain jackets, feather flags for campus and ISEA events, and gift cards for volunteer appreciation.

Under $500: “We also need pallet forks for our utility tractor, replacement scientific sampling equipment, a microwave oven and coffee maker, and comfortable chairs for a volunteer respite nook,” Sitkins said.

Sky’s the limit: One item on the pricier end that ISEA needs for its growing Suttons Bay campus? “Our own snowplow truck,” Sitkins said.

Feeling like your business owns you?

>> JUBILEE HOUSE >> LEELANAU CHRISTIAN NEIGHBORS

Jubilee House is Traverse City’s only day shelter for adults experiencing homelessness. The program, an outreach ministry of Grace Episcopal Church, is open Monday through Friday from 10am-5:30pm and offers basic services like showers, laundry, warm outdoor clothing, coffee, snacks, internet access and connections to other homelessness assistance.

Less than $100: Snack foods and ground coffee. “Jubilee is bound by the laws of the health department, in that we can only serve individually packaged foods, and they must be store-bought or prepared in a

Founded in 1987, Leelanau Christian Neighbors (LCN) serves the citizens of Leelanau County through a variety of aid programs, including a food pantry, a baby pantry and financial assistance. Other key offerings include Blessings in a Backpack, which distributes backpacks full of

>> SINGLE MOMM

Single MOMM helps single mothers in northern Michigan find hope, healing, confidence and “healthy independence.” Services include peerto-peer mentorship, classes designed to give single moms “the tools they need to thrive,” and camp experiences. This summer, the organization took 30 single moms to Colorado to climb Pike’s Peak.

Less $100: During classes and event nights, Single MOMM offers free child care. According to Chris Tredway, the nonprofit’s marketing manager, donations of Amazon gift cards in any denomination can help Single MOMM “cover supplies for our child care programs.”

Less than $500: “We’d love someone to donate 30 copies of the ‘You Are Something Spectacular: A Friendship Fill-In Gift Book’ by Danielle Leduc McQueen,” Tredway said. “That book is used in our office to help single moms express what they love about their children in a fun, meaningful way that encourages healthy relationship-building.”

Sky’s the Limit: A brand-new coffee system, including a brand-new Jura GIGA Espresso Machine. “At Single MOMM, we believe coffee, chocolate and connection changes everything,” Tredway said. “When we offer a hot cup of coffee and listen to stories of devastation and loss, the conversation flows a little easier, the room feels a little warmer, and the message is clear: ‘We see you, we care about you and you are loved.’”

By David Mengebier, columnist

I’m at a transition point.

I’m getting ready to depart the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation as president and CEO and hand the reins over to my colleague, current Chief Operating Officer, and incoming CEO, Alison Metiva. It’s been a wonderful eight years with the Community Foundation and I couldn’t have asked for a better team and board of directors to help ensure the organization’s stability, growth and regional impact.

As I prepare to wrap up my work, I’m deep in reflection mode. What has my leadership legacy been? What does it really mean to be a philanthropic leader, a generous leader? I’d like to share the learnings I’ve gathered during my tenure with the Community Foundation because anything that I’ve accomplished I’ve done together with many community, donor and grant partners. Together, we’re making our region stronger and more resilient for generations to come.

Adapt to community needs

When I started at the Community Foundation, we only had $37,000 for flexible, responsive grants, with our other assets set aside in donor-designated funds dedicated to specific causes and organizations. All our funds benefit our region, but we know that our region continues to face challenges, from gaps in our mental health system to housing shortages. Our region needs us more than ever and we’re meeting the moment by shoring up our resources to respond quickly and flexibly to ongoing and emerging needs.

This year, as an example, we will grant almost $400,000 through our Community Funds, our collection of shared resources that allow us to support a wide variety of organizations and causes, especially those serving underfunded communities or addressing urgent needs. Included in a recent grant cycle are awards to 14 organizations, with 54% of grants awarded supporting housing projects and solutions and 31% of grants supporting youth and mental health services. Additionally, four of our grant partners this year are diversely led or support historically underfunded communities.

GENEROUS LEADERSHIP:

The best

leaders rely on humility, tenacity and community

Foster opportunities for collaboration

Alongside growth in our Community Funds, we’ve further developed our convening muscle, working with cross-sector partners to advance positive change for our region. Our primary mode for doing this is through the Northwest Michigan Community Development Coalition, made up of more than 40 business, nonprofit and governmental partners. Together as a coalition, we collaborate to share information, align and leverage resources, and coordinate advocacy actions to drive economic, societal and environmental improvements for our rural communities.

This year, we engaged in our second annual Advocacy Day at the Lansing State Capitol, meeting with both Democratic and Republican legislative leaders and state department heads. In these meetings, our message was clear: Regional priorities matter, and the solutions we champion benefit all Michiganders — not just those in northwest Michigan.

As a Coalition, we advocated for $5 million to go toward the Office of Rural Prosperity to bolster the Rural Readiness Grant Program, investments in permanent supportive housing and related services to help individuals maintain long-term housing and independence, enhanced support for arts and culture, and support for agriculture resiliency programs. Policymakers across the aisle affirmed their support for the issues we raised. Several noted that seeing such a diverse group united behind a shared agenda was not only rare but refreshingly impactful. In Lansing, where political gamesmanship often overshadows policy progress, our coalition’s collaborative

approach stood out.

Alongside the coalition, the Community Foundation has engaged in other collaborative efforts to bolster housing solutions for our region including through the Homelessness Collective. With the Homelessness Collective, we, alongside Rotary Charities of Traverse City, brought together community members and leaders from the City of Traverse City, Grand Traverse County, Goodwill Northern Michigan, Jubilee House, Munson Healthcare, Northwest Coalition to End Homelessness, the Traverse City Police Department Quick Response Team and neighborhood associations. Together, we successfully raised money from a variety of funders to support sanitary and safety improvements at the Pines, a wooded area in Traverse City where homeless community members found shelter. We also advocated at the city and county levels for funding that would support Safe Harbor’s transition to a year-round emergency shelter, which was successful. Our efforts were then handed off to a task force charged with finding a more permanent solution to the region’s housing crisis.

All this collaborative work shows that generous leadership lies in partnership — we are stronger together than we are apart. Collectively, we can move the needle on key issues in our region. Recognizing this as a leader takes stepping outside of your own ego; it requires both humbleness and tenacity to see that bringing people together is the greatest strength of all.

Take care of those around you

Finally, being a generous leader means taking care of those around you. I wanted

to be a leader that allowed others in the Community Foundation to stretch their skills and thrive. And I wanted to give them the ability to do this flexibly. As an organization, we engaged in staff affinity activities throughout the year, allowing staff the chance to disconnect from work, connect with each other personally and have some fun.

In addition, we’ve expanded holiday time off, maintained a hybrid work schedule with two required days in the office and increased available sick leave. I believe it is imperative as a leader to take good care of your people. They are your greatest assets and deserve respect, consideration and your confidence in them to do their jobs.

Being a generous leader requires thinking outside the traditional box — it means engaging directly with community, understanding their needs and dreams and collaborating with unlikely partners. It also means taking care of those right in front of you — your own internal community, your team. Leadership is done best together, not in isolation. A generous leader expands their circle beyond a narrow scope. A generous leader brings people together.

David Mengebier has served as president and CEO of the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation since 2018. Prior to joining the Foundation, Dave served for 17 years as Senior Vice President of Governmental, Regulatory, and Public Affairs for Consumers Energy, and President of the Consumers Energy Foundation. He serves on the boards of Munson Healthcare and Warm Hearts Foundation.

THE BIG ASK

How local nonprofit leaders stand out when everyone’s asking for money

By Art Bukowski

For most nonprofits, fundraising comes down to two pillars: cultivating major donors and maintaining a broad base of smaller, consistent supporters. That second pillar — annual giving — may not generate the splashy six-figure checks, but it often determines whether an organization can keep the lights on and respond to urgent needs.

And this time of year, the stakes skyrocket: Many nonprofits collect as much as 60 percent of their annual giving revenue in November and December. With donor habits shifting, competition increasing, and costs rising sharply, local organizations are working harder than ever to stand out.

To understand what’s changing — and what still works — the TCBN spoke with fundraising leaders at three major Northern Michigan nonprofits, along with a leading consultant. Their insights show just how essential annual giving has become, and why it remains the backbone of successful fundraising.

Backbone of support

At the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC), annual giving makes up only about 20% of private fundraising revenue. But it’s an incredibly important segment for a variety of reasons.

The first is it’s a usually rock-solid source of funding that can help make up for fluctuations elsewhere.

“So in years like this when we’re seeing

a big swing in public funding, a really strong annual giving program helps an organization offset some of those swings,” said Marissa Garrock, GTRLC’s director of development.

Annual giving dollars are also almost always unrestricted, which means they can be used as the organization sees fit (as opposed to dollars that are restricted to certain projects or funds). This is critical, especially when it comes to unglamorous things like paper for the printer, electrical bills, rent and other operational costs.

“Unrestricted dollars are always the hardest to raise, so a donor who is consistently unrestricted is like gold,” Garrock said.

This flexible money also gives organizations like TART Trails the power to take quick action when necessary, Charitable Giving Manager Janna Goethel says.

“Unrestricted gifts are agile and we can use them where they’re needed most,” she said. “Very rarely in trail building does a project come online where we haven’t had time to fundraise, but maintenance projects come up, as do opportunities to purchase property that will then become trails.”

Annual giving is also an opportunity to get donors in the pipeline who may later give much larger gifts. Garrock says many conservancy donors who started off with $25 or $50 gifts went on to make six-figure (or more) gifts as they fell in love with the organization.

That’s not to discount gifts of smaller sizes, though. In fact, one of the best things about an annual giving program is that it ensures that gifts of all sizes can make a difference. Take Interlochen Public Radio,

where the most frequently given monthly gift amount is $10, but they still manage to raise more than a half a million dollars.

“The real beauty of annual giving is your money pools together with other people who care about the same things, and it really sustains the work of organizations,” said Stephanie Pierce, executive director of annual giving for Interlochen Center for the Arts, IPR and the Interlochen Arts Academy.

A large pool of annual giving donors is also a great way to unlock additional funding from grant-making organizations, major donors, government organizations and more.

“Broad community support is so important to funders and something they really like to see,” Garrock said. “To be able to show how many people support our work year after year is a really important data point, so annual giving really leverages a lot of other giving by showing that broad community buy-in.”

Finally, these solicitations themselves are simply a great way to stay top of mind in the community, local fundraising consultant Anthony Rupard says.

“You’re expanding your nonprofit’s visibility through your annual giving strategies,” he said. “When you’re sending out solicitation letters or e-newsletters with an invitation to make a gift ... it’s basically a public relations tool. It creates some collegiality, it creates some goodwill, it creates some connectivity.”

Trends and changes

The giving world is changing these days. Nationally speaking, Rupard says, there’s a trend of fewer people giving to nonprofits over the last decade. That doesn’t mean that overall giving amounts are in decline, however, as those who continue to give are giving more.

Still, what’s clear is that philanthropic giving isn’t as automatic as it used to be

Rupard

Goethel

with previous generations, and that’s something that can make nonprofits uneasy.

“I think younger generations are a little hotter and colder with their support and hop around to try new things, whereas maybe some of those folks that are in the 70s and 80s in our country were more loyal to a few nonprofits and would give year over year over year,” Rupard said.

The philanthropic space has also become extremely competitive, Rupard says, with many more organizations making increasingly sophisticated pushes for money. This can be overwhelming as mailboxes (real or electronic) stack high with asks.

“You’ll often hear donors say they get anywhere from seven to 15 of these letters from nonprofits, so they start to experience a little bit of fatigue with this type of solicitation,” he said.

What happens then is that donors are just a little bit more gun shy, especially when it comes to somewhat impersonal solicitation letters or emails.

“Then they’re often going deeper and asking themselves ... ‘Do I know someone at this organization? Are they doing a good job at regularly communicating the impact of my support? How is my money being utilized? And what is the difference it’s making?’’ he said. “And if it … hasn’t been communicated in a tangible way, they can get fatigued and choose not to give.”

One thing that hasn’t changed is that paper is still king in the fundraising world. Even as more and more things end up on a screen, direct mail still resonates with more donors than not.

“There’s more and more digital fundraising strategies that nonprofits are utilizing, particularly to engage younger donors in their work,” Rupard said. “However,

At Interlochen, Pierce tracks donations and finds that plenty of online/digital donations were in fact spurred by a mailed letter, so the two can work hand in hand. Direct mail overall still “vastly outraises” other methods of fundraising, she says, at least when it comes to annual giving.

A big part of that is its actual, physical presence, she says. It’s easy to ignore an

“Part of what makes us successful in fundraising and bringing these annual gifts in year after year is what we do after the gift comes in. Storytelling, storytelling, storytelling is so huge. Here’s what we’re doing. Here’s how people in the community are benefiting. And here’s what’s on the horizon.”

– Janna Goethel, Charitable Giving Manager, TART Trails

mail solicitations still outperform most digital fundraising techniques.”

Local nonprofits recognize this to be true. They all have digital options for giving, but mail is still the best return on investment.

“I always think, is this the last year we send snail mail? But I don’t believe that to be the case, and I read surveys through national organizations that indicate that is not going to be the case,” Goethel said. “I think what will change is the opportunities that we give donors to make that gift once they receive the app.”

email, and people rarely revisit emails in an overflowing inbox. But that pesky letter has “sticking power.”

“Even if you get the letter and don’t have time to open it … you know who it’s from, you know that they’re asking, you know that it’s time,” Pierce said. “I get [donations in] and tracking shows me that it’s like from letters we sent over a year ago, because they just hang around until somebody’s like ‘Ahhhhh, I gotta do it!’”

Generally though, it’s not an either-or situation. Direct mailings are supported by emails, giving multiple touch points

and more ways to give.

“A multi-channel approach is the best approach, getting audiences in many different ways, but mail still continues to be a very strong fundraising vehicle for us,” Garrock said. “I do wonder if that will kind of shift over time as the next generation grows in philanthropy.”

More people giving digitally might be a welcome shift as nonprofits are hammered by sharply increased costs for mailing.

“I see people really trying to get away from direct mail because it is extremely time-consuming, labor-intensive to set up and very, very expensive,” Pierce said. “But again, I think you can be smart about who it is that you’re mailing and when, and the investment pays off.”

On the surface, it might seem that the written and systematic structure of annual giving practices might make them ideal for automation with artificial intelligence. Most in the fundraising world are approaching this new era with extreme caution.

“There are a lot of different AI tools available for grant writing, or editing cover letters or helping generate a major donor proposal,” Garrock said. “There’s going to be interesting conversations about what’s ethical, what pieces of fundraising could be automated and what pieces still need to be personal, and how donors feel about AI.”

Pierce is aware that many people are

pushing for AI, but she’s wary about going down that path.

“Fundraising is all about truly connecting with someone and what it is that they want to support, what it is they care about, and I think the less you have your mind and your hands and your head in the game, the more distance you get from your donors,” she said. “I think if you’re using those tools in fundraising you have to be really careful and really thoughtful.”

Demonstrating impact

Asked what they do to stand out from the crowd, TART, GTRLC and Interlochen all point to their very strong track records of keeping their donors engaged and informed. To Rupard’s earlier point, they know that donors are increasingly selective about who they support, and keeping them in the loop is the best way to keep them around.

“Part of what makes us successful in fundraising and bringing these annual gifts in year after year is what we do after the gift comes in,” Goethel said. “Storytelling, storytelling, storytelling is so huge. Here’s what we’re doing. Here’s how people in the community are benefiting. And here’s what’s on the horizon.”

Pierce echoed those sentiments.

“We really stay on message about what

people’s gifts are supporting so there’s never a question, and we tell really good stories,” she said. “Storytelling is very, very important.”

Stories in which real people talk about how an organization has changed their lives have always been bread and butter for many nonprofits.

“We feel strongly that if you’re asking for somebody’s attention [and donation] that we want to tell a really good story, even if you’re skimming it,” Pierce said. “I am super proud and love the stories that we do … because they’re usually an [alumnus] telling their story or a parent talking about their experience, and they’re really telling a very personal story.”

At the conservancy, in addition to two major mail campaigns a year (often called “appeals” in the fundraising world), donors get detailed impact letters three times a year that specifically describe how their money is being used.

“They essentially just thank donors again for their support and share three real-time examples of what their giving has helped us accomplish,” Garrock said.

GTRLC also works to get people as involved with the organization as possible, through volunteering and other means. Donors that are actively involved have a much higher propensity to give.

“We really emphasize the relationship aspect, so we do things like send a really per-

NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED. FIERCE REPRESENTATION. RESULTS THAT MATTER.

sonalized welcome packet when someone makes their first gift to the conservancy, something that really orients them to the organization and to the mission and gives them opportunities to engage,” she said. Ultimately, the job is to make it very clear that all gifts do in fact matter, and are in fact making a difference.

“We make sure we do a really good job letting people know that what they can give matters, regardless of the amount,” Pierce said. “It’s easy to talk yourself out of it if you feel like you can’t make the impact that you want to … so we stay super-focused on that because it’s so critical.”

Some of this messaging involves asking what donors would like to see different, just another way to give them buy-in.

“The [national] data across the board

shows declining donor retention, so that’s something we’re really keeping our eye on,” Garrock said. “We’re putting even more emphasis on stewardship and the relationship component, really getting to know our donors understanding of why they value our mission and what they want to see the conservancy doing.”

All three nonprofits also lean heavily into thanking donors. The more personal, the better. So that means handwritten notes, phone calls, donor events and more.

“Once people give and they experience someone actually reaching back out and saying, ‘Hey, I saw that you did this and it was really important and it really mattered,’ they stick around,” Pierce said. “We have a good retention rate [in part because of this].”

Garrock Pierce

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POWERED BY

By Renee Sovis, columnist

Michiganders are no strangers to hard work or changing seasons. Many Michigan business owners find that their dedication has led to personal success and the opportunity to give back to the communities that have supported them. And as surely as the seasons change, so do the seasons of life. As a business owner looks toward succession or retirement, a question that might arise is: How can my success continue to make a difference?

Some may wish to formalize their charitable giving, particularly after a major liquidity event, like the sale of a family business or in preparation for estate planning. While there are several ways this can take shape, there are two options that may appeal to high-net-worth individuals: Donor-advised funds (DAFs) and private foundations. Both allow generous people to give strategically, but they differ in several important ways including control, complexity and the kind of legacy they create.

A DAF is a great option. It functions like a charitable investment account. Donors contribute assets to a public charity (such as my favorite, the local Community Foundation, or other institutions like Bank of America Charitable Fund) to establish the fund. They receive an immediate tax deduction and they can recommend grants to be awarded to area nonprofits over time. DAFs are simple, easy to establish and involve minimal administrative overhead for the donor. It is an excellent option when donors want to maximize tax efficiency and take time to plan their giving strategy.

Another great option is a private foundation. This is a 501(c)(3) organization with its own governing board, bylaws and annual tax filings. Because they are self-governed, foundations offer greater control, visibility and the possibility of perpetuity. They can hire staff, make direct grants and engage family members in governance. However, they also come with added administrative and compliance responsibilities.

In short, a DAF offers simplicity and flexibility. A foundation offers structure and legacy.

DAFs vs. Private Foundations

Choose the right vehicle for your giving

To illustrate, here are a few case studies showing these tools at work:

From community builder to community fund

A successful businesswoman in Livonia sold her company and wanted to support the community that had sustained her success. By donating shares to a DAF before the sale, she avoided capital gains tax, received a full market-value deduction and later created a fund supporting technical education in Wayne County. The DAF allowed her to act quickly and give thoughtfully without building a new organization.

Keeping the family together

In Detroit, a second-generation family business transformed decades of informal giving into a formal family foundation. The founders wanted their children and grandchildren involved in the causes that were important to the family, while giving opportunities to the next generation to explore their own passions. Each year, the family gathers to review grant proposals, debate priorities and vote on awards. The structure of a private foundation created a lasting framework for shared purpose and a powerful way to teach philanthropy across generations.

Efficiency over complexity

A professional couple in Traverse City, both running small businesses, use a DAF to manage all their giving in one place. They recommend gifts throughout the year

to their favorite local nonprofits, but receive only a single tax receipt from the community foundation when they donate to their DAF. For them, the appeal lies in efficiency: philanthropy without the paperwork.

Philanthropy for flexibility

The owner of a small Flint manufacturing firm recently sold his business. He wanted a way to bond with his now far-flung children and grandchildren, while continuing to support causes in his community. He created a private foundation to engage his family while maintaining a DAF for personal, local donations. The combination provided him with the opportunity to continue his own giving in a meaningful way, while offering his family the opportunity to explore causes and issues that align with their interests and values.

Which structure is best for you?

The right structure depends on your goals, timeline and appetite for involvement. Here’s a quick guide, but note: This guide does not include tax implications or legal considerations. Consult with the appropriate advisors for those concerns.

Set up: Simple, quick and low-cost for DAFs; private foundations require legal formation.

Control: Donations to DAFs are legally out of the donor’s control. However, the host organization will honor reasonable recommendations from the donor. Private foundations retain full authority and decision-making.

Privacy: DAFs are a great vehicle for families who wish to give anonymously. Private foundations have a public record. Legacy: DAFs have limited succession options that vary by host organization. Private foundations may be set up in perpetuity, with the ability to engage generations far beyond the passing of the original donors.

For many Michigan families, a DAF is a natural starting point. It provides immediate tax benefits and allows time to reflect on long-term goals. A foundation makes sense when philanthropy becomes a family enterprise, where the process of giving itself becomes part of the legacy. Some families use both: a DAF for flexible, lower-profile giving and a foundation for legacy planning and family engagement.

At its core, philanthropy reflects the same qualities that have driven Michigan’s family businesses for generations: stewardship, integrity and community care. Whether you choose a DAF, a private foundation, or a combination of both, the goal remains the same: to turn success into significance.

In the end, it’s not about the size of your giving structure, but how well it aligns with your values. With thoughtful planning, today’s business leaders can build charitable vehicles as enduring as the companies they created and as generous as the communities that helped them thrive.

Renee Sovis is president of Detroit- and Traverse City-based Neithercut Philanthropy Advisors and a certified consultant working with multigenerational family foundations.

BANKING

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL

Local community banks outshine big banks in deposit growth

By Rick Haglund

Bucking a national trend, local community banks and credit unions are outpacing their big competitors in attracting the deposits they need to support lending activity.

The four biggest banks operating in Grand Traverse County all report shrinking deposits from a year ago, while most of the smaller banks boosted them. That’s according to an annual report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which compiles deposits and market share data for all U.S. banks as of June 30 each year.

But many of the smaller institutions among the 12 banks serving the Traverse City market boosted deposits, with several posting substantial gains.

“I’m surprised by that, frankly,” said Jim Perry, a Kalamazoo-based community bank consultant. “Nationally, market share is fundamentally going to digital, national and regional banks. Good for them,” he said about local community banks’ performance.

There was a similar trend among local credit unions. 4Front Credit Union, which has more than $900 million in deposits, shed nearly $32 million of them between September 30, 2024 and the same day this year, according to its call reports on file with the National Credit Union Administration.

The much smaller TBA Credit Union in Traverse City and Forest Area Credit Union in Fife Lake posted healthy deposit increases from a year ago.

Overall, total bank deposits in Grand Traverse County fell slightly, from $3.68 billion last year to $3.64 billion this year, as of June 30. And while most small banks outperformed their larger competitors, the

“Many [customers] are seeking higher-yielding options, such as stocks and money market accounts, rather than traditional deposits. Additionally, we’ve observed customers using cash to fund purchases instead of borrowing, which has further impacted deposit balances.”

– Autumn Gillow, Northern Michigan Market Executive, Fifth Third Bank in Traverse City

big banks still dominate in local deposit market share.

The four largest banks in the county –Huntington National Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Chase Bank and Independent Bank – hold 78% of all deposits locally. Huntington is by far the market leader with $1.35 billion in deposits and a 37.19% market share.

Two Benzie County-based banks, State Savings Bank in Frankfort and Honor Bank in Honor, posted among the largest deposit increases in Grand Traverse County this year. Both have expanded into Traverse City in recent years.

State Savings Bank attracted $30.6 million in new deposits this year, which a bank official attributed to its strong attention to personal service and the addition in 2024 of a second, 17,575-square-foot Traverse City office, located on Garfield Road near the Cherry Capital Airport.

“The office has a drive-through and a night drop [for deposits], which makes it easier for people to bank with us,” spokesman Doug Zernow said.

State Savings Bank’s local deposits this year of $86.3 million make it the eighth largest bank in the county. It jumped one spot ahead of Ludington-based West Shore Bank, which has $76.8 million in deposits.

Honor Bank grew its deposits in Grand Traverse County from $101.6 million last year to $110.6 million this year, a $9 million jump. Bank President and CEO Norm Plumstead attributes the increase to a growth in new customers, an effort to capture more deposits from business loan customers and attention to personal service. Honor has the seventh-highest deposit market share among banks in the county.

“People are continuing to choose community banks and their business model over big banks,” he said.

But with a wider variety of choices in financial services, Plumstead says customers are becoming much more aware of deposit interest rates. Honor Bank has positioned its rates in the upper third of deposit rates offered by competitors, “but not at the pointy end of the spear,” he said.

Several larger financial institutions

attributed to their deposit declines to business and individual customers seeking to maximize returns in a high interest rate environment, and to a strategic decision to shed some types of deposits.

“Many [customers] are seeking higher-yielding options, such as stocks and money market accounts, rather than traditional deposits,” said Autumn Gillow, northern Michigan market executive at Fifth Third Bank in Traverse City.

“Additionally, we’ve observed customers using cash to fund purchases instead of borrowing, which has further impacted deposit balances.”

Cincinnati-based Fifth Third, the second-largest bank in Grand Traverse County, reported that its deposit market share on June 30 fell to 16.86% from 18.43% a year ago.

During the 2020 COVID pandemic, Traverse City-based4Front Credit Union aggressively boosted interest rates to capture federal stimulus funds. But in the past several years, the credit union has let those expensive deposits “roll off,” said credit union

Gillow

Browne

President and CEO Andrew Kempf.

Plus, loan growth “has been difficult to find” in the face of stubbornly high interest rates and inflation, he says, easing the demand to find new deposits to fund loans. New car lending has been a particular trouble spot for 4Front.

“Cars are too expensive and rates are too high,” Kempf said.

Karen Browne, president and CEO of TBA Credit Union, echoes that view. She says high prices on consumer goods have her members reluctant to spend. Rather, they’re squirreling away cash in checking and savings accounts, boosting the credit union’s deposits.

TBA had deposits of $315.6 million as of September 30, up from $310 million on the same date last year.

“There’s still a lot of skepticism out there,” she said. “There’s not a lot of faith in the economy yet.”

That’s the case, Browne says, even though the Federal Reserve has been decreasing interest rates as of late and President Donald Trump’s administration says it is focusing on affordability.

Forest Area Credit Union posted a big jump in deposits from a year ago, which President and CEO Alex Lutke attributes to an expansion into the Cadillac market in February and offering competitive interest rates.

“We have an attractive money market rate that really hit a home run for us,” he said.

Forest Area posted deposits of $269 million on September 30, up from $239.3 million a year ago.

The smallest bank in the county, Grand Rapid-based Mercantile Bank, also is showing steady deposit growth in a hotly competitive market. The bank, which focuses on serving small businesses, opened a Traverse City office in 2023. Deposits have grown from $11.5 million in 2024 to $15 million this year.

Mercantile Senior Vice President Pete Stalker says his bank is prospering through 24/7 customer service. Stalker oversees Mercantile’s northern Michigan banks.

“Most banks offer similar products,” he said. “We’re trying to differentiate ourselves. Customers have my cell number and they call me on weekends.”

Built On Integrity

Plumstead

Kemp

Stalker

Making the Most of Giving

Charitable giving provides tremendous joy to those who give and a significant boost to organizations that turn these gifts into good work throughout the community. The team at hemming& Wealth Management has helped clients make the most of their giving while achieving considerable tax and other financial benefits.

We connected with founder Dawn Hemming, MBA, partner Autumn Soltysiak, CFP® and associate advisor Tanelle Budd to learn more about this rewarding process and why it’s important to work with an experienced professional.

What are the most common charitable giving mechanisms?

Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs)

If you’re 70½ or older, you can give directly from your IRA to a qualified charity up to a certain limit. The best part is that it counts toward your Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) but doesn’t add to your taxable income. It’s one of the most tax-efficient ways retirees can give.

Donor-Advised Funds (DAFs)

A donor-advised fund works like a charitable savings account. You can contribute cash or appreciated investments, take an immediate tax deduction and then recommend grants to charities over time. It’s flexible and especially helpful if you want to “bunch” several years of giving into one tax year for a bigger deduction.

Beneficiary Designation

Another simple but meaningful way to give is by naming a charity as the beneficiary of all or part of your IRA. This can be a wonderful legacy gift that happens after your lifetime, and it’s also one of the most tax-savvy options available.

How do I know what charitable giving strategy is right for me?

Start with the “why.” You can be giving to reduce taxes, leave a legacy behind or support a cause on a regular basis. Once you know the why, you can work with an advisor to guide you in the right direction based on age, income level and types of investments.

For example, a QCD is a way to support your favorite organization while avoiding taxes on IRA withdrawals, but a beneficiary designation might make more sense if you’d rather hang on to more now while still making an impact after you pass.

Working with an advisor is the key here, as there is no one-size-fits-all approach in philanthropy. But once you nail down a plan and see how your financial picture and your generosity can work together, it becomes really rewarding.

What benefits might I experience from charitable giving?

Charitable giving provides a sense of joy and purpose from seeing the difference you’re making in your community or a cause that’s close to your heart. Our clients constantly share the emotional perks of giving, and there’s something really special about aligning your money with your values.

On top of this, however, there are considerable financial benefits. Gifts can lower your taxable income, reduce capital gains taxes or help manage required minimum distributions (RMDs) in retirement. We see clients light up when they realize they can give in a smarter way that also strengthens their financial plan.

How do you ensure the greatest tax impact?

Intentional planning makes all the difference. Choosing the right assets and timing your gifts around your income or major life events can provide a huge boost. For example, bunching several years of giving into one tax year, pairing charitable gifts with a Roth conversion or donating appreciated stock instead of cash are all smart moves with big tax benefits.

Another powerful strategy is gifting appreciated stock or investments rather than cash. You avoid paying capital gains tax on the growth and still get the charitable deduction. It’s a win-win!

This is where working closely with your financial advisor and CPA can really pay off, as they can help you map out the most efficient way to give.

I don’t have a huge nest egg. Can I still afford to make charitable gifts?

Absolutely! Meaningful giving isn’t about the size of your portfolio – it’s about your priorities and the way in which you give. Even small gifts can go a long way when they’re part of a plan, and automatic gifting (just like automatic investing) can create a big impact over time.

Sometimes non-cash giving can make more sense. For example, you can donate a few appreciated or concentrated

stock positions to help diversify your portfolio. You can also leave behind tax-qualified money to a charity upon your passing, which not only protects heirs from newer inheritance regulations and tax implications, but also gives you the comfort of knowing you’ll still make a gift posthumously.

Don’t forget to take advantage of any matching programs out there. Many employers or civic organizations and clubs will match charitable gifts up to a certain amount.

Why is it important to work with a qualified, experienced professional when building out my giving strategy?

A seasoned advisor can help you look at your giving in the context of your overall financial plan and amplify your impact. That means making sure your donations fit alongside your retirement income, tax situation and estate goals, then ensuring that everything is set up correctly and that your charities of choice receive the greatest good from your gifts.

Experienced advisors can also make sure you’re aware of every path to giving. We’ve seen people miss amazing opportunities simply because

they didn’t know another way existed. A professional can help you uncover those options and make sure the details are handled properly.

Ultimately, having someone who knows the technical and mathematical sides of giving lets you focus on the heart side – the why behind your giving. That’s the most enjoyable and meaningful part.

About hemming&

Since 1997, hemming& Wealth Management has served Northern Michigan as a knowledgeable resource in the wealth management community, working with individuals and businesses to design coordinated financial plans and wealth management solutions suited to their unique needs.

Our team, led by a Certified Financial Planner and investment advisors, collaborates with a network of CPAs, estate planning professionals, insurance agents, and other experienced specialists. Together, we manage assets and provide objective investment advice with a focus on helping clients make informed decisions about protecting and preserving their wealth.

By Jody Lundquist, columnist

Ask almost any founder in northern Michigan what stands between their idea and the next milestone to market, and you’ll hear a familiar answer: capital. For early-stage companies, especially in sectors such as clean tech, freshwater, software and mobility, the gap between concept and commercial traction can seem immense. Long days are spent hiring their first engineers, building prototypes and courting their first customers – often before earning a single dollar.

In regions like ours, that early-funding gap can mean the difference between a promising company staying here or relocating to chase capital elsewhere. Simply put, a strong angel investing community matters in Traverse City.

Why angel capital matters up north

Angel investing fills a critical role that traditional capital sources, such as lenders and venture capital firms, rarely touch. While bank loans require collateral and VCs often wait for $1 million in annual revenue before engaging, angels invest when a founder is still refining products, assembling teams and testing market fit.

For example, a seed round led by a few local investors enabled a software firm to relocate its headquarters from out of state to Front Street and hire its first employees. The company’s first office, just 90 square feet, held one employee and two interns. Soon after, the company completed its Series A funding round, bringing in institutional investors alongside local angel investors. The move created more than 30 new jobs, including software developers, engineers, project managers and marketers. Every early-stage investment creates a virtuous cycle. Salaries flow into the local economy, creating incremental revenue for businesses and community infrastructure like roads, municipal services, and perhaps most importantly, education. The multiplier effect of a single dollar cascades into a broad community impact.

What’s changing in Michigan

In response to the proven multiplier effect of startup investment, Michigan is re-

Angel Capital: Early-stage investment the next growth engine for northern Michigan

building a policy environment favorable to early-stage capital. The Michigan Innovate Capital Fund is deploying state-matching dollars alongside local angel investments, the newly reinstated research and development tax credit offers small firms up to $250,000 in refundable credits, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation is supporting angel-fund formation and follow-on financing.

That momentum matters for the state’s more rural regions. It means entrepreneurs here don’t have to leave home to find growth capital, and investors here can access quality co-investment opportunities that once existed only in other parts of the state.

On average, for every local dollar invested in region-based startups, roughly 12 more are attracted from outside the area.

When and how to seek angel investment

Founders often ask, “When should I raise?” The short answer: after you’ve built a product, show signs of traction and before you outgrow your resources.

Angel funding typically fits when:

• The business model supports high growth and healthy margins.

• You have early validation from users or pilot customers.

• Capital will accelerate measurable progress.

Venture capital usually comes later, once recurring revenue and growth metrics are visible. Until then, angels are a vital bridge.

pooled through a special-purpose entity to distribute risk and coordinate due diligence. Just as important are the mentorship, introductions and board experience investors bring from building and scaling their own businesses.

Real-world impact, northern Michigan style

Two Traverse City companies exemplify how early-stage capital can transform innovation into lasting regional value.

One local firm developing autonomous marine systems used its first investment to expand product development, secure sales contracts and hire graduates from Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) – anchoring high-skill jobs that might otherwise leave the region. Another thermal technology company leveraged early angel backing to transition from prototype to production and attract international partners, all while maintaining local engineering and manufacturing.

Building the ecosystem around the capital

Capital is only part of the picture. Mentors, peers and a strong local talent pipeline amplify growth. Encouragingly, we’re seeing deeper collaboration among organizations like 20Fathoms, NMC, institutional capital and the angel community. Together, they’re creating a growing pipeline of innovation and talent that, a decade ago, was limited mainly to Michigan’s metro areas.

recirculate wealth within their community. As the ecosystem matures, opportunities for local investors grow alongside it.

Why angel investing is worth a look

Historic data suggests that active angel portfolios of 10-20 companies may see two to three achieve high multiples on the original amount invested, offsetting the many that don’t. For accredited investors, allocating typically 2-10% of their portfolio to early-stage deals can yield both financial and community returns. While this type of investment is illiquid and long-term (often five to 10 years), it also presents an opportunity to invest in place and people, with returns that are largely uncorrelated to public markets.

The Kaufman Foundation reports that nearly all new net jobs in the U.S. come from companies less than five years old. Supporting entrepreneurs, then, isn’t optional – it’s strategic. We all want Traverse City’s economy to keep pace with its quality of life.

The next Genomenon or Duo Security for Michigan could just as easily emerge from a coworking space overlooking the bay as from a lab in Ann Arbor. As entrepreneurs retreat from major cities to more conducive environments for growth, now is the time to invest where we live.

Growing economies need jobs. Early-stage companies create the most. They need capital, and we need angels.

Jody Lundquist is chief financial officer of Boomerang Catapult LLC. She is also owner of Taste the Local Difference and executive director of Northern Michigan Angels, an angel investment organization. BANKING &

For investors, this is the most direct way to shape the future of the local economy. Typical check sizes per angel per deal range from $5,000 to $50,000, often

This collaboration is helping to build a sustainable competitive advantage for our region. When founders stay local, they hire locally, buy from local suppliers and

BANKING &

SMART MONEY

Inside the classroom push for youth financial literacy

By Kierstin Gunsberg

Homework, TikTok and money – how to spend it, how to save it, and – maybe most importantly – how to get it.

That’s a (very narrow) summary of what’s on kids’ minds these days. In a survey by Junior Achievement, a national organization providing K-12 financial literacy curriculum and programming, 68% of teens said they’d enroll in a financial literacy course if it was offered. And as Gen Z and Gen Alpha come of age in a job landscape that’s being redefined by AI and a housing market some economists are calling a bust for young adults trying to enter it, they’ll need all the financial savvy they can get.

Yet only 31% of those surveyed teens are receiving practical financial education during the school day.

Colleen Gerace sees that as a misstep that could have big ramifications for the future and it’s part of why she’s helped relaunch northern Michigan’s Junior Achievement (JA) district last year after it went defunct during the pandemic. Officially back in action, the nonprofit now brings in-class programming to elementary, middle and high school students across the region with lessons covering everything from the ins and outs of buying their first car (and how to prioritize the

important stuff, like miles-per-gallon) to exploring careers and the soft skills they’ll need to get those careers.

All of this, says Gerace, is to equip the next flood of young adults for life outside the classroom and to give them a head start at being marketable no matter if they stay in northern Michigan or land somewhere else after graduation.

“[The programming] basically inspires and prepares young people to succeed in the global economy,” she explained, adding that JA Northern Michigan brings volunteer business and financial leaders into classrooms to help engage these concepts with students on a real-life level.

“Even with the little ones, kindergartners, we talk about needs and wants.”

Dollars and sense

Gerace is working hard to build up her volunteer base, who give heft to JA’s foundational curriculum by mentoring youth on the nuances of making a living in a micro-economy driven by seasonality.

But like a lot of vital programs, Junior Achievement of Northern Michigan took a hit during the pandemic, closing its doors when living rooms replaced the classroom JA’s programming was built for. Then, in 2022, with more kids heading back to the physical classroom,

Michigan passed House Bill 5190, requiring all high schoolers to take a half-credit financial literacy course beginning in the 2024-25 school year.

“With that came an endorsement from the Michigan Department of Education that Junior Achievement would be an organization to help schools, teachers, administrators … accomplish that goal without having to completely redefine their curriculum,” since JA already met those benchmarks, said Gerace.

Back in business

Now a year into her role as district director, Gerace oversees programming

across 14 counties including Grand Traverse, Leelanau and Benzie, and has grown JA’s reach from zero to several thousand students as she continues to make connections with school districts plus charter and private schools and homeschooling communities.

“Our footprint is incredibly large,” she said. “We have almost 3,700 students registered for this particular school year. Our goal is about 5,100. There are thousands and thousands of students up here that could benefit from us.”

Just after getting JA of Northern Michigan up and running again, Gerace and her team are dealing with their own finan-

JA of Northern Michigan in action. JA of Northern Michigan in action.

“Our big thing is, you know, creating big thinkers. So we need to act as big thinkers ourselves on how to continue this amazing program.”

– Colleen Gerace,

District Director, Junior Achievement Northern Michigan

cial dilemma after critical funding didn’t make it through the latest state budget.

“I had tears,” she admitted, adding that her district’s annual operating costs come out to about $190,000. “I was upset about it because … I always say education is the equal opportunity provider for any kid. We have to motivate them to stay engaged in the classroom so that they can have successful futures.”

Noting that she’s currently in the throes of planning the organization’s big spring fundraiser and recruiting classroom volunteers from the community, Gerace says there’s no plan to let the ship go down this time around.

“Our big thing is, you know, creating big thinkers,” she said. “So we need to act as big thinkers ourselves on how to continue this amazing program.”

Banking for the future

Big thinking is the idea behind TBA Credit Union’s (TBACU) youth financial literacy initiatives too. Since 2010, the credit union has brought banking to fourth and fifth grade classrooms through their monthly Student-Run Credit Union (SRCU) where kids can deposit anything from a lucky penny to the lot of their birthday money right into their own bank account.

Last year, the SRCU serviced 10 schools and 371 transactions.

From the branch managers and tellers to the marketing department, the whole thing is run by the students, who apply and interview for their “jobs” (which are technically unpaid volunteer roles) before being trained in their new role, explains Mary Beth Ruskowski, marketing manager for TBACU.

“It teaches financial responsibility, practical math skills,” and, even more pragmatic, it gives the kids who participate skill sets they can list on their future resume, she said.

Like Gerace’s efforts with JA, much of the focus for Ruskowski’s SRCU is helping kids hone their financial chops through everyday acts like keeping track of their account balance or saving for big purchases. As students near adulthood, TBACU brings their annual Reality Fair to the classroom. It’s a one-hour program for high school juniors and seniors that

prepares teens for a successful financial future by exploring the what ifs.

And there are a lot of what ifs.

“We have secret envelopes and we give everybody a persona,” explained Ruskowski.

When students open their envelopes at the beginning of the hour they find out what their career, income and household expenses look like. For some, that might be a kid-free tradesperson making a livable wage.

In Grand Traverse County, that number is at least $22.40 an hour, or about $46,599 before taxes for a single adult with no children according to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator.

Meanwhile, others spend their hour calculating how they’re going to swing childcare for their family of five while balancing a full-time job making less than they need to cover their basic living expenses. Some of northern Michigan’s biggest industries, including food service and healthcare support, fall short of providing a livable wage by roughly 26%, according to the same MIT calculator.

“How much are you going to lease a car for this month? How much is your rent? Are you going to live in the basement with mom and dad or are you going to have a five-bedroom house? Can you afford that?” said Ruskowski, naming some of the financial factors the high schoolers consider during the Reality Fair. “They have a worksheet that they [use] to figure out on a monthly basis what they can and can’t spend.”

The common conclusion by the end of the hour is that “kids are expensive,” laughs Ruskowski, adding that the scenarios are pretty eye-opening for students. And, as each year brings a higher cost of living for our area, she updates the fictional scenarios to match.

“Instead of rent being $1,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, we might have to bump it up in reality to $1,600,” she said. “It opens their eyes to, ‘Oh my goodness, this is what my parents or guardians go through every month trying to figure out our money.’”

It’s been eye-opening for Ruskowski and her team, too.

“I have younger people that work for me. And it’s like, I feel for them. It’s just a different world,” she said. “It really is.”

GLOC

ANDREW

BRIAN

CHRISTOPHER R. CHUINARD

THOMAS

TODD

‘IT DEFINITELY KEEPS US UP AT NIGHT’

Banks, credit unions brace for the Great Wealth Transfer

By Rick Haglund

A rapidly aging population and the coming enormous transfer of wealth has local banks and credit unions scrambling to keep their older customers’ business while working to attract a tight pool of younger customers.

Over the next 10 years, the number of people 65 and older in Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties will swell to 51,021, up from 42,727 this year. Already, more than one in five residents living in those counties is 65plus, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Nationally, more than $100 trillion in wealth is held by baby boomers and the silent generation, those born between about 1928 and 1945, and is expected to pass to younger generations over the next two decades.

“It’s definitely something we’re having conversations about,” said Karen Browne, president and CEO of TBA Credit Union in Traverse City. “Over 30% of our deposits are held by those 70 and up.”

Jim Perry, a Kalamazoo-based community bank consultant, recently sounded the alarm that some banks might not be able to survive as the population of many West Michigan counties shrinks or re-

mains flat over the next several decades.

Population growth in the 65-plus segment is expected to grow at a much faster rate than the working age population in the Grand Traverse area and throughout the state.

“I think that while you might have a general sense of what’s going on, people don’t stop and look at what this looks like three to five years from now,” said Perry, senior strategist at Market Insights.

“It’s kind of shocking for a lot of folks.”

Even though Grand Traverse County is experiencing healthy population growth and attracting young talent, particularly in and near Traverse City, the county will see its population of those 65 and older jump 22% over the next 10 years, from 24,013 this year to 29,313. That’s according to a population projection by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget.

Perry, citing census figures crunched by the data firm Claritas, says Leelanau County’s population of 65-plus residents is nearly 40%, the oldest population of the 25 counties bordering Lake Michigan.

Many of those older Leelanau residents are well-heeled retirees who will pass wealth to their heirs over the next several decades. Leelanau’s per capita income in 2023 was $85,936, second

“I

think that while you might have a general sense of what’s going on, people don’t stop and look at what this looks like three to five years from now. It’s kind of shocking for a lot of folks.”

– Jim Perry, Senior Strategist, Market Insights

only to Oakland County, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Local bankers and credit union executives are employing various strategies to hang on to deposits from older customers and cultivate new customers.

“It definitely keeps us up at night,” said Alex Lutke, president and CEO of Forest Area Credit Union in Fife Lake.

TBA and Forest Area Credit Union have established programs with local schools to teach financial literacy with the hope that students might eventually become credit union members. Some already are at TBA’s student-run credit unions at six area schools.

“It helps to build trust,” Browne said. “When they need that first car loan, they might think of us.”

As bank and credit union customers age, they tend to have fewer credit needs. But many are looking for trust and estate planning services. Some banks have stepped up those offerings.

Fifth Third Bank’s business advisory team connects legal and wealth advisors with the bank to advise business customers on passing down assets to heirs.

“By working with our clients before a transfer occurs, we can help preserve wealth and keep it in northern Michigan, strengthening our local economy and supporting

our clients’ long-term goals,” said Autumn Gillow, Fifth Third’s local market leader.

Honor Bank recently partnered with Old Mission Investment Co. in Traverse City to provide investment and trust services typically found in larger banks, helping it retain aging, wealthy customers.

“That was pretty big for us,” Honor Bank President Norman Plumstead said.

Plumstead says his bank also is focusing more on financing business acquisitions, typically involving retiring owners. When businesses are passed down from one generation to the next, they typically stay in the community, he says, and there’s a good chance the bank can maintain the accounts.

That’s much less true when money in bank accounts not attached to businesses passes to the next generation. Often, the heirs don’t live in the area and take the cash out of local financial institutions.

“That’s the battle we’re having with kids not in the area,” said Andrew Kempf, president and CEO of 4Front Credit Union in Traverse City.

Kempf says his credit union is working to contact the children of older customers out of the area to build relationships with them. 4Front, like other financial institutions, offers digital tools to the adult children of its customers to help them keep an eye on their elderly parents’ accounts for unusual withdrawals and potential scams. If those adult children have a good

experience with the credit union, they might continue to do business with it remotely, Kempf says.

Bankers and credit union executives say keeping technology up to date is critical in attracting new, younger customers who rarely enter a brick-and-mortar branch.

“You must have a very robust digital platform,” said Pete Stalker, who oversees Mercantile Bank’s northern Michigan operations. Mercantile has a branch office in Traverse City.

Artificial intelligence is entering the banking world with chatbots that can help consumers find the best rates on deposit accounts and loans. Some say it might not be long before those chatbots will also be able to open accounts at financial institutions.

“We’re thinking about how generative AI informs customer decisions,” Plumstead said. “How do we do small things like making our website configured to make sure Honor Bank is coming up in recommendations to them [by AI chatbots]?”

Perry says it’s also critical for financial institutions to develop a strong demographic profile of the geographic areas served by their branches to determine where opportunities for new business exists.

“You’ve got to have an absolutely clear picture of that,” he said. “Deepen your relationships that exist in your communities and find new ways to expand value to the customers you serve.”

“We’re thinking about how generative AI informs customer decisions. How do we do small things like making our website configured to make sure Honor Bank is coming up in recommendations to them [by AI chatbots]?”

– Norm

Plumstead, President, Honor Bank

Source: Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget

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TEMPERATURE CHECK

How

are local employers faring with the newly implemented Earned Sick Time Act?

By Craig Manning

A catastrophe for Michigan employers, or a boon for workers’ rights? Michigan’s Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA) has been characterized as both. With the law now in effect for all Michigan employers, the TCBN takes a look at how local businesses are faring under the new rules – including some businesses run by vocal ESTA critics.

What is ESTA?

First, a refresher. In September 2018, Michigan’s state legislature voted to approve ESTA. As written, the initiative mandated that all employees in the state have the opportunity to accrue and use a certain amount of paid sick time each year. Specifically, the initiative called for up to 40 hours of sick time accrual at small businesses (those with fewer than 10 employees) and up to 72 hours at larger businesses (those with 10 or more employees).

Notably, ESTA was brought to the Michigan legislature as an indirect initiated state statute. Some measures land on the ballot after they gather a certain amount of voter support through petition efforts; these efforts are called direct initiated state statutes. An indirect initiated statute, meanwhile, is taken first to the state legislature, which has a certain amount of time to approve it outright. If this time period lapses without an approval, the matter goes to the ballot for the voters to decide.

In the case of ESTA, the legislature approved the measure ahead of the 2018 election, negating the need for a statewide vote that November. A month after the

election, though, the legislature amended the initiative.

Under that rewrite, now renamed the Paid Medical Leave Act (PMLA), only businesses with 50 or more employees were required to provide paid sick time; the legislature eliminated the requirement for smaller employers. Furthermore, the amended initiative capped sick leave for affected businesses at 40 hours per employee per year, rather than the 72hour cap that had been proposed in the original indirect initiative. Then-Governor Rick Snyder signed the amended bill into law on December 13, 2018.

The story wasn’t over. On July 31, 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled 4-3 along partisan Democrat-Republican lines that the state legislature had violated Michigan’s Constitution in its handling of ESTA. The left-leaning judges determined that, under Michigan law, once an initiative garners enough signatures to be presented to the state legislature, lawmakers can either adopt it as written or put it on the ballot. The adopt-and-amend path the legislature took “is unconstitutional and impermissibly infringes upon the people’s reserved power,” the ruling stated.

The court’s decision overturned the PMLA and ordered that the original language of ESTA to be brought back and put into effect starting on February 21, 2025. Larger employers were required to be compliant on that date, while smaller employers had until October 1 to comply.

The temperature check

Russ Knopp, co-owner of the local inhome senior healthcare company Comfort

Keepers, was vocally critical of ESTA during the period between the Supreme Court ruling and the February 2025 implementation date.

“The rules of ESTA … threaten our clients’ safety and compromise our staff’s ability to be flexible to meet critical needs and emergencies that happen every single day,” Knopp wrote in a letter to the Michigan House of Representatives Select Committee on Protecting Michigan Employees and Small Businesses in January. “We are concerned that the notification requirements [of the law] will encourage absenteeism and severely restrict our ability as employers to ensure our clients are receiving the care they need when they need it. Many seniors, especially in rural areas, will be left alone until someone can get there, once we have figured out that the scheduled employee is not showing up.”

Beyond absenteeism, Knopp also fretted that ESTA would prove prohibitively expensive for businesses like Comfort Keepers.

“Based on 2024 hours worked, in 2025 the Act could cost our company over a quarter of a million dollars,” he wrote. “That calculation does not include costs for additional hiring, training and staffing that will also be necessary. We will have no choice but to pass those costs on to the consumer, many of whom live on a fixed income.”

Speaking to the TCBN in early November, Knopp said that ESTA has proven to be much less of a problem than he expected.

“One of the biggest concerns was the ability to use sick time retroactively,” Knopp said. “That really hasn’t happened, other than the occasional person who

called off for a day, forgot that they could use sick time, and then the next day said, ‘I’d like to use that sick time.’ Instead, what’s happening is a lot of part-time people are getting sick time now that they never had before, and never counted on.”

The legislation hasn’t come without a price tag. Knopp estimates that, between implementation and the end of October, Comfort Keepers – which has just over 200 employees – was “approaching $20,000” in extra pay. But that’s a far cry from the quarter-million-dollar loss he worried about in his letter to the Michigan House. Instead, Knopp now mostly views the added sick time as a strong work-life balance boost for his workers – even if the expense still ultimately means a higher overhead, and steeper prices for customers.

“This has been wonderful for many of our caregivers,” Knopp said of ESTA. “Mostly, they’re using it for stuff that’s just out of their control. If your kid falls and breaks his wrist on the playground, you have to go, right? Now, that employ -

Knopp

ee isn’t going to lose any time for that. So that’s been a wonderful, wonderful thing. But then the other side of the coin is that this costs money, and it’s significant, and at the end of the day, the consumer is going to end up paying for part of the increase.”

Rob Hanel, director of people and space for Traverse City’s TentCraft, was also heavily critical of ESTA at first, but agrees with Knopp that the law hasn’t been as disruptive or damaging as he feared.

“I think companies were right to go on the offensive, and to be worried, and to have a lot of questions,” Hanel said. “But that’s simply because our government did this very quickly, which is not a good practice when we’re talking about laws that affect 80% of the citizens in the state.”

Crucially, Hanel says, the state “eased up on some pretty specific items that were going to make ESTA administratively burdensome.”

Those last-minute changes made compliance easier and alleviated some of the concerns ESTA skeptics had in the first place.

“When ESTA was originally put out there, it was going to require all businesses, whether small or large, to track time in a time-keeping system, and to pay employees on what’s called an accrual,” Hanel explained. “For every 30 hours worked, you were to give your employees one hour of earned sick time.”

Hanel calls that kind of accrual method “very old school,” noting that “most companies” – including TentCraft – have transitioned to front-loading their paid time off. In such a policy, employees get access to paid time off either on the first day of employment or after a probationary period. In Hanel’s view, that model is better human resources policy, boosting loyalty, commitment and morale among existing employees, and serving as a strong recruitment tool to boot.

ESTA, as initially written, would have clashed awkwardly with those types of policies.

“We felt like we were getting penalized, because ESTA was telling us, ‘You have to change all of your practices for time off,’” Hanel said. “Not only would we have to track accrual, but we’d also have to track how our employees were using their time off outside of work. Is it for vacation? Is it for sick time? In other words, is it for an ESTA-eligible reason, or not? The whole concept was going to be extremely administratively burdensome to every employer, and probably even more extreme for those smaller organizations that don’t have the same expensive time-keeping software programs that a lot of the bigger companies do.”

One of the last-minute tweaks to ESTA, before it went into effect in February, was to allow employers to front-load ESTA hours, rather than going through

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“It 100% impacts things like bonuses, or raises, or employee engagement activities. My employee engagement budget was definitely cut this year.”

– Rob Hanel, Director of People and Space, TentCraft

the complicated accrual process.

“That allowed us to keep our PTO policy almost identical to how I already had it,” Hanel said.

While the policy proved easier to implement than Hanel had assumed it would be, he still feels it’s been a net negative for TentCraft. Unlike Knopp, he hasn’t kept a running tally of what the new law is costing the business, but plans to calculate a figure at year-end. He expects the added expense – plus “the cost of absenteeism” – will impact TentCraft’s “bottom line” in a variety of ways.

“It 100% impacts things like bonuses, or raises, or employee engagement activities,” Hanel said. “My employee engagement budget was definitely cut this year. Now, that’s because the cost of doing business has gotten more expensive overall, but ESTA is an attribute to that.”

While both Knopp and Hanel are comfortable with where their businesses stand regarding ESTA compliance, they share a common concern: that the legislation will be a much bigger pain point for smaller businesses.

“On the admin side of things, we use an outside vendor, ADP, for payroll, and they had [ESTA] figured out right away. And then my HR director, she understood it right away, too,” Knopp said.

“So, this law really hasn’t been much of a burden for us. But there are small businesses – and also a couple nonprofits I know of – that don’t even know what ESTA is. So, I think there is a broad range of experiences that people are having. Larger companies can handle it, but smaller companies that don’t have ADP, or don’t have an HR direc-

The small business question

Mike Brown Owner Burdco

Gail Kloss Executive Director WRCNM

Dan Brown Business Development Director Burdco

tor, I can see it being a lot harder.”

Hanel, for his part, recommends businesses “spend a few bucks and have a third-party employment lawyer review your documentation and your policy” – even bigger companies that have more well-established HR and payroll policies. Not every-

thing in the law, he says, is black and white, and a legal expert will have a better handle on how to navigate some of the gray areas.

“The law started out with a lot of interpretations; it’s down to just a handful, but that still isn’t great, by any means,” Hanel said.

THE LOCAL SUPPORT SYSTEM

Employers in northern Michigan also have another option: reaching out to the Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance. According to Director Dakota Baker, ESTA has been a major priority for the Chamber Alliance for the past year and a half – from lobbying legislators to reach some of the compromises that made the law more manageable for employers, to making itself available as a resource for businesses struggling to achieve compliance.

“Back last year, the Alliance did a webinar with Rehmann, the accounting firm, that we put out across the footprint, just describing the changes and briefing our members on what this might look like,” Baker said. “And we are continuing that work, even now. If there’s any business in our footprint that needs support or help navigating this, please do reach out. We want to help. We’re ready to go. We either already have the resources, or we’ll find the resources that they need. We want to make sure that our local businesses can manage this change.”

Troy Hall is one local business owner who did take advantage of Chamber Alliance resources. Hall is the owner of That’sa Pizza, a local three-location restaurant business with approximately 55 employees. While not small enough to get the extra seven months to comply with ESTA, That’sa Pizza is small enough that it hasn’t historically had the HR or payroll muscle that would make compliance with a law like this easier.

“I bought the business four years ago, and the past owners had utilized just a payroll check, internally,” Hall said.

With question marks already swirling about the constitutionality of the PMLA, Hall added ADP and implemented ESTA’s original sick time policies, including the accrual model. Traverse Connect and the Chamber Alliance proved valuable for those early changes to the business.

“I was able to start building an employee manual, thanks to the networking group that Traverse Connect and the Chamber Alliance had,” Hall said. “ESTA wasn’t even in place yet, but I didn’t sense that the lobbying to get it removed was going to work out, so I wanted to plan ahead and try to get compliant early on.”

While Hall says it took some time to get his employees on the same page about when and how to use paid sick time in accordance with ESTA, he feels mostly secure about where That’sa Pizza stands now in terms of compliance.

“There are always these little bullets that pop up, that I need to learn more about, and then I have to engage with my attorney and walk through that,” he said, noting that he currently has a question about seasonal employees that he needs to ask his lawyer. “But I do feel like I have a pretty good handle on it, now.”

With that said, Hall is very interested to see where things land in terms of That’sa Pizza’s total expenditure for paid sick time in 2025. His main fear about the legislation was that employees might see opportunities to abuse the policy to get more time off than they actually needed. So far, he doesn’t feel like that’s happening, but the end-of-the-year numbers will tell the whole story.

“If ESTA is minimally used by our team, it would cost us about $8,000 a year,” Hall said. “If it’s completely utilized, it’ll be $32,000 a year. So, we’ll see where we land within that range.”

Baker

SLAYING THE BEAST

Local attorney has national reputation in campus sexual assault, hazing cases

By Art Bukowski

Doug Fierberg is there for people in their darkest hours, as they live out and process what often amounts to their worst nightmares.

Sometimes it’s parents of young adults who died in hazing or other university-related incidents. Other times it’s the survivors of brutal sexual assaults in college or the families of mass shooting victims. In almost every instance, these people are dealing with major trauma while going up against powerful institutions with seemingly unlimited resources for their defense.

Fierberg has made a name for himself handling these types of cases. And while he’s certainly adept at comforting his clients, that’s not what they hire him for. They hire him to fight. To tear down the daunting institutional defenses and deliver justice.

“In so many of these circumstances, even as I’m working in a trauma-informed way, the people that have retained me are looking not for emotional counseling,” he said. “They’re looking for strategy. They’re looking to figure this thing out. They’re looking to slay the beast.”

The Fierberg National Law Group, based in Traverse City, has slayed beasts to the tune of about $380 million in settlements over the years, Fierberg says. They aren’t slowing down any time soon.

DC to TC

Fierberg is from the Detroit area and ended up in Washington, D.C. for law school, and he stuck around the nation’s capital to start his career. Though he first worked at a firm that handled mostly commercial and corporate cases, he ended up with two cases representing rape victims. These cases made an impression that eventually clarified his career path.

“I grew up in a world that was very focused on having purpose and having meaning to your life and doing things that helped others, and I did not find that in …solving a problem for corporation A versus corporation B,” he said. “I found it in standing with individuals who were facing the worst thing imaginable in their lives and working with them to change the outcome, take control of the madness, regain some sense of agency, and be able to move forward knowing that they had done everything they could to … honor their deceased family member or hold a terrible wrongdoer or wrongdoers accountable.”

He also recognized at the time that there really was no law firm that specialized in representing young people who got hurt or killed in schools, despite the other side being very well armed.

“There were firms that defended schools and institutions that were involved in hurting people across the country, and they had a lot of institutional knowledge. And so when your average family came forward and had something like this happen … they wouldn’t even know where to go for an experienced attorney,” he said. “And they were at a very serious disadvantage because the attorneys that those institutions had spent years protecting those institutions.”

After doing the work in D.C. for about 20 years, he relocated to northern Michigan in 2016 – first in Leland and then in Traverse City. He had vacationed here as a kid, and decided to make the jump for quality-of-life reasons.

Fierberg being interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

“It was a big risk, but I credit my wife with really being insistent about it, and it worked,” he said. “There’s a lot of pride from being able to do it from northern Michigan.”

There are potential downsides, of course. Even with Fierberg’s reputation, there’s a chance that people might not think he’s good enough because he’s not surrounded by skyscrapers.

“If you’re a parent in California and you suddenly find this lawyer in Traverse City, which you’ve never heard of, would you consider retaining them?” he said. “Because you’re getting a choice of that or somebody from Los Angeles or something like that.”

But he finds plenty of steady work being based here, and he’s very happy to have hired several local attorneys who can now operate on “another level of lawyering.”

“It’s giving the opportunity to some very smart people who want to make northern Michigan their home to be able to do really quality legal work on a national level without having to live in Chicago or New York, those sorts of things,” he said. “And if you get experience on that turf, imagine what you can bring to local Traverse City residents.”

The good fight

Fierberg has had many high profile successes going against major institutions, including an $11 million settlement from Virginia Tech for the families of 21 people killed or wounded in the 2007 mass

shooting there.

The one thing that never changes is that the cases are tough because the opposing attorneys are always very, very good.

“The lawyers on the other side are not run of the mill. They’re at the top of the food chain on the defense side,” he said.

“So you have to be smarter, and you have to evaluate and play that chessboard and know where you can’t be and where you have to be and know where they want to put you and where you can’t be put.”

As long-time specialists in this arena, Fierberg and his team know where to find the gaps in the armor. It doesn’t mean they’ll always win, but they have much better luck than most.

“When we go after them, we’re going after them in ways that no other law firm is,” he said. “I’ve seen Oz behind the curtain. I know the levers Oz is gonna pull. And we’ve been able to circumvent that many, many times.”

Locally and elsewhere, Fierberg is also known for his fire-and-brimstone presentations to local civic groups about the prevalence of sexual assault and hazing problems at universities.

“The prevention issue is really important, and … I do think people are entitled to hear it straight. Telling people the truth arms them with information that they can use to protect themselves,” he said. “What comes through so many times in this work is that I’m interacting with people that are

“When we go after them, we’re going after them in ways that no other law firm is. I’ve seen Oz behind the curtain. I know the levers Oz is gonna pull. And we’ve been able to circumvent that many, many times.”

– Doug Fierberg, Attorney, The Fierberg National Law Group

traumatized, confused and trying to catch up with the truth. And had they maybe known [the risks], they would have done things differently.”

Some of the advice he gives is relatively straightforward, and he tries to hammer it home over and over again.

“I have two daughters, and they both went to college. And one of the many things they knew was if they’re going into [a fraternity house], they have to go in with a partner or a buddy. They have to stay with that buddy, and they have to never drink from an open container or a container that’s been handed to them,” he said. “You just do that, and you’ve avoided a whole world of potential issues.”

Asked about the reputation he’s gained for his work, Fierberg demurs. He’s been interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, appeared on “Good Morning America” and had scores of other media appearances, but he doesn’t let it get to his head.

“I really feel like so much of the world, particularly involving men, involves a level of making the work about themselves or the accomplishments about themselves,” he said. “And I just haven’t spent a lot of time focusing on that. I’m happy to be there and to be doing this and to be trusted to do it, but at the end of the day, I don’t come home and raise a fist and say, ‘It’s about me.’”

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Give a charitable gift today: goodwillnmi.link/donate25

WHEN YOU THRIFT

Thrifting at Goodwill Northern Michigan isn’t just fun — it’s a meaningful choice that makes a real difference in our community. Shopping secondhand keeps usable items out of the landfill and helps neighbors access the basic needs of food and safe, stable housing. Every thrifting dollar you spend helps us deliver nutritious food and supports people moving out of homelessness into housing.

Thrift in person or online: goodwillnmi.org/shop-online

WHEN YOU DONATE

When you donate items, you give them a second life and meaningful new purpose. Your donations are the foundation of our work. We strive to put every donation to its highest and best use — from store shelves to online sales to recycling — and keep usable goods out of landfill. Your donations conserve resources, support neighbors with food and housing, and build a more sustainable community.

Donate items at our local Goodwill locations: goodwillnmi.org/donate-things

RISING TIDES

Insurance rates based on long-term weather events locally

By Ross Boissoneau

While this area is not immune to catastrophic weather events – witness the ice storm that ravaged the Little Traverse area and eastward in March, or the tornado that struck Gaylord in 2022 – they remain relatively rare events.

But extreme weather is becoming more common and more severe. The devastating hurricane that struck Jamaica is just the most recent example. And as such events become more frequent, the more insurance rates rise.

Fortunately, homeowner and business protection rates are tied closely to the local area. While areas elsewhere are seeing more fires, tornadoes, hurricanes or floods, this region is not as likely to see such incidents. Consequently, insurance rates are not increasing like they are elsewhere.

“Michigan has pretty diverse weather. Weather is anybody’s guess day to day,” said David Ford, president of Ford Insurance Agency in Traverse City. “Thankfully, this five-county region because of Lake Michigan doesn’t get some of the really terrible weather.”

Ford says insurance rates are generally based on the locality it serves, so a hurricane that strikes Florida will not greatly impact rates in this area.

“Rates follow losses,” he said. “If Grand Traverse County is suddenly having more losses than typical, then there will be rate increases.”

Tom Ingold, the principal at Devette

& Ford Insurance Agency in Glen Arbor, agrees that what is taking place nearby is far more impactful than disasters, or the lack of them, elsewhere.

“Locally, look within the insurance company’s coverage area,” he said.

Ingold says an individual company makes a profit or loss based on the activity in its coverage area.

Indeed, according to the New York Times, homeowners in areas with frequent natural disasters are likely to see their insurance rates rise. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that from 2020 to 2023 an increase in an area’s disaster risk correlated to a $500 increase in insurance premiums.

For example, Ingold said when he speaks to people who have been insured in Florida, he’s amazed at the cost of their insurance. Insurance rates there are significantly higher than here.

“If you can find it,” he said.

While insurance company commercials entice viewers by talking about how they protect your property, they exist to make a profit. So it stands to reason that when they have to pay out for crippling events that cause millions or billions of dollars in damage, they will try to recoup the costs.

Just as with real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. Insurance carriers will consider how likely future claims are, and if severe weather incidents are on the rise in a particular area, the insurance company might raise rates to make up for the growing risk. The increasing frequency

of extreme weather events is partly why average auto insurance premiums are rising, according to the insurance publication Claims Journal.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, average property insurance premiums have risen by more than 30% since 2020. However, it notes there is a wide variation by location. Premiums have risen the most for homeowners in areas with the highest risk of natural disasters, such as hurricanes or wildfires.

insurance companies, and ultimately to the companies’ policyholders.

At its heart, insurance is all about a number of entities sharing the risk. And it’s not just individual customers who do so. Insurance companies do as well by purchasing reinsurance – insurance for insurance companies. As the finance website Bankrate notes, when a catastrophic loss occurs, insurance companies file a claim with reinsurers to cover their excess loss without fear of insolvency or impact on long-term profitability.

Since insurance is a shared risk pool, anyone purchasing insurance is sharing in the claims and profitability of the insurance company. When an insurance company has to pay out for natural disasters in one area, it can impact the insurance rate of all of its policyholders.

“It does have an effect through reinsurance,” agreed Ingold. “Reinsurance rates have gone up. That gets spread out” to the

Another, lesser-recognized variable impacting the insurance industry is the increasing population and subsequent rise in the number of homes, businesses and infrastructure.

“Sixty years ago, there was 20% fewer people,” said Ford. “That means there was less paved streets, [fewer] roofs to shed water. When the wind blew there was not as much infrastructure to damage.”

Ford says one strategy he is seeing in reaction to rising insurance rates is policyholders opting for a larger deductible to keep their rates lower.

“A high deductible is a way to cause [customers] more skin in the game. Insurance is for catastrophic events,” he said

Given that, it also makes sense to remain vigilant with regard to a building’s maintenance, whether it is residential or commercial.

“Maintain your home. Your roof is your first layer of defense,” he said.

Ford Ingold

By Anders Gillis, columnist

In employment law, 2025 has been a dynamic year for Michigan business owners, human resources professionals and entrepreneurs. Here are five of the most impactful legal updates and emerging issues from 2025 that should be on your radar as you prepare to start 2026.

The final countdown: Michigan’s Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA) compliance

The legislative history of Michigan’s ESTA has created considerable confusion, marked by 11th-hour amendments and lingering outdated guidance. While employers with more than 10 employees came under the updated requirements early in 2025, businesses with 10 or fewer employees only came under the law in October 2025.

All employers, regardless of size, must ensure their PTO or sick leave policies fully comply with the final ESTA provisions. The law includes specific requirements on usage, accrual, retaliation, documentation and notice. Employers may use an accrual method (one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked) or a front-loading method. Both approaches have pros and cons, but one thing is clear: If you did not update your sick leave policies in 2025, you need to do so before heading into 2026.

Unfortunately, many employers are still relying on pre-amendment interpretations and outdated online guidance from both state and private sources. A comprehensive policy audit is essential to prevent legal exposure. The state has been patient with employers during the transition year, but in 2026 that era of leniency is likely over.

The federal enforcement vacuum –increased risk of private litigation

Federal agencies like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor have experienced staffing reductions and resource reallocation, driven in part by prolonged governmental uncertainty. This reduction in personnel translates directly to fewer proactive audits and investigations,

2026 IS COMING

The critical employment law updates employers can’t ignore

along with a strategic shift in enforcement priorities.

This shift does not reduce employer liability – it redirects it. With diminished federal support, employees are more likely to seek private counsel. Now more than ever, internal controls, comprehensive manager training, and well-documented, fair investigation procedures are an employer’s primary defense against lawsuits.

Judicial scrutiny of contractual claims periods

In 2025, Michigan Supreme Court recently issued a significant decision requiring employers to re-evaluate contractual provisions that decrease the time employees have to bring claims. In the case, the court reviewed a standard employment agreement that cut the claims period to 180 days and applied heightened scrutiny. The decision was in many ways overdue. Employment claims should not expire faster than a gallon of milk.

The core holding of the court was that agreements limiting the time to bring claims must be reasonable and fair under the circumstances. The court emphasized that timing matters, particularly whether the agreement was signed before or after acceptance of employment.

The takeaway for employers is simple: Any employment contract or policy acknowledgment that shortens statutes of limitations must be reviewed immediately. Such provisions now carry heightened litigation risk. If an employer chooses to

decrease the period for bringing claims, it must be prepared to articulate the fairness, context and rationale for the provision. “A contract is a contract” will not be enough.

The return-to-office liability spike

The widespread return-to-office trend has unintentionally created fertile ground for classic workplace issues like sexual harassment. After prolonged periods of remote work, in-person interactions have increased dramatically, and with them, the types of misconduct that were easier to avoid in virtual environments. Many HR teams, out of practice in handling these issues, find themselves playing catch up. The office creep has returned to the office.

A high-impact refresher training on professional conduct, respectful workplace expectations and reporting obligations is likely in order for 2026. Updated anti-harassment policies with clear reporting pathways and investigation protocols are equally important.

AI policy: the next frontier of workplace risk

Artificial intelligence (AI) will affect your business going forward. AI is shifting from a novel tool to a core operational component, influencing candidate screening, employee evaluation and performance management. With that shift comes different types of risk. Algorithmic bias

is a significant legal exposure. So is the loss of proprietary information. A clear AI usage policy is imperative for 2026. It should address data security, confidentiality, ethical use and employee guidance. Employers must also recognize a new reality: Employees increasingly use AI to help build employment claims. And while AI may seem like a shortcut to legal answers, it often creates more legal work as individuals generate documents without proper context or counsel. Powerful tools without the knowledge, context or experience on how to marshal them sometimes create more problems than solutions. In addition, lawyers are already preparing to subpoena AI search histories and inquiry logs in litigation because, at the end of the day, attorney–client privilege belongs to your attorney, not your browser or your AI application.

Conclusion

The challenges of 2025, including shifting state compliance obligations, evolving federal enforcement gaps and fresh judicial scrutiny, require modern, proactive policy work. For business leaders in Traverse City and beyond, success in 2026 will depend on anticipating these developments and shoring up your internal systems, policies and practices before they become liabilities.

Anders Gillis is an employment attorney with Parker Harvey, PLC. Reach him at agillis@ parkerharvey.com.

By Josh Traeger, columnist

Detroit’s Fox Theatre has a kind of magic that’s hard to put into words. The grand red curtains, the gilded ceilings, the echo of decades of artists who’ve stood beneath its chandeliers — it’s the kind of place that makes you feel both small and alive.

My wife and I were there on a fall date night, a rare chance to get away from the daily grind and simply be together. The Red Clay Strays had come to town, and from the first note, the crowd was electric. Their music — southern, soulful, honest — filled every corner of that old theater. But it was one lyric, delivered near the end of their song “Be Yourself” that stuck with me long after the last guitar faded:

“You can’t be nobody else.”

Simple. Straightforward. But it hit me like a mission statement.

As I watched the band pour themselves into their performance — imperfect, raw, real — I realized that what makes them magnetic isn’t polish. It’s authenticity. And that same truth holds for nonprofit leaders, small business owners and every person trying to build something that lasts.

Because authenticity isn’t a brand. It’s a strategy.

Authenticity is the new currency

We live in a world of filtered perfection — curated social feeds, corporate jargon, artificially constructed content and the temptation to mimic whoever seems most successful. But the leaders and businesses that stand out today don’t chase imitation. They choose integrity.

You can’t fake consistency. And you can’t automate trust.

Clients, employees, and communities can sense authenticity immediately — not through what we say, but through how we show up. The best leaders aren’t perfect; they’re genuine. They communicate clearly, admit what they don’t know and make decisions anchored in values rather than optics.

I’ve seen it time and again in my own work. The businesses that thrive — and stay out of legal trouble — are the ones that communicate openly, document transparently and act consistently with

Be Yourself — and Mean It: The business case for authenticity

their stated values. Whether you’re drafting contracts, managing employees or resolving disputes, clarity and honesty always cost less than confusion and ego.

As musician John Mayer once wrote, “Say what you need to say.” It’s not just good songwriting. It’s good leadership.

Leadership without the mask

There’s a quiet strength in leading without pretense. When you show up as yourself — not the version you think people expect — you give others permission to do the same.

Small business owners in northern Michigan know this well. You can’t hide behind corporate layers here; your clients are your neighbors. Your team sees you at Oryana, your kids’ hockey games and the downtown light parade. That kind of proximity demands realness.

Authentic leadership starts with self-awareness: knowing your principles and living by them even when it’s inconvenient. It means sharing the truth, even when the truth is uncomfortable. It means saying, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out,” rather than pretending to have all the answers.

I often think of Dan Martell’s reminder in his book, “Buy Back Your Time”: “You don’t scale authenticity. You sustain it.”

As your business grows, guard the qualities that made people trust you in the first place — empathy, reliability and the courage to be transparent.

In my business, we’ve built that into our systems. Every client knows exactly what we do, what we charge and what they can expect. There’s no mystery — and because of that, there’s mutual respect.

Clients, employees, and communities can sense authenticity immediately — not through what we say, but through how we show up.

The legal and cultural case for realness

There’s a practical side to all this, too. Authenticity isn’t just good for morale — it’s good for business.

Companies rooted in genuine communication write better contracts, retain better employees and attract better clients. When you build a culture of honesty, you eliminate ambiguity — and ambiguity is where most legal problems begin.

Think about hiring, for example. In July, I wrote about the legal side of great hiring, and the point still stands: Being human is important, but being clear is essential. Transparency in your policies and your expectations prevents confusion,

frustration and costly disputes later on.

The same applies to client relationships. A business that delivers what it promises — without hidden terms or inflated guarantees — creates loyalty that no marketing budget can buy.

There’s a reason the best contracts read like good communication: They’re written by people who mean what they say. Authenticity, in law and in leadership, is simply the discipline of meaning what you say.

Sing your own song

As the concert wrapped up that night, the crowd sang the final chorus of “Be Yourself” at full volume. For a moment, thousands of strangers were united by one idea – that life’s too short to be anyone else.

Walking back to the hotel through downtown Detroit, hand-in-hand with my wife, I thought about how rare it is — in business and in life — to encounter people who are fully themselves. They don’t over-complicate. They don’t perform. They just lead from the inside out. That’s the kind of business I want to build. That’s the kind of legacy I want to leave. Because in music, in leadership, and in law, imitation fades fast ... but when you find your true voice — and use it — people listen.

Josh Traeger is the founding attorney at True North Legal Group, a Traverse City-based law firm that provides legal counsel to small businesses and nonprofits across northern Michigan. Learn more at www.truenorthlegalgroup.com.

REAL ESTATE, CONSTRUCTION & INTERIORS

WHERE LAW MEETS LAND

Real

estate and construction attorneys on northern Michigan’s changing landscape

By Art Bukowski

From a development and real estate perspective, northern Michigan has truly boomed since the pandemic wound down. Real estate prices are setting record highs year after year. Reputable construction crews have waiting lists that stretch to two years and beyond. Commercial, residential, waterfront, ag – you name it – it’s all hot. Meanwhile, the Grand Traverse region has seen an explosion in short-term rental action, adding a complex and often contentious twist to the land use scene.

Local construction and real estate attorneys are as busy as ever as issues tied to these matters end up in litigation. The TCBN checked in with three who specialize in this arena to see what’s trending –and what advice they’re giving clients.

Ounce of prevention

Property and construction issues have never been strangers to litigation. People will argue over anything, and they’ve kept attorneys busy for decades.

But the stakes (and tensions) just

seem a bit higher these days as costs to build or buy are through the stratosphere. Issues with access, property lines, property use and more are that much more intense when people are paying double or triple what they would have 15 years ago.

“If you pay … 900,000 bucks for an acre of property, every single inch of that shoreline counts, right? And you’re going to fight over the placement of your driveway,” said Andrew Blodgett, a real estate and construction attorney with Parker Harvey. “It’s just such a huge investment.”

The positive trend out of this is that many more people are seeking out an attorney’s counsel before purchasing that dream home.

“We are hitting $3 million purchase prices on some lakes,” Blodgett said. “And you ought to have a lawyer involved on both sides in a $3 million transaction. I don’t care what it is.”

It’s not just the mansions. Blodgett says he’s more involved than ever at the front end of basic real estate transactions of all dollar amounts. With many good starter homes flirting with $500,000, it’s just a good step to take.

“Most of the major talent is now building very high end, custom homes. To be blunt, I think if you are doing a mid-level home or remodeling project, you’ve got to be aware of the risk of someone being incompetent or being a shyster. And that’s scary.”

– Andrew Blodgett, Attorney/Partner, Parker Harvey

“Sometimes it’s relatively minimal. I read the purchase agreement. Read the documents from the title insurer and hooray, everything looks good. Sometimes you come up with something and you hope to work it out,” he said. “If you look at the price tag of a home purchase these days, you can’t afford to screw that up. If there’s even the slightest hint of a legal issue, you

need to be asking questions.”

The network of professionals involved in real estate also seem to be recognizing the value in preventative legal reviews, Blodgett says.

“Often it’s the realtor who calls me and says, ‘I don’t feel comfortable giving advice in this area,’” he said. “And I love that because I don’t do their job. I don’t

value homes. I don’t talk about the kitchen layout. And conversely, your realtor is not a lawyer, and it’s unfair to put them in that situation.”

The same, of course, applies to construction, where preventative legal reviews are lagging a bit further behind.

“What I don’t understand … is why people are signing building contracts without talking with a lawyer first,” Blodgett said. “You are entering a building project; look at the dollar amounts. What would it do if this goes wrong?”

As always, it helps to talk to people who know what they’re doing.

“If you’re concerned about a real estate issue or a construction issue, you go to someone who handles those things often,” said David Glenn, an attorney with Kuhn Rogers who handles scores of these cases. “With the law … you get a lot of jack of all trades, but a lot of stuff can be pretty in the weeds. There’s too much to know to do all those things at once and do them really well.”

Finally, though not a legal issue in its own right, these attorneys often end up in court because surveys weren’t done before a real estate purchase was made, says David Bieganowski with Bieganowski Law.

“People don’t get surveys when they should, and they buy a house to figure out their neighbor’s shed is on their proper-

ty,” Bieganowski said. “That happens all the time, and that’s because they’re too cheap to pay $300 or $700 for a survey.”

Talking it out

Even when the problems do occur, real estate and construction law is following a larger trend of mediation (sometimes informal) happening even before a lawsuit is filed. Court-ordered mediation has been around forever in the early stages of lawsuits, but more and more parties are increasingly eager to iron it out and stave off costly court proceedings.

“The odds are [the suit] is going to settle,” Glenn said. “Why spend 30 grand on attorneys … when you could spend five grand?”

It doesn’t work for every case, of course, but parties in good faith are increasingly able to reach a deal before things get out of hand.

“When both sides know what the issues are, why not sit down and resolve them before each of them runs up a $50,000 legal bill?” Blodgett said.

Whereas court proceedings focus strictly on facts at hand, mediation also allows space for many of the heightened emotions and subjective feelings in volved in these property cases to get out, Blodgett says. It’s “equal parts cathartic and necessary,” Blodgett said, and “you

“The world looks extremely different now. Everything is just on hyperdrive. Back 10 years ago, if you said you’d build a house for $700,000, prices would probably be pretty similar [by the time] you’re finishing that house up. Now, prices could be 100 grand more.”

– David Glenn, Attorney, Kuhn Rogers

can’t get to a resolution unless you process those emotions.”

“What I’ve learned is that in northern Michigan, there is always emotion attached to our dirt. I hear stories where people say ‘I know maybe I’m not doing the financially savvy thing. But all I can think about is watching my

Times are changing

The current state of affairs creates plenty of room for legal trouble, these attorneys say, particularly in the construction world. One example is material and labor costs that are increasing at a much, much faster pace than ever before, combined

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““People come in when things have gone wrong, and the first thing I say is, ‘Where’s your contract?’ You’ve got to tie things down in the contract. Don’t do handshakes. All these handshake people, they get screwed in the end. Get it in writing.”

– David Bieganowski, Attorney, Bieganowski Law

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and the project itself takes two years of construction.”

people, they get screwed in the end. Get it in writing.”

Flying by night

“The world looks extremely different now. Everything is just on hyperdrive,” Glenn added. “Back 10 years ago, if you said you’d build a house for $700,000, prices would probably be pretty similar [by the time] you’re finishing that house up. Now, prices could be 100 grand more.”

hopefully catch that and correct it,” he said. “Or realize this guy should not be building this house and terminate the contract early on.”

Short-term shuffle

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What this means is that many contractors are shifting away from providing traditional quotes and finding ways to cover their butts, usually by insisting on time and materials (it costs what it costs). It’s not great for customers, but it’s arguably the best way to deal with unstable pricing.

“I have seen almost all contracts go from fixed price to time and materials because they can’t stand the risk,” Blodgett said. “And I think the [customers] either realize that or have no choice, because everyone is starting to do it.”

The instability is also leading some contractors to build more outs into their contracts, Glenn says, often through force majeure clauses.

The increased demand for construction in the region has created a vacuum of sorts that has drawn plenty of new workers and companies to the area, as well as inexperienced locals into the business. As Blodgett puts it, “anyone who can swing a hammer” has found their way into this lucrative business.

Unfortunately, these “second- and third-tier, fly-by-night schmoes” are creating legal headaches.

“Since COVID, contractors are harder to find. And good ones are really hard to find. So the B-level and C-level contractors have filled in the gap, and they’re terrible,” Bieganowski said. “They take your money, don’t do the work. They don’t tell you when they’re coming back, and they’re surly about it. So we’re getting a lot of those kinds of fights.”

The region now has an estimated 9,000 short-term rental properties, a number that has exploded over the past decade as people cash in on this phenomenon. Legal challenges on these units most often stem from private property owners or homeowners associations suing a property owner who’s doing the renting, and occasionally municipalities that take legal action to enforce ordinances.

Two things have to happen for a short-term rental to be legal. First, it has to be permitted under local government (often township) regulations. Second, the property must not be subject to any sort of restriction against commercial use.

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“What qualifies as an act of God was normally something like a lightning strike … now it’s tariffs or something like that, or a lack of subcontractor [availability],” he said.

Returning to the prevention theme, attorneys are advising people on both sides of these transactions to take steps to avoid legal conflict. A no-brainer is to stick to written change orders for everything, Glenn says, but too many are still avoiding this often time-consuming practice.

“Every contractor requires it, but no one ever does it. They’ll do the big-ticket stuff a lot of times, but it’s the small stuff that adds up,” he said. “And then you get to the end of the project and you’re 80 grand over, and [the customer] is like ‘I’ve only signed two change orders.’”

Then there’s having a contract in the first place. While perhaps the biggest no-brainer of all, these attorneys still see far too many people coming in without one.

“People come in when things have gone wrong, and the first thing I say is, ‘Where’s your contract?’” Bieganowski said. “You’ve got to tie things down in the contract. Don’t do handshakes. All these

These attorneys strongly advise doing ample research on contractors before hiring.

“Most of the major talent is now building very high-end, custom homes,” Blodgett said. “To be blunt, I think if you are doing a mid-level home or remodeling project, you’ve got to be aware of the risk of someone being incompetent or being a shyster. And that’s scary.”

Unfortunately, customers that find themselves in these situations do not have a lot of good options, as already busy builders aren’t particularly interested in coming in to clean up a mess.

“What’s unfortunate is the client says, ‘Hey, this guy did this, this, and this.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, okay. Go ahead and fire him. But try and find someone else to finish your project,’” Bieganowski said. “You might want to just lump it, finish the project, and then fight over money at the end.”

It’s another reason to have an attorney on hand throughout the process, Blodgett says.

“These sworn statements, the draws, all of those should be followed because that’s a mechanism where if the builder starts scuffing that up early on, we can

It’s this second matter that often comes into play in court cases, as these restrictions can come from many places, including dusty old neighborhood or development documents drafted long before short-term rentals were ever conceived.

“People think that if they apply for [the government permit] and they get approved that they’re good to go, it’s legal. The government says I can do it, nothing gets in my way,” Glenn said. “But that [approval] doesn’t invalidate any private restrictions on your property that are unique to your specific property.”

Ultimately, lawyers said, many people with short-term rentals have shown a propensity to push the envelope and continue to rent up until they are legally forced to shut down.

“They start renting out and then the neighbors complain and they call me and we send a demand letter, and they usually ignore us,” Glenn said. “Then we have to sue them.”

Bieganowski, who like Glenn has had plenty of clients on both sides of this issue, echoes those sentiments.

“If you get a neighbor who wants to take up the fight, you’ll get a nice letter from me, then a nasty letter from me, then we sue you,” he said.

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HOME ECONOMICS

How the homebody-lifestyle is driving interior design

By Kierstin Gunsberg

Home is where the heart is and in 2025 it’s where a lot of other things were too, from the gym to the office and classroom. Research published late last year by the Journal of the American Planning Association found that compared to pre-pandemic numbers, Americans are spending close to an hour less – 51 minutes, to be exact – out-and-about each day in favor of staying home.

Whether that’s because of a shift in how people use their homes (and how much easier it is to run errands right from the couch) or because of a persistent hike in prices denting the appeal of going out, the homebody lifestyle is a likely factor in the steady growth of the global interior design market, which is projected to grow to more than $200 billion in the next eight years. Even as high interest rates and high housing prices hold firm, pricing out many would-be buyers, the last census counted 31,000 residents who’d moved to northern Michigan from other parts of the country, a trend that’s driving demand for interior design firms like Traverse City’s Paige Lee Interiors.

Owner Paige Maurer says she’s ending the year working on two nearly 5,000 square-foot new builds and several smaller renovations, noting that many of her projects are second homes for out of towners who plan to make their Up North investment their main home.

“Right now it might only be that they’re able to come for short periods of time, but the goal is that they’d be here full-time eventually as they approach retirement age,” explained Maurer, who added that the biggest requests she’s fielding from second-home owners is for her to help them achieve “that Up North cottage feel.”

With the new year right around the corner, here’s what Maurer and two other Traverse City designers say will be in for 2026 interiors, who’s investing in them and which styles are on their way out.

Color is cool again

Sad Beige Mom aesthetic be damned, homeowners are growing tired of the shades of grey made popular by lifestyle influencers through the pandemic. Instead, clients want to see “warm tones, color,” said Kirsten Pappas of Wink Interior Design and Cabinetry.

Pappas, whose Eighth Street showroom sits near Raduno in the North Boardman Lake District, says the gauge for what’s chic in furniture upholstery is set by what’s popular in fashion. Right now, patterns and brighter hues reign over the solid creams, black and beiges that dominated the last few years.

“It’s just kind of interesting to watch that and how that relates to the design industry,” said Pappas, adding that plaids

Paige Lee Interiors

“That’s definitely something that I see kind of across the board; no matter what their design style is, they really do try to embrace that natural feel.”

– Paige Maurer, Owner, Paige Lee Interiors

are “pretty hot right now,” while houndstooth is making a comeback in both blazers and sofas. Clean lines and minimal clutter are still top-of-mind for her clients, but she finds that a cozier, more lived-in look is winning over homeowners.

“People are staying home more and cooking more and trying to gather around the table,” she said. “Especially up here. Our summers are all about family and connecting and just getting together for meals and barbecues.”

Relocation, homebody-lifestyles redefining design aesthetics

With more of her clients planning their designs around a stay-at-home lifestyle, Pappas says they’re funneling most of their budgets (sometimes five to six figures) into the spaces where they’ll spend the most time, especially the kitchen, where color is also experiencing a revival. The all-white, icy-quartz, floor-to-ceiling look is becoming a bit passé, while appliances like Viking’s luxe $24,000 dual fuel ranges and Smeg’s mid-priced packages in shades of buttery yellow, muted aquas and rich navy are making their way in.

“Everything is just getting more custom,” Pappas said.

Serene Lake Michigan-inspired colorways are also big for 2026 with more homeowners drawing elements from the shoreline into their interiors, Paige Lee Interior’s Maurer notes.

“That’s definitely something that I see kind of across the board, no matter

what their design style is, they really do try to embrace that natural feel,” she said.

“There’s a really modern project in my portfolio where we’ve done some cool tile mosaic backsplash in blues meant to look like a modern form of a wave.”

Pappas and Maurer both say a large demographic of their clients are transplants from metros across the country – Chicago, D.C., Texas, Florida, and the West Coast. And those clients are bringing design aesthetics from their hometowns with them while pushing back on some that have become commonplace here, like modern farmhouse.

Tariffs Are Causing Some Creativity

Dana Lacuesta, owner of Dana Grace Interiors, is one of northern Michigan’s newcomers both as a resident and designer, following her move from Tennessee to Traverse City in 2019. Lacuesta and her small team start their search for staple pieces with northern Michigan makers but even in trying to keep most of her suppliers here at home, she’s running into tariff troubles.

“Some things may be made locally, but they may be made with components that are made somewhere else, and that can kind of put a little bit of a hitch in the getup, as we say in Tennessee,” she said.

It’s adding to the planning conversations she has with clients as they work together to weigh the pros and cons of sourcing from lines that are entirely produced in the U.S.

“They’re more expensive, and anything

made domestically is generally more expensive and can also take a lot of time,” said Lacuesta. “But when we educate our clients about the materials used and let them know that we’re going to be avoiding some tariffs, that kind of makes it worthwhile in the end.”

Tariffs have also tacked onto lead times, with custom cabinetry jumping from nine to 12 weeks to nearly 16 weeks and furniture taking almost as long. Most

clients, especially those waiting to get into a new build, haven’t been too fazed by the wait, says Maurer, but it’s costing flippers hoping to land a quick closing.

Buyers and homeowners are focused on longevity

While a good portion of the interior design market is second homes and new buyers, locals who might have mulled a move a

few years ago are also investing in renovations and redesigns in their existing spaces rather than jumping into a competitive market. As they do, they’re thinking more about how to make their home look and feel like a place they’ll be happy staying indefinitely.

“They’re asking for materials that are actually going to show a little bit of wear and age,” Lacuesta explained.

That’s meant going for natural stone countertops over quartz, hardwoods and

handmade tile instead of laminate, and textiles like linen, wool, cotton, and even sheepskin leather in place of synthetic fabrics.

“We’re getting away from things having to look new and pristine forever and our clients are actually embracing this idea of materials that kind of tell the story of their family,” she explained. “I think that the shift in idea around material directly correlates with that same idea of, ‘Well, we’re going to be here for a while.’”

Wink Interior Design & Cabinetry

Pappas Lacuesta

Dana Grace Interiors

Why rebalancing can be so important

Imagine sitting in a rowboat and wanting to get back to shore. If you just sit there, the wakes from passing boats and the wind could cause you to drift further toward the middle of the lake — not where you want to be. Of course, they might actually move you toward the shore. Who knows?

On the other hand, you could use your paddles. It’s more work, but it’ll increase the possibility of your reaching your destination.

It’s similar with your portfolio. If you neglect it, market activity may cause it to drift away — possibly far away — from where you want it to be.

Take, for example, a portfolio that starts out 60% stocks/40% bonds. If stocks were to have a particularly good year and bonds a bad one, the allocation could shift to, say, 70% stocks/30% bonds without the investor even realizing it. While this portfolio likely has better growth potential than the original, it could also take a bigger hit if stocks, which tend to be more volatile than bonds, turn around and have a bad year.

To help avoid this, you should consider periodically “rebalancing” your portfolio. This involves looking at how you’re diversified across different types of investments and considering selling some investments and buying others when necessary to bring your portfolio back to the asset allocation you originally intended. In the example above, you might think about selling stocks and buying bonds to get to 60% stocks/40% bonds. All investing involves risk, including loss of principal.

Asset allocation and diversification are investment methods used to help manage risk. They do not guarantee investment returns or eliminate risk of loss including in a declining market.

Investments in fixed-income securities are subject to market, interest rate, credit and other risks. Bond prices fluctuate inversely to changes in interest rates. Therefore, a general rise in interest rates can cause a bond’s price to fall. Credit risk is the risk that an issuer will default on payments of interest and/or principal. This risk is heightened in lower rated bonds. If sold prior to maturity, fixed income securities are subject to market risk. All fixed income investments may be worth less than their original cost upon redemption or maturity.

Equity securities are subject to market risk, which means their value may fluctuate in response to general economic and market conditions and the perception of individual issuers. Investments in equity securities are generally more volatile than other types of securities.

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HOMEBUILDING HAVOC

Eastwood Custom Homes team weighs in on the many market challenges facing builders

By Craig Manning

What does it cost to build an entry-level home in northern Michigan?

There’s no better person to answer that question than Bill Clous, who founded Eastwood Custom Homes along with his brother Ron in 1977. The better part of five decades later, Clous is still building houses, usually with an emphasis on affordability. Amidst the numerous market challenges facing builders in 2025 –inflation, labor shortages, tariffs, rising material costs and a high-demand local market that’s sent home prices skyrocketing – the TCBN sat down with Clous and his team to learn more about the ins, outs and costs of building in northern Michigan.

The times are a-changin’

According to Clous, Eastwood’s first-ever build was an 1,800 square-foot spec home with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a two-car garage and a basement, complete with timber siding, brick wainscoting and a serene wooded lot.

“We sold that house for $39,900 –lot, finished build, everything,” Clous said. “Today, that same house would be $550,000, if not more.”

A 1,278% increase in 50 years is one thing, but what about more recently?

Ask Jason Potes, who still remembers how much it cost to build a house the day he started at Eastwood back in July 2012.

As the company’s credit specialist, Potes is responsible for helping buyers find the right pathway to financing and buying a home – a job that’s become decidedly more difficult as everything about real estate has gotten more expensive.

“When I started here, a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, two-car attached garage home was $144,000; now, the same house

common these days that Clous can rattle off cost-of-purchase rates from memory for every configuration of home Eastwood regularly builds. The least expensive of those homes today would still run a buyer $340,000.

“Three bedrooms, one bathroom, and a two-car garage, on a lot in a development, with municipal water, on-site septic,

“Back in the ‘70s, when we started building homes, I couldn’t imagine ever building a home without a basement. Now, the lion’s share of our homes are built on insulated slabs. For our smaller homes, it would now cost $55,000 to put a basement in. The larger ones, it’s $65,000. It’s unbelievable.”

– Bill Clous, Owner,

Eastwood Custom Homes

is $374,900,” Potes said. “So, that’s 13 years and a couple of months for the price of a home to jump some 160%. I would call that an increase.”

Clous says even with bank commitments, finding homes can be difficult for some clients.

“We just had a guy and his wife come in, and they had a commitment from a national bank for a $140,000 mortgage,” he said. “He wanted to know what was available at that price range, and we had to tell him that there is nothing we can do at that price – at least nothing you’d want to live in.”

Those types of conversations are so

and no appliances, is going to cost you $340,000,” Clous said. “Three bedrooms, two-bath, two-car garage, 1,200 square feet, same lot, same site improvements, that’s going to cost you $375,000. And four bedrooms, two bathrooms, two-car garage, 1,460 square feet, that’s going to cost $420,000.”

Affordability: An ever-moving target

Local buyers could certainly do worse than those prices, as a quick perusal of local real estate listings will show. But thanks to Eastwood’s reputation for affordability, Clous and company have

had to get creative about keeping prices (relatively) low in the current economy. One of the big strategies – and something local buyers will notice more as the market evolves and more houses get built – is designing homes without components that used to be commonplace. The first thing on the chopping block? Basements.

“Back in the ‘70s, when we started building homes, I couldn’t imagine ever building a home without a basement. Period. I said, ‘It only cost five grand! Why wouldn’t you do that?’” Clous recalled.

“Now, the lion’s share of our homes are built on insulated slabs. For our smaller homes, it would now cost $55,000 to put a basement in. The larger ones, it’s $65,000. It’s unbelievable.”

Basements still land on the wish list for many prospective buyers, but most people are dissuaded from that notion after hearing the price tag. After that, the conversation turns toward consolation prizes.

“We had a customer recently who came to us and said, ‘My budget is $150,000,’ and we had to tell him that he was $200,000 off our lowest-priced home on the market,” Clous noted. “Then he said, ‘Well, all right, I can spend $350,000, but I’ve got to have a basement.’ And then we had to tell him that just adding the basement was going to put him at $400,000 or $410,000. When we asked him if the basement was worth the increase, he said, ‘No, it really isn’t. Maybe you can add two feet to my garage so I’ve got some space there for storage cabinets.’ And we were

able to do that for three grand. We have a lot of conversations like that, where we’re sorting out the wants from the needs.”

Increasingly, those conversations are also including legwork on Eastwood’s part to get buyers qualified for financing. That’s where Potes comes in.

“With a lot of our clients, the situation is that everywhere else these people have gone, they’ve heard, ‘No, you’re not ready to buy a home,’” Potes said.

Once upon a time, such buyers would have been advised to rent for a few years, build up credit and savings, and then try again. With affordable rentals so hard to come by in northern Mich -

igan, Potes sees little benefit in that pathway for most would-be buyers. His mission is to help people find their way into a home, and to do it in the most affordable way possible.

“We schedule a meeting with the buyer, and we go over their income, their credit and their debts,” Potes explained. “And from there, we design a roadmap to get them to be able to purchase. Over the years, I’ve seen all the roadblocks you can imagine: They have a credit problem, an income problem, their car payment is too high. Mortgages are pretty restrictive, so any of those things can be the difference between getting a loan and not getting a

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loan. But we’ve gotten very good at solving all those pieces.”

The labor problem

Some problems are harder to solve than others. For builders, the biggest one these days is labor.

“Labor used to be so plentiful. There was all sorts of talent out there,” Clous said. “Today, the best talent in the construction industry seems to be the older talent. But the problem is, when we went through the pandemic, a lot of the older people just said, ‘I’m done.’ So, you’ve lost all that history, all that knowledge, all that

talent. I’d say we still have a lot of really good labor and really good tradespeople, but not near enough.”

According to the Center for Construction Research and Training, nearly one million construction workers in the United States lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Per contemporaneous Department of Labor reporting, the industry had recouped about 80% of that number by the beginning of 2022, but still remained nearly 240,000 workers short of pre-pandemic numbers. That same year, a report from the trade group Associated Builders and Contractors found that one in five construction workers were older

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than 55, and that the size of the 24-54 demographic in the industry had decreased by 8% in the preceding decade.

The labor strain is having an effect on how many homes companies like Eastwood can build. Per Clous, a “good year” for the business used to entail building 110 homes throughout the northern Michigan region.

“Now, a good year is 40 homes,” he said. Extrapolate that number across all the builders in the region, and it helps explain why demand is outstripping supply in the local market – and why prices are so high.

Clous has an idea of how to solve the labor issue – and how to get more young people involved in the construction industry – but he knows it’s an extraordinarily controversial opinion.

“The most destructive thing that’s happened to make certain that we are never going to have an adequate supply of labor is the child labor law,” Clous said. “When I was a kid, my dad taught me how to use most types of power tools long before I was 16 years old. My brothers and I, we were taught how to drive tractors when we were eight years old. Today, I don’t think kids are taught to work unless they’re in an environment like the one I was raised in.”

The specific aspect of Michigan’s child labor laws that Clous says is causing the biggest problems is the statute that bars minors under the age of 18 from operating most motorized equipment. Where most industries can create a pipeline for young talent through internships, job shadowing and summertime employment programs, legal limitations make it hard for construction companies to do the same.

“When you do hire a young kid,

what does he get to do? He gets to carry lumber, operate a wheelbarrow, or carry a five-gallon bucket full of something from here to there,” Clous said. “How many years do you think that kid is going to stay in the trades? Because right now, he has no opportunity to learn anything that’s exciting.”

The materials pipeline

If there’s some silver lining for builders in 2025, it’s that some of the other pandemic-era challenges have eased considerably. According to Rich Floyd, Eastwood’s head of purchasing, pricing “really hasn’t gone back to normal, but the availability of product has been a whole lot better.”

“There was a time where windows would take 24 weeks to get; I can get them in a week now,” Floyd said. “There were times we couldn’t buy five-foot fiberglass showers. They weren’t making them, so I had to buy a bunch of four-foot showers – we even still have some. But now, the five-footers are readily available again. Those are major differences in terms of availability.”

Even the Trump administration’s controversial tariff policies have had minimal effect on Eastwood’s bottom line, at least so far.

“Really, the only tariff thing that I run into is light fixtures,” Floyd said. “A lot of the light fixtures come from China, and Menard’s seems to be discontinuing things right and left, and stocking different stuff. So, that’s been a whirlwind, and the prices have gone up on a lot of those fixtures, but not a ton. And then a lot of our lumber comes from Canada, but we haven’t seen any major spikes in that stuff yet, either.”

BEYOND THE BLUEPRINTS

The Home Builders Association of Northwest Michigan (HBANWMI) has always been known for supporting the region’s residential construction industry, but our mission reaches far beyond job sites, blueprints, and building codes. At its core, it is a community-driven organization committed to strengthening northern Michigan through philanthropy, education, partnerships, and long-term workforce development.

Partnering With Local Nonprofits Through the Parade of Homes

Each year, HBANWMI members proudly open their projects to the public during the Parade of Homes. HBANWMI partners with local nonprofits, allowing these community organizations to benefit directly from the event. Builders and remodelers display their homes while the host NPO receives increased visibility, event-day traffic, and opportunities to share their mission with hundreds of attendees. A portion of event proceeds are donated to each of the host organizations.

These partnerships have strengthened ties between the construction industry and the region’s nonprofit ecosystem, creating a ripple effect that extends far beyond the four-day event.

Investing in the Next Generation

For years, HBANWMI has been committed to supporting local students pursuing careers in skilled trades and construction-related fields, awarding scholarships to apprentices, college students, and high-school graduates entering programs such as carpentry, construction management, welding and fabrication, HVAC, electrical, mechanical trades, design, and automotive.

These scholarships help remove financial barriers while encouraging people to pursue sustainable, high-demand careers. Just as importantly, each award reinforces the message that skilled trades are not simply “jobs,” but professional, honorable, long-term career paths that keep our communities strong.

The Northwest Michigan Skilled Trades Foundation: Expanding Our Impact

In 2023, the HBAGTA Foundation, Inc. was reborn as the Northwest Michigan Skilled Trades Foundation (NWMISTF).

Since that transition, the Foundation has grown exponentially in both vision and impact. With strong leadership, dedicated board oversight, and deep community partnerships, the Foundation has positioned itself as a

regional leader in workforce development. Its work includes:

1. Annual Scholarship Awards

Each year, the Foundation awards thousands of dollars in scholarships to students enrolled in trade-focused programs. These funds directly support tuition, training, tools, certifications, and other essential costs. In 2025 alone, 15 students were selected from a competitive applicant pool, underscoring both the need and the enthusiasm for trade-focused careers.

2. School and Community Outreach

The Foundation actively engages high schools, career-tech programs, counseling departments, and community youth organizations to raise awareness about trade careers and educational pathways. From classroom visits, and after-school programs, to hands-on demonstrations, these efforts help students discover opportunities they may not otherwise see.

3. Partnerships With Local Training Institutions

Collaborations with institutions like Northwestern Michigan College and Northwest Ed Career Tech Center ensure that training programs align with real-world industry needs. Advisory board participation, program development support, and collaborative outreach help strengthen the entire regional talent pipeline.

4. Emerging Workforce Initiatives

The Foundation continues to explore new programs focused on apprenticeships, mentorship, leadership development, and early-career exposure.

A Culture of Giving

HBANWMI’s philanthropic work isn’t a separate “arm” of the association, it’s woven into our identity.

By investing in people, organizations, education, and opportunity, HBANWMI and the Northwest Michigan Skilled Trades Foundation are building capacity, stability, and the future workforce northern Michigan needs to thrive. This is the kind of work that lasts. And it’s work we’re proud to champion, year after year.

The Home Builders Association of Northwest Michigan is here to help you navigate the process of building your dream home. Our members possess the local expertise and experience to guide you through every step, from initial planning to final construction. Learn more at hbagta.com/.

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RECIPE FOR GROWTH:

Stone House Bread sells majority stake to world’s largest bakery

By Art Bukowski

A very popular baker of artisan, organic bread has sold a controlling interest to the world’s largest baking company.

Stone House Bread has long been known for its high-quality baked goods, particularly its legendary sourdough. Founded in 1995 in Leland before moving to Traverse City, the company now distributes throughout every corner of Michigan and parts of Ohio and Indiana.

Now, Stone House’s ownership team has sold a majority stake in the company. The Stone House team did not disclose the buyer, but it has been publicly reported elsewhere that it’s a subsidiary of Mexico-based Grupo Bimbo. The company, which has more than 150,000 employees across 35 countries, declined to speak to the TCBN on this matter.

Stone House was founded by Bob Pisor, who in 2007 sold to Tonie Zahm-Spearing, Charlie Spearing and Jeff and Annette McMullen. The company has seen major growth since then, first under Zahm-Spearing’s leadership as managing owner and later in tandem with Jeff McMullen.

“Tonie and Jeff together just drove tremendous growth over the past three years,” Charlie Spearing said. “That team … was a force multiplier.”

Feedback on their products was excellent, suggesting it was an increasingly big hit with consumers.

“We found out that in any store we were in, we were the fastest growing and held the highest market share of any bread company … double the value of the next competitor,” Spearing said. “Really what we found out is we were the highest volume per store and fastest-growing sourdough company in the country.”

The company has also been riding a wave of consumer preference for more wholesome products and a lot of recent interest in sourdough.

“There are these really awesome gut health benefits that have just kind of surfaced in the last three years. And our bread is natural; uses organic flour. So we had kind of this perfect storm,” Spearing said. “And then it’s got a very strong artisan feel to it, which is another sector that’s growing very quickly.”

Considering Stone House’s strong growth and broad appeal, the company started to get interest from major buyers in recent years. The ownership team was ready to sell.

“We were open to structure and we were open to how much we sell, but just given the dynamics of the past few years, we knew there was a huge growth opportunity,” Spearing said.

The team worked with Golden Circle Advisors, an investment bank in Traverse City, to solicit potential buyers. After interest from several major players, they found one they liked and made a deal that recently closed. Terms were not disclosed.

Spearing said the buyer’s size and extensive distribution network made them very attractive.

“There’s nobody out there that has a better ability to scale us quickly,” he said. “They have sales channels in every town, every state, everything in the country. In the world, actually.” All current local production will be maintained, Spearing says, and the new buyer “really likes the Traverse City component of this whole thing.” But Stone House products will also begin to be made elsewhere.

“Right now, we have our … head of process out at a couple of [the buyer’s] bakeries showing them how to make our products. So we’ll just continue to repeat that as we scale across the country.”

The deal is set up in a way that specifies that the new majority owner can buy out the Spearing, Zahm-Spearing and McMullen minority stakes at any time after two years, Spearing says. After nearly two decades of ownership, it’s a bittersweet feeling.

“Tonie put her heart and soul into it for 17 years – it really was her baby. Now she’s got to send her baby off to college. So she definitely has some emotions,” Spearing says. “[But] this is what we bought it to do. We wanted to scale it and eventually sell it. And, you know, we’re all in our mid-fifties and this was the time for us.”

The nice part is hanging around for at least two years as the new buyer grows the company.

“Their plan involves the company scaling to at least 10 times where it is right now … so the sweet part of this is that financially there’s an opportunity for our rollover equity to grow into something very significant,” Spearing said. “But the other thing is that hopefully five years from now, you’ll find Stone House Bread in every corner of the country and we’ll go, ‘Wow, can you believe it?’”

Zahm-Spearing

BOOK REVIEW

By Chris Wendel

Most of us have heard the popular advice that leaders should project strength and avoid exposing their weaknesses. Brené Brown has built a career debunking that myth, reminding us that courage and vulnerability are not opposites but partners. With her latest book, “Strong Ground,” Brown returns with a powerful message for leaders navigating today’s uncertain world: Step back, stop building on shaky footing and learn how to stand on solid ground.

The idea for “Strong Ground” comes from a personal moment. During physical rehab, Brown’s trainer told her to stop compensating with weaker muscles and find her “strong ground” instead. Brown uses that unexpected lesson as a metaphor for leadership. Too many leaders, she argues, are relying on old habits, fearbased decision-making, self-protection and over-functioning rather than the internal stability that should ground their actions.

Brown backs up her premise with research involving 150 high-level CEOs. Her main question: In an unstable world where leaders are pressed to innovate constantly and confront problems that seem unsolvable, what must change? The answers point inward. Before restructuring a team or rewriting a strategy, leaders must address their own instability. Leadership, Brown argues, begins with clarity around your values, comfort with “paradox,” and the willingness to lean into discomfort rather than mask it.

Brown blends examples of missteps and insight with tools meant for realworld use. She revisits central themes from her earlier work including “armor versus courage,” but applies them to a world that looks vastly different than when she published “Dare to Lead” in 2018. Brown describes today’s environment as a tempest of economic uncertainty, social polarization and rapid technological acceleration. She insists that strong leadership in such times requires stripping back outdated systems, both organizational and psychological, and rebuilding on a foundation of humanity and disciplined practice.

Brown warns that too many modern leaders attempt transformation by adding new tools on top of broken foundations. She writes about false dichotomies that hold leaders back, like performance versus culture, freedom versus commitment, innovation versus stability. Instead, she pushes for “AND” thinking. You can be both courageous and afraid, both empathetic and accountable. True transformation requires intentional deconstruction, even when it means discarding systems or beliefs that once felt successful.

One of the strengths of “Strong Ground” is how seamlessly Brown curates ideas from other thought leaders she has encountered in her work. Adam Grant, Ginny Clarke, Amy Webb and Daniel

STRONG GROUND:

The Lessons of Daring Leaders, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit

By Brené Brown

Pink appear as touch points, expanding the book’s scope. The strength of the book lies not in name-dropping, but in how Brown connects their ideas to her own frameworks and experiences.

Readers familiar with Brown will recognize her trademark mix of enthusiastic storytelling and thorough research. She has always been refreshingly willing to admit her own stumbles, and that vulnerability gives the book credibility. You trust her because she is clearly still doing the work herself. Her concept phrases: “strong ground,” “rumbling with paradox,” and “dismantling armor” are explained with precision and supported by compelling stories, both personal and professional.

That said, Brown’s approach isn’t for everyone. Some readers may hope for a plug-and-play leadership model only to find assignments that require introspection, time and honest self-discovery. Brown doesn’t apologize for that. In fact, she argues that leaders have spent too long searching for easier answers and are now suffering the consequences.

For leaders ready to dig deeper, “Strong Ground” is exactly the book this moment calls for: practical yet profound, challenging yet deeply human. It’s a reminder that to lead boldly, we must first stand steadily. Brown once again proves that vulnerability is not weakness – it is the first building block of true strength.

Chris Wendel works for Northern Initiatives, a mission-based lending organization based in Marquette, Michigan. Northern Initiatives provides funding to businesses throughout Michigan and online business resources through its “Initiate” program to organizations and small business owners throughout the United States. Wendel lives and works in Traverse City.

Prime lot with beautiful water views in one of the most coveted, well-established neighborhoods in Traverse City. Just one mile from Munson Medical Center and two miles from downtown Traverse City, this is the ideal location to build your Traverse City dream home.

IN MEMORIAM 2025

Eight notable leaders who left their mark on the region

By Ross Boissoneau

Each year sees the passing of beloved community members, noted for their accomplishments and their legacy. Every death leaves a hole in that individual’s family and community. Their memories live on with the individuals and institutions they touched. These are just some of the notable individuals who passed away in the last year.

Douglas Gallagher, Traverse City

Known as everyone’s favorite farmer, Doug Gallagher was a graduate of Traverse City St. Francis High School. His studies in agriculture at Northwestern Michigan College and then Michigan State University were interrupted when he returned home to manage the family farm when his brothers were called to serve in the Korean War. Gallagher was a member of Michigan Milk Producers Association, Dean’s Foods, and a long-time member of Cherry Growers, Inc. In 1977, he began bottling his own milk, selling it at Gallagher Farm Dairy until 1984. In 2007 Gallagher’s Centennial Farm market opened, selling farm-raised beef and pork, which continues operating today. A true steward of the land, he received an award marking 25 years of county service at the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service office and served for nine years as the director of soil conservation for Grand Traverse County. He was described as the kind of boss everyone should have at their first job.

Tim Quinn traded life on the farm where he grew up for a life in academia, though he never got farming out of his system: One of his favorite activities was working “Farm Days” on Anam Cara Farm in Connecticut with his grandchildren. He earned a football scholarship to Hillsdale College and then to Eastern Michigan University before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He rapidly advanced through educational administrative positions, being named superintendent of the Green Bay Public Schools at 32 before becoming deputy state superintendent for the state of Wisconsin, then vice president and then president of Northwestern Michigan College. Under his leadership, NMC opened the Dennos Museum Center, passed the college’s operating millage in perpetuity and established the NMC University Center. After leaving NMC, Quinn created the forerunner of Michigan Virtual at U of M before starting his own business, Michigan Leadership Institute, focused on development of school superintendents. He then created and managed The Broad Center, an endowed program at Yale University which prepares leaders for the nation’s largest school districts.

Familiar to readers of the Traverse City Business News through her columns, Katie Horvath was an attorney heavily involved in the tech industry, serving as a speaker for various conferences and podcasts and earning numerous awards. She began her career in Cincinnati before moving to Silicon Valley. After beating breast cancer and moving back to her hometown, Katie joined the administration team of Munson Medical Center to open the Cowell Family Cancer Center. She was recognized with a leadership award in cancer prevention by the U.S. Congress, and spoke on cancer prevention during the National Congressional Cancer Prevention Caucus workshop. She provided business strategy and legal advice to clients of Boomerang Catapult, which led to her becoming CEO of data management company Naveego. She was named CMO of Aunalytics when it acquired Naveego. Horvath was appointed by Governor Whitmer to the Michigan Women’s Commission and served on the Advisory Board of the University of Michigan Industrial & Operations Engineering department and as a member of the Michigan AI Task Force. She mentored startup companies for tech incubator 20Fathoms and served on the board of FLOW (For Love of Water) and the Grand Traverse Yacht Club Foundation.

Diana Huckle’s parents instilled in her the importance of hard work and dedication, love of family and friends, and service to others. That was borne out in her work with her husband of 53 years, Jim, and the establishment of their family foundation. They met while working for General Motors before co-founding a publishing company in Michigan and later in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Their Jim & Diana Huckle Family Foundation focuses on funding initiatives in health, community and economic development, and human services. Its first grant was made to TART Trails; their support earned them the 2023 TART Trails Jim Mudgett Trail Pioneer Award. They also supported Norte, Generations Ahead, the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, FLOW, Grand Traverse Conservation District, and the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation. Their gifts to Paddle Antrim led to the formation of the Chain of Lakes Water Trail. Huckle’s passion for community service spanned many years and organizations, including Safe Harbor, Central’s Community Meals program, her church council and mission trips to Haiti with Soaring Unlimited in partnership with MSU Medical School volunteers.

Timothy Quinn

Katherine “Katie” Ford Horvath

Diana Huckle

Holly Bird’s academic and artistic travels took her from Interlochen Arts Academy to Michigan State University and DePaul Law School, from Traverse City to East Lansing, Chicago, Oregon, and back to Traverse City. She was an attorney, tribal judge, advocate for the underserved and at-risk, school board member, and human rights activist. She served as vice president of the board for the Grand Traverse Area Children’s Garden, a non-profit founded by her mother that teaches children the joys of gardening with an emphasis on healthy living, well-being, and caretaking for the earth. Bird served Michigan Title Track as co-executive director and founding board member, focused on clean water, racial equity and youth empowerment. She was also a founding member of Northern Michigan’s UpNorth Anti-Racism Taskforce, E3. At Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities she was the clean energy specialist. Bird’s tribal roots included Apache, Yaqui, Pueblo and Perépucha; she was a member of the Thunder Clan and she shared her talents of painting and dancing at events and celebrations throughout the state.

A native of Cincinnati, Mark Eckhoff’s work with Fifth Third Bank bank brought him to Traverse City, where he served in leadership and volunteer roles with Rotary, the Downtown Development Authority, the Grand Traverse County Brownfield Development Authority, United Way and the Cherry Capital Airport Authority. Never one to shy away from speaking his mind, he always balanced his strong opinions with a sense of fairness. He was known for his vibrant, quirky spirit, from his enthusiasm for Buckeye, Bengals and Lions football, Xavier basketball (where he earned his MBA), movies, and books to his love of bird-watching, photography, animals and chasing sunsets over Long Lake, finding joy in every moment. He’s remembered for being smart, funny, opinionated, and mostly honest and caring.

Holly Bird

Mark Eckhoff

Pat DeYoung

For more than a half-century, DeYoung’s was a landmark in downtown Traverse City, first as DeYoung’s Paint and Wallpaper (previously Hilt’s Wallpaper and Paint Store) and then as an art supply and window treatment store. Pat DeYoung and her husband Lyle moved to his hometown of Traverse City after graduating from Michigan State University to run the family business. Upon his death in 1992, she continued to run the business until closing it when she retired in 2009. DeYoung was active in the Zonta Club, served as a board member for Traverse City Chamber of Commerce, volunteered with the St. Lucia Doctors Without Borders, Santiago Women’s Club in Florida, The Father Fred Foundation, and hosted numerous exchange students over the years. Known for her fashion, sass, and in her later years as a world traveler, DeYoung was a mentor to other business owners in downtown TC and was described as a force of nature.

Larry Sellers

A fixture at St. Francis High School for 30 years, Larry Sellers served as a teacher, principal and head football coach. His life was devoted to education, athletics and service to others. He spent 36 years inspiring young people both in the classroom and on the athletic field, including two years at Mount Pleasant High School and four years at Muskegon Catholic Central High School before moving to Traverse City. During his 28 years coaching high school football, his dedication and leadership earned him many honors, including 13-time MHSFCA Region Coach of the Year, three-time MHSFCA Class C Coach of the Year, and 1974 Associated Press Class C Coach of the Year. He served St. Francis Catholic Church as a lector and eucharistic minister, as well as volunteering with the Father Fred Foundation and donating more than 17 gallons of blood throughout his lifetime. He was described as a guiding light who taught his teams about life through the game of football and an inspirational leader who inspired many, not only as a football coach, but as an outstanding administrator and teacher of countless life lessons.

1. Brady Buher, a senior financial analyst with Breneman Advisors in Traverse City, has been recognized by the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts as one of its 2025 “30 Under Thirty” honorees. The program celebrates rising professionals who have demonstrated exceptional accomplishments, leadership and dedication to excellence in the fields of business valuation, financial forensics and litigation support.

2. Casey Donahue has joined Golden Circle Advisors in Traverse City as an analyst, supporting the execution and origination function for the business.

3. Joe Ryan has joined Golden Circle Advisors in Traverse City as a vice president. Ryan previously worked at an investment bank in Chicago.

4. Jodi Harrand has joined State Savings Bank as its Traverse City/Suttons Bay office manager. Harrand oversees day-to-day operations of the two Traverse City and one Suttons Bay office locations and handles consumer loan requests. Harrand has nearly 40 years of banking experience, most recently as the manager of another local bank.

5. Jim Richardson is the new regional manager of the Benzie County market for State Savings Bank. Richardson first joined the bank in 2022 and has 28 years of experience in the industry. Based out of the Frankfort office, Richardson oversees day-to-day operations of the Frankfort, Benzonia and Empire offices and handles consumer loan requests.

6. Kelly Kuhns has joined Grand Traverse State Bank as vice president, branch/business banking. Kuhns brings more than 20 years of experience in banking and financial services to her new role.

7. Kelly Schramsk i has joined Grand Traverse State Bank in Traverse City as vice president of commercial lending. She brings more than 20 years of experience in banking and financial services, including work with the former Traverse City State Bank.

8. Dave Seman recently joined 4Front Credit Union in Traverse City as chief financial officer. He oversees the credit union’s financial and risk management operations and helps guide the company’s policies and business goals. He previously served as principal of CFO Advisory Services at Rehmann.

9. Dave Walters has joined 4Front Credit Union in Traverse City as chief lending officer. Walters manages the credit union’s lending services as

well as insurance and loss prevention. He brings more than 25 years of experience in lending and financial services to the organization.

>> HEALTH CARE

10. Taylor Adlam, M.D. , has joined Associates in Dermatology in Traverse City. Adlam is a board-certified dermatologist and previously practiced in Berkley, Mich.

11. Natalie DeYoung recently joined the board of directors of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Grand Traverse. DeYoung brings previous experience in nonprofit leadership, community health, and a career in communications, marketing and public relations to her new role.

12. Sarah Ellis recently joined the board of directors of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Grand Traverse. She currently serves as a territory business manager for Alkermes, where she supports providers and patients in navigating treatment for addiction and mental health conditions. Her background also included roles at Traverse Health Clinic, Munson Medical Center and Michigan Medicine.

1 // BRADY BUHER 2 // CASEY DONAHUE 3 // JOE RYAN 4 // JODI HARRAND 5 // JIM RICHARDSON 6 // KELLY KUHNS

7 // KELLY SCHRAMSKI 8 // DAVE SEMAN

9 // DAVE WALTERS 10 // TAYLOR ADLAM, M.D.

11 // NATALIE DEYOUNG

12 // SARAH ELLIS

13. Emily Levin, M.D., has joined the team at Munson Healthcare Neurosurgery. Utilizing her background in engineering, Levin has a special interest in using technology to improve patient outcomes.

>> REAL ESTATE

14. Chrissy Ingersoll , real estate agent with RE/MAX Bayshore in Traverse City, has been named the 2025 Agent of the Year by Aspire North Realtors. The honor recognizes realtors who demonstrate exceptional professionalism, integrity, and commitment to both their clients and community. Ingersoll has more than 30 years in the real estate industry, all with RE/MAX Bayshore.

15. Brittany Madden has been named chief marketing officer of RE/MAX Bayshore, headquartered in Traverse City. She will lead strategic marketing initiatives across northern Michigan and brings more than 15 years of global marketing experience to her new position.

>> OTHER

16. Kenneth King founder of Lookout Architecture in Traverse City, was featured in the November issue of VoyageMichigan magazine, bringing attention to the Traverse City design community across the entire state.

17. Mark Lentini

tain manager at The Homestead in Glen Arbor. He’s worked at the resort in a consulting capacity for a number of years. He oversees all of the systems related to skiing, from snowmaking to lifts, vehicles includ ing groomers and snowmobiles, and coordinating the day-to-day activities.

18. Stephen Siciliano ident for educational services at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City, has been selected to serve on the newly launched state wide Advisory Council on Transfer Success. The council will guide state wide efforts to expand pathways to degree completion and prepare more students for in-demand careers.

Please send Newsmakers by the 10th of the month to news@tcbusinessnews.com

13 // EMILY LEVIN, M.D 14 // CHRISSY INGERSOLL 15 // BRITTANY MADDEN

16 // KENNETH KING

17 // MARK LENTINI

The Ticker held its first-ever Friday Recess at the Traverse City Curling Club, located at the Cherryland Center. Attendees enjoyed on-site curling demonstrations, tailgating snacks and local and domestic beers in the TC Curling Club taproom. Panther Coffee provided samples of hot and cold brew coffee.

Susan McElduff, Attia Qureshi and Marina Call networked at the sold-out Traverse Connect Annual Economic Summit, which focused on growing and scaling diverse businesses across northern Michigan and the outlook for our region. Photo by Crackerjack Photography Studio.

The AAA staff recently marked the opening of its new office at 2322 US-31 across from Cherry Tree Inn & Suites in Traverse City.

Rebekah TenBrink, executive director, LIFT Teen Center; Ashley Halladay-Schmandt, director, Northwest Michigan Coalition to End Homelessness; and Bill Smith, Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation’s Community Guardian Donor, spoke at GTRCF’s Impact Gathering, which featured local leaders, supporters, and nonprofit partners.

Black Star Farms is the winner of Leelanau Chamber’s 2025 Business of the Year award. The Chamber selects a business based on community contributions, ongoing growth and innovation, opportunities for professional development, and recognized excellence in guest services. Pictured l-r: Meghan Moerdyk, events coordinator; Sherri Campbell Fenton, managing owner; Danny Simmons, event sales/catering manager; and Tyler Rushford, bistro chef.

Karen and Jack Segal attended the International Affairs Forum’s inaugural Gala at the Hagerty Center in October. The Segals were co-chairs of IAF for seven years and are both retired diplomats in the U.S. Department of State now living in Traverse City. Under their leadership in the 2010s, the IAF expanded its programming significantly. Photo by Jacqueline Southby.

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