Traverse City Business News - January 2026

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

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JANUARY 2026 • VOLUME 30 • NUMBER 6

WHAT TO

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TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

A F e e - O n l y We a l t h M a n a g e m e n t G r o u p

Charles Zhang - Michigan’s #1 Financial Advisor by both Barron’s* and Forbes** Serving the Entire Traverse City Area Traverse City Office 236 1/2 E. Front Street, #26 Traverse City, MI 49684 231-943-6988 Main Office 5931 Oakland Drive Portage, MI 49024 269-385-5888 or 888-777-0216

Our Zhang Financial Team

www.zhangfinancial.com

Fee-Only Unbiased Investment Advice

• We uphold a Fiduciary Standard and work with clients on a fee-only basis.

• We do not receive commissions, kick-backs, or soft dollars from product sales, eliminating inherent conflicts of interest.

Credibility & Professionalism

• Our team of professionals holds designations and degrees such as CFP®, CFA, CPA, MBA, JD, and PhD. • Charles received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management - Northwestern University, his MA in Economics from WMU, and Executive Education from Harvard Business School and Columbia University.

Charles Zhang, CFP®, MBA, MSFS, ChFC • Ranked #1 on Barron’s list of America’s TOP Independent Advisors for 2025.

Charles has achieved the #1 ranking four times within the past five years.* • Ranked #4 in the nation on Forbes’ list of TOP Wealth Advisors and is the highest-ranking Fee-Only Advisor on the list.* Minimum investment: $1,000,000 in Michigan/$2,000,000 outside of Michigan.

Assets under custody of LPL Financial and Charles Schwab.

Founder and President

*As reported in Barron’s March 9, 2025 and September 13, 2025, September 13, 2024, September 15, 2023 and September 17, 2021. Based on assets under management, revenue produced for the firm, regulatory record, quality of practices, and other factors. **As reported in Forbes April 3, 2024. The Forbes rankings, developed by SHOOK Research, are based on an algorithm of qualitative criteria, mostly gained through telephone and in-person due diligence interviews, and quantitative data. Those advisors that are considered have a minimum of seven years experience, and the algorithm weighs factors like revenue trends, assets under management, compliance records, industry experience and those that encompass best practices in their practices and approach to working with clients. See zhangfinancial.com/disclosure for full ranking criteria.

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

BRIEFLY

INTRUST ACQUIRES CPA FIRM Intrust CPA in Traverse City has acquired Traverse City’s WB CPA Group.

Members of the team – certified public accountants Mike Wojtkowiak, Shaunna Bradford, and Trish Cross – have joined Intrust. “WB CPA Group has built a strong reputation for professionalism, integrity, and exceptional client care,” said Jon Sluis, president of Intrust CPA. “Their team’s expertise and values align perfectly with ours, and we’re thrilled to welcome them to the Intrust family.”

NEW LOCATION FOR DART BANK Dart Bank has relocated its Traverse City lending office to 440 W. Front Street, Suite 100. The new space supports the bank’s expanding commercial and residential lending services in northern Michigan.

Johnson

Ford

FORD INSURANCE PURCHASES FRANKFORT INSURANCE Ford Insurance Agency in Traverse City recently announced its acquisition of Frankfort Insurance Agency. “We are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to become part of the Frankfort community and honored to carry forward the agency’s legacy of service,” said David Ford, agency principal.

Clients will continue working with Andrew Johnson, formerly of Frankfort Insurance Agency. “Our top priority is continuity,” said Johnson. “Clients will continue to receive the same personal service they’ve come to expect – just with more tools, more support and more options behind the scenes.”

TRAVERSE CONNECT NAMES 2026 LEADERS Traverse Connect recently welcomed several new officers and directors for its board of directors. Leading the organization for 2026 are Bill Myers of Promethient, chair; Rachel Johnson of Cherryland Electric Cooperative, past chair; Kevin Klein of Cherry Capital Airport, treasurer; and Dan Buron of Goodwill Industries of Northern Michigan, secretary. New directors (pictured above) include John Melcher, CEO of Crystal Mountain; Gabe Schneider, owner and founder of Northern Strategies 360; and Benjamin Marentette, city manager for the City of Traverse City. Schneider is also serving as government relations chair with director Norm Plumsted of Honor Bank finance chair.

IN-HOUSE PHARMACY COMING TO HEALTH CLINIC Traverse Health Clinic recently announced a philanthropic gift from Dan and Marsha Edson to support the creation of a new in-house pharmacy. The Edson Family Pharmacy will expand access to affordable, convenient, and coordinated care for patients, including those facing financial, transportation, or insurance barriers. It is expected to open this summer 2026. Dan Edson previously served as Traverse Health Clinic’s board president for 16 years.

STUDY: HYBRID WORK IS WORKING Networks Northwest recently published the Northwest Michigan Hybrid and Remote Worker Study, a compre-

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TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

THANK YOU

Our community is truly special, and we’re grateful for the countless contributions that make it thrive. Your ongoing support has built a spirit of kindness and collaboration, shining through in events, volunteer efforts, and simple gestures of friendship.

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TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

BRIEFLY hensive analysis of the region’s remote workforce. The study provides insights into the preferences, demographics, and challenges of hybrid and remote workers across the northwest lower Michigan region. “Our region - though continuing to feel the strain of national labor shortages - is successfully attracting a larger working age population,” says Payton Heins, president and CEO of study partner Northern Lakes Economic Alliance. “Employers offering flexible work options, as highlighted in this study, are a key driver, enabling the workforce to balance family needs while embracing the region’s unmatched outdoor and community amenities.” Find the full report at www.nwm.org/remotework.

NOMI POLICY CONFERENCE: JAN. 23 The Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance will host the 2026 Northern Michigan Policy Conference January 23 at the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa. The conference will prioritize policy issues of primary concern to businesses in the northern lower and upper peninsulas and provide opportunities for attendees to engage policy leaders.

Among the confirmed panelists are U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, State Sen. John Damoose, and State Rep. John Roth. Ad-

ditional panelists include Jeff Donofrio, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, and Brian Calley, president and CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan. The event will conclude with the region’s first gubernatorial candidate forum. Register at traverseconnect.com.

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BOAT DEALER LANDS FRANCHISE Jeff and Jami Hirsch, owners of Boatcraft Sales in Traverse City, have been awarded Michigan’s latest Monterey Boats franchise. According to company literature, Monterey features 3D-modeled designs, precision engineering, and annual model innovations.

SERVING OUR REGION FOR 40+ YEARS.

We’ve got your back—at home, at work, and everywhere in between. From protecting your family and your home… to safeguarding your business, your team and the benefits that keep them thriving…we’re here to cover what matters most.

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FROM THE DESK OF...

6 JANUARY 2026

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

From the Desk of Andi Dolan, Owner of Traverse Benefits

By Art Bukowski

Andi Dolan is owner of Traverse Benefits, which as of March will celebrate 10 years of providing tailored insurance solutions to local businesses and individuals.

Dolan prides herself on helping her clients “cut through the noise, make confident decisions, and protect what matters most – their people and their bottom line.” We thank Andi for showing us around her office, which is based in her Interlochen area home. If you have an idea for a From the Desk of feature, please email Art Bukowski at abukowski@tcbusinessnews.com.

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it for my business. A small business owner really takes on a lot, and I feel a great responsibility to serve them the right way.

1. I like to say that proper planning prevents piss poor performance, so I’m always taking very detailed notes.

You need to be on the ready to understand who you’re talking with, what they’re seeking and how you can serve them. It all starts with taking good notes.

2. I love photography and I love the process of photography. I’m just fascinated by it. You look at what we can do today with photography on our phones, but it all started somewhere.

3. My whiteboard says ‘Do the right thing right today and every day.’ This came from raising my kids, Jake and Adelaide. It was the motto of my family, and I’ve adopted

4. These are some of our educational materials, and education is so important. You’d be amazed how many people don’t understand the basics of insurance and insurance plans.

5. I’m about value, and I’m about sincerely saving for our future by paying attention to what’s coming at us while still not robbing today. This piggy bank represents that. Plus, it’s just cool. My mom got it in the sixties, and it’s from Italy. And I just love blue!

6. Self care is very important. Small business owners are constantly leaning into the headwinds, and I don’t think they stop long enough, myself included, for self care. I need to remind myself all the time: Drink water. Put the pen down and color. Shift your mind for a bit. Take care of yourself.

7. “The Daily Drucker” by Peter Drucker is one of my go-tos. I got the book when I was going through my MBA program, and I revisit it all the time. His mindset is all about the power of people. So what do you do when you have a bad day? Go get a beer? You have to go to something like this that actually gives you wisdom and insight.

8. I took my kids to Isle Royale about 20 years ago, and we met a man who had been to every National Park. They became fascinated by that, and we’ve gone to many, many parks since. Nature doesn’t lie. It’s the most honest thing we have.

9. My son Jake free-handed these and gave me one each for my birthday four years apart. He’s so talented and I just love them. He’s such a soft soul.

10. I like working from home, but it can be a challenge.

You need to have discipline and separate home life from work life. Working from home is nice because I don’t have a big building to be paying for. I don’t have to oversell. I sell the right thing for the right fit.

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

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COMMENTARY BY GABE SCHNEIDER

ELECTIONS CAN BE A PRIMARY CONCERN Have you ever ridden a horse? In the late 1700s, long before Michigan became known for advanced manufacturing, health care innovation and a vibrant small business landscape, our civic structure was shaped by very practical realities.

How far could a person reasonably travel by horse to reach the township center, participate in civic life and return home in a single day?

The answer was a division of land six miles by six miles, which we now call a township. This structure reflected a core belief that democracy should be accessible, local and grounded in the everyday lives of working people.

That principle still applies today – and for the northern Michigan business community, it makes the coming year and its elections especially important.

Answering the why This year, voters will see almost all state and federal offices on the ballot, including: • Governor • Attorney General • Secretary of State • All 110 Michigan House seats • All 37 Michigan Senate seats • All 13 U.S. House seats • One U.S. Senate seat To understand what’s at stake, it helps to look at participation. In the last mid-

term general election in 2022, Michigan saw a historic 58.9% of eligible voters cast ballots – the highest turnout ever for a gubernatorial election year.

By contrast, turnout in primary elections tends to be much lower. Historically, Michigan primary participation has hovered well below general election levels. In presidential primary years, turnout has ranged from about 16-32% of the voting-age population. In 2024, despite high national interest, statewide primary turnout was roughly 25% of the voting-age population.

Why does this matter? Because in northern Michigan, many races are effectively decided in the primary. This is especially true for partisan races for township officials, county officials and state legislators, where there may be only two candidates in the primary election.

Based on local partisan demographics, one party is often strongly favored to win the general election.

Take, for example, the 104th State House seat, currently held by Representative John Roth. In 2022, facing a primary challenger, Representative Roth won his primary with 51.99% of the vote.

Fast forward to the general election: He carried the seat comfortably with 62% of the vote.

Townships were created to reflect a belief that democracy should be accessible, local and rooted in everyday life.

Yet when only 16-32% of voters participate in primaries – and those primaries

determine election outcomes – we all feel the impact.

What’s at stake?

Of course, all politics are local. Decisions made in Lansing and Washington directly affect businesses and communities here at home.

Hospital funding and reimbursement policies shape the viability of health systems like Munson Healthcare, the region’s largest employer. Decisions made in recent elections have already led to federal changes to Medicaid that will cost the system tens of millions of dollars once fully implemented.

Primary elections also shape general election outcomes that determine how Northwestern Michigan College is funded at the state level and whether resources are available to provide critical services to students. Elections matter when elected officials decide whether to fund – or not fund – economic development incentives that attract private investment and position Michigan as a competitive destination for innovation.

Looking ahead to 2026, several key regional projects will be influenced directly by decisions made by voters – and, importantly, by primary voters.

Concrete will be poured and steel erected for the Freshwater Research and Innovation Center on the shores of Grand Traverse Bay, creating a nexus for science, education and business partnerships. Instream work will be completed

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR // EDITORIAL & BUSINESS OFFICE P.O. Box 4020 Traverse City, MI 49685 231-947-8787 ON THE WEB tcbusinessnews.com PUBLISHER Luke W. Haase lhaase@tcbusinessnews.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Gayle Neu gneu@tcbusinessnews.com HEAD WRITER Craig Manning STAFF WRITER Art Bukowski

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kyra Cross Poehlman CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Ross Boissoneau Kierstin Gunsberg Rick Haglund COPY EDITOR Becky Kalajian WEB PRODUCTION: Byte Productions MAILING/FULFILLMENT Village Press DISTRIBUTION Marc Morris SERVING Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Leelanau and Benzie counties

on FishPass, bringing the project close to completion as a global hub for aquatic research and development. A new Crisis Stabilization Unit will open within the Grand Traverse Mental Health Crisis and Access Center, expanding services and reducing the need for inpatient care.

Each of these initiatives depends on public policy decisions: budgets, regulatory frameworks and sustained advocacy in Lansing and Washington. Those decisions are made by leaders chosen first in primary elections.

Which brings us back to that horse ride to the township center. Our system was designed so civic participation was within reach, not a burden. Today, voting is easier than ever, yet too many voters skip primaries, unaware of how much they shape the choices on the November ballot.

For business leaders, civic engagement is not partisan – it’s practical. Being informed about who is on the ballot and voting in the primary election on August 4 matters deeply for the policies and projects that will shape northern Michigan’s future.

The distance to the polling place may now be measured in minutes rather than horsepower, but the responsibility remains the same. Be engaged. Vote in the primary and the general election. Our region’s future depends on it.

Gabe Schneider is a consultant, policy strategist and founder of Northern Strategies 360.

He lives, works and invests in Traverse City.

Have something to say?

Send your letters to: news@tcbusinessnews.com We reserve the right to edit for space and clarity.

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The Traverse City Business News Published monthly by Eyes Only Media, LLC P.O. Box 4020 Traverse City, MI 49685 231-947-8787 Periodical postage qualification pending at Traverse City, MI. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Traverse City Business News, PO Box 1810, Traverse City, MI 49685-1810.

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Content ©2026 Eyes Only Media, LLC. All rights reserved.

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8 JANUARY 2026

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

WHAT2WATCH WHAT2WATCH

What will make headlines in 2026

By Craig Manning, Art Bukowski, Ross Boissoneau, Kierstin Gunsberg and Rick Haglund

What stories will we be talking about this year in and around Traverse City? The TCBN looked into the crystal ball and predicted the more than 20 people, places, products and projects we’ll be watching in 2026, from a new Meijer and film festival to arts funding and new home building innovations.

If all goes according to plan, 2026 should be the year that Grand Traverse County gets a third Meijer.

The Ticker (TCBN’s sister publication) broke the news in March that the retail giant was actively planning a roughly 160,000 square foot supercenter with a gas station, drive through pharmacy, garden center and more for a 33-acre site just west of Menards near Chums Corner. As a frame of reference, the Acme store is about 190,000 square feet and the U.S. 31 store is about 220,000 square feet.

In a letter of intent to Blair Township, Meijer’s representatives made the case for the need to provide services to the “greater southern Traverse City area.”

Like other Meijer stores – including the existing Traverse City location on US-31 and the Acme location on M-72 – the Chums Corner location will have alcohol sales, a bottle return area, and clothing and other general merchandise including toys, pet supplies, sporting goods, electronics, home and auto maintenance supplies, and health and beauty products.

The planned site will feature outlot spaces that could be developed in the future, though those would be subject to separate planning and approval processes.

Meijer is working with the Michigan Department of Transportation on access

> MEIJER EXPECTS TO BREAK GROUND THIS YEAR ON BLAIR TOWNSHIP SUPERCENTER

issues to the site, with the likely end result being a new traffic signal aligned with East Commerce Drive near Michigan Trailers, about a half mile from the U.S. 31/M-37 intersection.

Blair Township Supervisor Nicole Blonshine told TCBN in December that Meijer had completed all approvals as far as the township was concerned. Meijer spokes-

Banking on community.

woman Erin Cataldo told TCBN that construction will be underway relatively soon.

“Construction plans are still fluid, but we anticipate breaking ground in 2026,” she said. “We appreciate all the support from the Traverse City community, and look forward to being able to serve more customers south of town with this new store, as well as expand our local partner-

ships to continue investing in local teams and nonprofits.”

Meijer is the latest of several major developments to recently come to Blair Township, including Blain’s Farm & Fleet, Amazon, and a new workforce housing development called Corners Crossing now under construction that will bring almost 200 apartments to Deronda Drive.

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WHAT2WATCH

> AFFORDABLE HOUSING EFFORTS IN BENZIE COUNTY

> THE IMPACT OF NATIONWIDE ARTS FUNDING CUTS

Efforts to provide much-needed housing in Benzie County are continuing through the work of non-profits including Housing Trust of Benzie. Housing Trust Executive Director Jackie Borozan says its latest project – the Cottages at Corning – will welcome four new owner-resident families this year.

The half-acre site is located at the corner of Ninth Street and Corning Avenue across from Family of Faith Nazarene Church, from which the land was purchased. The four cottages are each between 900 and 1,000 square feet, with a one-car attached garage.

The Housing Trust model is unique in that the residences are sold separately from the property. The Housing Trust leases the land to the owners for a nominal fee. This is the second project for the non-profit, which previously completed four single-family homes on Grove Place in Frankfort.

Borozan says the organization is looking for a location in the county for its next housing development, but such projects may necessitate modifications to the governing body’s zoning regulations. They often require a five-acre site and do not include water or sewer. Those added costs make them unaffordable for working individuals and families who earn between 60 and 120% of the county’s area median income, for whom they are intended.

“The city of Frankfort made changes to its zoning,” she said. “We wouldn’t be where we are without it.”

Borozan says Elberta is considering its zoning regulations as well. The housing trust estimates the homes will cost about $200,000. Each home requires approximately $50,000 in philanthropic support to close the gap between the development costs and what local families can afford. The trust previously completed four single-family homes on Grove Place in Frankfort. According to Housing North, an additional 1,508 residences must be made available by 2027 to meet demand, and only about 100 open up each year, many out of reach for most home buyers.

Local arts organizations spent much of 2025 worrying about whether one of their key funding sources, the Michigan Arts and Culture Council (MACC) would disappear. In Fiscal Year 2025, MACC awarded more than $10 million statewide. During a combative state budgeting session that brought Michigan to the brink of a government shutdown, MACC funding was one of many expenditures Republican legislators put on the chopping block. The funding ultimately survived – and then some, with the 2026 budget including more than $12 million for MACC. But the worries aren’t gone for arts funding, which has also been a target of the Trump administration in its efforts to slash federal spending.

MACC uses an annual application process to distribute grants to arts organizations throughout Michigan. In 2025, 17 Grand Traverse County orgs applied for a combined $709,000 in grants. MACC ultimately awarded nine of those grants, worth over $243,000. Deb Jackson, executive director of Traverse City’s Old Town Playhouse, said this fall that her organization relies on MACC funds for things like replacing antiquated equipment and upgrading obsolete technology.

MACC funds may have been preserved for 2026, but arts organizations view that victory as just one battle won in a much larger war. Nationally, President Trump has called for the total elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), which provides some of MACC’s annual funding. In the spring, Trump cancelled hundreds of open grants from the agency, including one that would have brought $10,000 in federal funds to the Traverse City Dance Project.

MACC’s 2026 fiscal year funding should at least dispel immediate existential threats for local arts organizations, but the worries aren’t gone. On December 16, the Traverse City Philharmonic announced that $64,000 in Michigan state funding it was counting on had been “unexpectedly cancelled.” That scuppered grant was part of nearly $645 million in previously approved funding that the Republican-controlled House budget committee. Beyond $1.9 million in slashed funding for symphony orchestras, the cuts affected programs in healthcare, economic development, law enforcement, and more.

TC Phil has since launched a “keep the music playing” fundraising campaign to “bridge the gap” of the lost funding.

Switch to northern Michigan’s Business Bank.

10 JANUARY 2026

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

WHAT2WATCH

> HISTORIC BUILDINGS IN EMPIRE COULD SEE NEW LIFE

> NEW LODGING TAX FOR HOTELS, SHORT-TERM RENTALS?

Two currently historic properties in Empire are ripe for change.

The owner of the Empire school house at the corner of West Front Street and M-22 is looking for ways to develop and lease the building, while the former hardware store and livery barn at the western terminus of West Front on Lake Street remains for sale.

Joe Van Esley held a public meeting this summer regarding his ideas for the schoolhouse, with leases for office, retail or community purposes, which he hopes will include a coffee shop he would operate and space for the Empire Community Center and Emergency Fund.

“We are going for approvals soon and hope to see activity in April,” he said.

Currently he is working with three entities: the county on a brownfield grant, the National Park Service on the historic end and the MEDC on a grant. He already had an electric car charging station installed on the property.

Jim Bagaloff, who owns the former hardware store property, says he is guardedly optimistic something will happen this year.

“Nothing is imminent,” he said.

He says he has been contacted by several interested parties and received offers, though they have not resulted in a sale. A challenge for both projects is the fact the village does not have a sewer system, and large-scale projects must provide their own septic. Van Esley and Bagaloff both say they have solutions, though in Bagaloff’s case it is based on the entire property being sold in whole.

The price for the 5.34-acre property with the store, pole building, two sheds and livery barn is $1,565,000; the two-level livery barn on 1.12 acres is listed for $870,000.

Development of either the schoolhouse (closed since 1968) or the Lake Street property (vacant since the hardware store closed in 1995) would be a boon for the village.

A new package of bills co-sponsored

by State Representative John Roth (R-Interlochen) would make it possible for voters to opt their county or local unit of government into a new 3% excise tax for hotels, motels and shortterm rentals (STRs). Those tax revenues could then be used for things like infrastructure and emergency services – a way to “help tourist-heavy areas offset the additional cost of hosting visitors,” according to bill co-sponsor Mark Tisdel (R-Rochester Hills).

While Roth is doubtful the bills will pass as written, he’s hopeful they will ignite a dialogue around equitable distribution of tourism revenues in Michigan.

“I really consider these bills vehicle bills,” Roth said. “I don’t know that they’ll end up going through, but I really think they’ve restarted the conversation. The restaurants, the lodging industry, the convention-and-visitors bureaus (CVBs), the Michigan Township Association, the Michigan Municipal League – they’re all talking again. And I think there’s recognition … that some of these funds need to go back to the local governments to help take care of infrastructure – whether that be sewers, fire or inspections of short-term rentals.”

Notably, the legislation has the backing of Airbnb, which has become

an increasingly large part of northern Michigan’s tourism economy in recent years. A fall 2025 report from The Ticker found that the north coast region of Michigan boasts more than 9,000 active STRs during the peak summer tourism season.

For his part, Trevor Tkach, who leads the local CVB, Traverse City Tourism (TCT), takes issue with Airbnb’s role in the legislation. TCT is funded by an existing 5% assessment on member hotels, motels and other lodging properties, but STR operators only pay into the organization if they operate more than 10 units. Tkach wants a more level playing field for hotels – something this legislation wouldn’t provide.

“Platforms like Airbnb – and the STR owners they represent – have been the beneficiaries of a longstanding system that supports Michigan’s visitor economy,” Tkach said. “Rather than helping ensure that their members are fully compliant with the existing system and paying their fair share, Airbnb has created a distraction by introducing an entirely different plan. If implemented, their plan would raise taxes on business owners who have been playing by the rules all along, while undermining the very framework the industry relies on.”

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

WHAT2WATCH

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Presenting a once-in-alifetime Leelanau County estate > TRAVERSE CITY GETS A with unmatched NEW FILM FESTIVAL water views and unique shortterm rental/B&B Three years after the Traverse City Film Festival (TCFF) drew to a close,Perched a new film potential.

OF N. LAKE LEELANAU AND LAKE MICHIGAN festivalVIEWS has found its way to Traverse City. atop nearly 19 This spring, from Thursday, April 30 through Sunday, May 3, TC will host a satellite acres of rolling, edition of Marquette’s Fresh Coast Film Festival, an outdoor-centric, conservation-focused, private this documentary-driven festival launched in 2016. Organizer Joe Beyer says theland, Traverse City extraordinary version will maintain the spirit and traditions of the Marquette festival while adding its own spin – including spotlights on local filmmakers and a few forays into6-bedroom, narrative films.

A Sundance Institute veteran, Beyer moved to Traverse City from Los Angeles in 5-bathroom ranch 2018 for what ended up being a brief stint as TCFF’s executive director. Later that same estate offers year, local film producer Nick Loud introduced Beyer to the Fresh Coast Film Festival, panoramic views and he fell in love with it. Occurring in the middle of October, the Marquette festival that are simply quickly became an annual pilgrimage for Beyer and his friends. Eventually, he started wondering whether a Traverse City version might be possible. unparalleled.

It turned out the founders of Fresh Coast were looking for opportunities to expand, and a Traverse City version of the festival was born. The local version will show a selection of films from Fresh Coast’s Carly 2025 and slate, Miketemporarily Petrucciconverting venues like the City ® REALTORS Opera House, the Alluvion and Right Brain Brewery into movie houses.

Beyer is also in the process of curating a selection of more localized, fiction-forward content to give the festival231.649.3137 its own identity.

“We really want to showCARLY.PETRUCCI@CBGREATLAKES.COM student work from the area,” Beyer said. “I have been in touch 402 E FRONT STREET | TRAVERSE CITY, MI 49686 with Interlochen, and we’re talking to them about their students getting involved. But really, anything could come along from somebody that lives here or works here, and we’d be happy to take a look at it. Traverse City hasn’t had a place to bring all of those projects together and celebrate them as a community, so this will be an outlet for things like that.”

Will the lawsuit between the Wineries of Old Mission Peninsula (WOMP) and Peninsula Township ever end? That dispute will celebrate its six-year anniversary come October, and while 2025 saw some of the biggest developments yet, there’s still no clear end in sight.

In 2020, WOMP and its 11 member wineries filed a federal lawsuit against Peninsula Township, alleging that the township’s zoning laws violated the wineries’ rights under the First Amendment, the state’s Commerce Clause and alcohol laws.

At the crux of the lawsuit were township rules that had long barred wineries from hosting weddings or other events, but the filing also took issue with restrictions around advertising, merchandising and farming practices.

This past July, WOMP won a major victory when Judge Paul Maloney of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan collectively awarded the wineries $49 million in damages for being restricted from hosting events. Half a year later, though, those damages have yet to be paid. In October, the wineries made a settlement offer to Peninsula Township, but the terms have not been publicly disclosed, and no official settlement has been reached at this time.

In December, WOMP filed a new complaint, claiming Peninsula Township “has taken steps to delay meaningful settlement discussions and has continued to take enforcement actions against wineries for activities the federal court expressly held were lawful.” The allegation stems from a cease-and-desist letter Bonobo Winery received from township attorneys on November 21, threatening to revoke the winery’s special use permit and “shut down operations over activities – including music, events, and food service – that the court specifically acknowledged Bonobo is permitted to conduct.”

For her part, Peninsula Township Supervisor Maura Sanders characterized the township’s letter to Bonobo as a way of seeking “clarification and compliance with existing special use permit conditions and township ordinances, including noise regulations.” The correspondence, she said, “was intended to open dialogue as well as an administrative review process that could proceed before the planning commission and township board to ensure all businesses operate within established community standards.” Sanders went on to criticize the wineries for choosing “to immediately escalate matters by pursuing federal litigation against the township.”

We Help Neighbors Find Home

> REDEVELOPMENT OF SUGAR LOAF TO BEGIN

Your Donations Help People

After more than a quarter century of dereliction, Sugar Loaf received a new lease on MOVE OFConservancy.

HOMELESSNESS life when the owner gifted the property to the OUT Leelanau The donation by SPV 45 LLC, the ownership group that acquired Sugar Loaf in 2020, Into Housing was contingent on the nonprofit’s ability to raise $8 million for a site plan. That goal was reached in fall 2025, and Brighid Driscoll, the communications director for the conservancy, says the property transfer will be completed this spring.

The conservancy has a five-year plan for completely restoring and opening the property. The long-term plan is to reopen the property as a four-season public recreation WHEN YOU THRIFT AND DONATE area with hiking, biking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing trails, as well as famiAT hill, OURa seasonal NINE NORTHERN ly-friendly amenities like a sledding ice rink and aMICHIGAN native plant garden.

“The big goal for 2026 is to haveLOCATIONS, the legacy trails to the top open and YOU SUPPORT safe,” said Driscoll.

Given the fact it was abandoned after closing in 2000, it is not surprising that one of the first priorities for the conservancy isFood to deal with the many non-native plants Rescue Goodwill Innthat have laid claim to much of the property.

Homeless Shelter Housing Supports “It’s overrun with invasive species,” saidwith Driscoll.

“That compromises the native Patriot Place plants and ecological value.”

Street Outreach Veterans Shelter She says patches of autumn olive have almost become a forest.

Good Meals “We’ll start removing [it] and replanting native species,” she said. “It will be quite an undertaking.”

The conservancy is working with Dune Bird Winery to craft Sugar Loaf-themed wines.

Both a red and a white will be available in 2026. A portion of proceeds from the sale of each Your Donations Make a BIG IMPACT in Northern Michigan bottle will go toward continuing maintenance and development at Sugar Loaf. Driscoll says Learn more at goodwillnmi.link/donate25 the conservancy is dedicated to maintaining all its properties, and continuing stewardship at Sugar Loaf will mean continuing to raise funds for its long-term stewardship.

12 JANUARY 2026

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

WHAT2WATCH

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BAY VIEW FLOORING PRESENTS

Karen Armstrong

> OLD MISSION WINERIES VS. TOWNSHIP LAWSUIT STRETCHES INTO SIXTH YEAR

With over 30 years in the Traverse City and Frankfort area specializing in flooring and tile design, Karen is one of the most seasoned—and genuinely friendly—surface experts on the Bay View Flooring & Design team. We sat down with her to get her take on industry perks, product offerings, new projects, and what she loves most about helping both new and seasoned clients every day.

INDUSTRY PERKS

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FAVORITE PROJECT

"I’ve been designing bathrooms with Scott Norris Construction for many years. They consistently create stunning homes that truly reflect each homeowner’s personal style. I’m already looking forward to Will the lawsuit theshowcase Wineries of Old Peninsula (WOMP) andof seeing what between we can in Mission this summer’s Parade Peninsula Township ever end? That dispute will celebrate its six-year anniversary Homes!” come October, and while 2025 saw some of the biggest developments yet, there’s

still no clear end in sight.

“I’m really excited about the NEW + NOTEWORTHY In 2020, WOMP and its 11 member wineries filed a federal lawsuit against new Masland and Stanton carpet inviolated our showroom.

Peninsula Township, alleging that the township’ssystems zoning laws the wineries’ They feature greatly expanded selection ofand natural and rights under the FirstaAmendment, the state’s Commerce Clause alcohol laws. fibers, a wider of patterns in from both Atsynthetic the crux of the lawsuit plus were township rulesvariety that had long barred wineries hosting weddings and or other events, butwe’ve the filing also took issue with restrictions broadloom rugs than ever offered.

These updates around advertising, merchandising and farming practices. give our clients more design options than ever before.”

This past July, WOMP won a major victory when Judge Paul Maloney of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan collectively awarded the “With the recent 2026 OUTLOOK wineries $49 million in damages for being restricted from hosting events. Half a addition of our dedicated tileyetshowroom, year later, though, those damages have to be paid. In October, the wineries made excited the new tile lines a I’m settlement offerabout to Peninsula Township, but the terms have not been publicly disclosed, no officialWithout settlementgiving has been reached at this time. we’ll beand offering. too In December, WOMP filed a new complaint, much away—there are some really claiming Peninsula Township “has taken steps to delay meaningful settlement great things coming in tile and discussions and has continued to take enforcement actions against wineries for activities the federal court expressly held natural were lawful.”stone.”

The allegation stems from a cease-and-desist letter Bonobo Winery received from township attorneys on November 21, threatening to revoke the winery’s special use permit and “shut down operations over activities – including EXPERT ADVICE music, events, and food service – that the court specifically acknowledged Bonobo informed!

Understand is“Get permitted to conduct.” why one product cost For her part, Peninsulamight Township Supervisor Maura Sanders characterized the township’s letter to Bonobo as a way a bit more, what makes it aof seeking “clarification and compliance with existing special use permit smarter choice, andconditions weigh and township ordinances, including noise regulations.” The correspondence, she said, “was intended to open dialogue as the pros and cons—so you well as an administrative review process that could proceed before the planning can pick and what’s trulyboard besttofor commission township ensure all businesses operate within established your home.” community standards.” Sanders went on to criticize the wineries for choosing “to immediately escalate matters by pursuing federal litigation against the township.” karen@bayviewflooring.com

Karen Armstrong

PROJECT MANAGER

> TRAVERSE CITY GETS A NEW FILM FESTIVAL

Three years after the Traverse City Film Festival (TCFF) drew to a close, a new film festival has found its way to Traverse City.

This spring, from Thursday, April 30 through Sunday, May 3, TC will host a satellite edition of Marquette’s Fresh Coast Film Festival, an outdoor-centric, conservation-focused, documentary-driven festival launched in 2016. Organizer Joe Beyer says the Traverse City version will maintain the spirit and traditions of the Marquette festival while adding its own spin – including spotlights on local filmmakers and a few forays into narrative films.

A Sundance Institute veteran, Beyer moved to Traverse City from Los Angeles in 2018 for what ended up being a brief stint as TCFF’s executive director. Later that same year, local film producer Nick Loud introduced Beyer to the Fresh Coast Film Festival, and he fell in love with it. Occurring in the middle of October, the Marquette festival quickly became an annual pilgrimage for Beyer and his friends. Eventually, he started wondering whether a Traverse City version might be possible.

It turned out the founders of Fresh Coast were looking for opportunities to expand, and a Traverse City version of the festival was born. The local version will show a selection of films from Fresh Coast’s 2025 slate, temporarily converting venues like the City Opera House, the Alluvion and Right Brain Brewery into movie houses.

Beyer is also in the process of curating a selection of more localized, fiction-forward content to give the festival its own identity.

“We really want to show student work from the area,” Beyer said. “I have been in touch with Interlochen, and we’re talking to them about their students getting involved. But really, anything could come along from somebody that lives here or works here, and we’d be happy to take a look at it. Traverse City hasn’t had a place to bring all of those projects together and celebrate them as a community, so this will be an outlet for things like that.”

> REDEVELOPMENT OF SUGAR LOAF TO BEGIN After more than a quarter century of dereliction, Sugar Loaf received a new lease on life when the owner gifted the property to the Leelanau Conservancy.

The donation by SPV 45 LLC, the ownership group that acquired Sugar Loaf in 2020, was contingent on the nonprofit’s ability to raise $8 million for a site plan. That goal was reached in fall 2025, and Brighid Driscoll, the communications director for the conservancy, says the property transfer will be completed this spring.

The conservancy has a five-year plan for completely restoring and opening the property. The long-term plan is to reopen the property as a four-season public recreation area with hiking, biking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing trails, as well as family-friendly amenities like a sledding hill, a seasonal ice rink and a native plant garden.

“The big goal for 2026 is to have the legacy trails to the top open and safe,” said Driscoll.

Given the fact it was abandoned after closing in 2000, it is not surprising that one of the first priorities for the conservancy is to deal with the many non-native plants that have laid claim to much of the property.

“It’s overrun with invasive species,” said Driscoll. “That compromises the native plants and ecological value.”

She says patches of autumn olive have almost become a forest.

“We’ll start removing [it] and replanting native species,” she said. “It will be quite an undertaking.”

The conservancy is working with Dune Bird Winery to craft Sugar Loaf-themed wines.

Both a red and a white will be available in 2026. A portion of proceeds from the sale of each bottle will go toward continuing maintenance and development at Sugar Loaf. Driscoll says the conservancy is dedicated to maintaining all its properties, and continuing stewardship at Sugar Loaf will mean continuing to raise funds for its long-term stewardship.

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

13

WHAT2WATCH Construction is now underway on the Mill District, a major new project that will transform 1.6 acres of land at the corner of Woodmere Avenue and Carver Street into a mixed-use development featuring retail, restaurant and residential spaces.

The land was previously owned by TC Millworks, which sold it to Tim Pulliam of Keen Technical Solutions in 2022 after moving to a new facility on Aero Park Drive. Pulliam has been working on a redevelopment plan ever since, finally earning city commission’s approval in August.

Pulliam and his partners plan to construct four new buildings on the Millworks property, including one commercial building and three residential buildings. Per a press release, a November 20 groundbreaking ceremony marked “the official transition from demolition into the construction phase as the team prepares to begin foundational work …”

In 2026, most of the construction at the site will focus on the commercial building, which has a targeted opening date of March 2027. That building will serve as the new headquarters for Brick Wheels, which will relocate from its long-time home on Eighth Street. Other businesses expected to set up shop there include a coffee shop and a restaurant. Pulliam told The Ticker that Brick Wheels and the coffee shop are expected to start operating at the Mill District in spring 2027, while the restaurant should open that summer.

“The restaurant group has been selected,” Pulliam said. “I can’t share who quite yet, but I’m very excited for the concept and it will fit well with the vision we are trying to create.”

The commercial building will also include a handful of residential units, though Pulliam said “the exact mix isn’t finalized” just yet. Later phases of the project will focus more heavily on market-rate housing.

Other planned amenities at the Mill District include a new connection to the Boardman Lake Loop Trail, a sidewalk along Carver Street and the paving of Sheffer Street, complete with public on-street parking.

> MILL DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT ON WOODMERE UNDERWAY

One of the biggest local news stories of HAGERTY LAUNCHES ITS 2025 came from Hagerty, which in NoRETURN-TO-THE-OFFICE PLAN vember announced a hybrid return-to-theoffice plan for its northern Michigan employees. The plan, which is being referred to internally as “WorkForward,” will bring some 500 workers back downtown starting this year, and will likely reignite some of the economic impact Hagerty drove there prior to its pivot to remote work in 2020.

According to Coco Champagne, Hagerty’s chief human resources officer and chief administrative officer, the company has about 1,800 employees worldwide, 42% of whom live in Michigan.

Like most employers, Hagerty shifted gears to remote work in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike most employers, the company never executed a true return-to-the-office plan, previously praising remote work for allowing it to “recruit talent that previously would not have been able to join us.”

WorkForward won’t ditch remote work entirely. An explanation of the plan posted to the Hagerty employee Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – in intranet – and obtained by the TCBN the office.” Per Champagne, about 500 – states that the “first phase” will only affect team members “within a 20-mile Hagerty employees are within driving distance of Traverse City. commuting distance of the Traverse Hagerty plans to kick off WorkCity office whose roles allow for reguCPAs BUSINESS ADVISORS Forward in February, with company lar in-person collaboration and crossleaders starting hybrid schedules first. team interaction.” Those team members Traverse City team members will • www.dgncpa.com 231.946.1722 “will spend part of the week – typically

CHART YOUR COURSE Expert navigation for what’s next.

switch to hybrid the following month.

One person excited for WorkForward? Harry Burkholder, executive director for the Traverse City Downtown Development Authority.

“Hagerty’s return-to-office plan will bring renewed energy and daily activity back into the heart of downtown,” Bur-

DENNIS, GARTLAND & NIERGARTH

kholder said. “Increased foot traffic supports our small, locally-owned businesses, strengthens the vibrancy of our public spaces, and helps reinforce downtown as the region’s economic and cultural center.

We appreciate [Hagerty’s] continued commitment to being a strong partner and pillar in keeping downtown thriving.”

TRAVERSE CITY PETOSKEY

Carver Street and the paving of Sheffer Street, complete with public on-street parking.

14 JANUARY 2026

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

One of the biggest local news stories of 2025 came from Hagerty, which in November announced a hybrid return-to-theoffice plan for its northern Michigan employees. The plan, which is being referred to internally as “WorkForward,” will bring some 500 workers back downtown starting this year, and will likely reignite some of the economic impact Hagerty drove there prior to its pivot to remote work in 2020.

According to Coco Champagne, Hagerty’s chief human resources officer and chief administrative officer, the company has about 1,800 employees worldwide, 42% of whom live in Michigan.

Like most employers, Hagerty shifted gears to remote work in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike most employers, the company never executed a true return-to-the-office plan, previously praising remote work for allowing it to “recruit talent that previously would not have been able to join us.”

WorkForward won’t ditch remote work entirely. An explanation of the plan posted to the Hagerty employee intranet – and obtained by the TCBN – states that the “first phase” will only affect team members “within a 20-mile commuting distance of the Traverse City office whose roles allow for regular in-person collaboration and crossteam interaction.” Those team members “will spend part of the week – typically

HAGERTY LAUNCHES ITS RETURN-TO-THE-OFFICE PLAN

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – in the office.” Per Champagne, about 500 Hagerty employees are within driving distance of Traverse City.

Hagerty plans to kick off WorkForward in February, with company leaders starting hybrid schedules first.

Traverse City team members will

switch to hybrid the following month.

One person excited for WorkForward? Harry Burkholder, executive director for the Traverse City Downtown Development Authority.

“Hagerty’s return-to-office plan will bring renewed energy and daily activity back into the heart of downtown,” Bur-

kholder said. “Increased foot traffic supports our small, locally-owned businesses, strengthens the vibrancy of our public spaces, and helps reinforce downtown as the region’s economic and cultural center.

We appreciate [Hagerty’s] continued commitment to being a strong partner and pillar in keeping downtown thriving.”

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TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

15

WHAT2WATCH The after-work crowd is about to get one more late-night option when live music venue The Red Piano opens this spring. Decked in chandeliers and known for Vegas-level headliners, the concept’s first two locations in St. Maarten and Santa Barbara will serve as blueprints for its new Front Street spot in the former Mackinaw Brewing Company space.

The Up North debut has been 15 years in the making, explains owner Jason Jones, whose cofounder Colin Campbell is also part of the TC launch.

“One of our beloved regulars from our Caribbean location … fell in love with what we do and has been sending us listings in northern Michigan for well over a decade,” he said. “We kept saying no.”

That is, until 4,200 square feet at 161 E. Front St. hit the market in fall 2024.

“The moment we saw it, we knew it was the right space in the right community at the right time,” said Jones, who has since moved his family to the area and begun renovations on the 134-yearold Beadle Building, adding that the original brick walls will stay.

Part of what changed his mind was the uptick in both nightlife businesses and the number of people looking for late-night entertainment, which has grown right alongside a more than 10%

Miller Snowden

> THE RED PIANO COMES TO FRONT STREET

population surge since Jones first started looking up here.

Now, with a menu that’ll include a slate of mocktails and pizza, he hopes to “help strengthen” that scene by offering something that’s not just another bar-

crawl stop.

“The entertainment is the attraction, not the alcohol,” said Jones.

He also notes that Front Street’s status as the year-round spot to wander checks the same boxes that drive success at his

original locations.

“If we can help keep downtown Traverse City energized later into the night, especially during those quieter months, we see that as adding real value to the entire community,” he said.

WHAT2WATCH

BUILDING BUSINESS. EARNING TRUST.

Munson Healthcare is rolling out a new Demand for new construction has seepersonalized lifetime breast cancer risk sawed in the last few years, yet the industry is score across its 11 mammography sites – an still projected to more than double its carbon effort to spot cancers in that crucial early footprint by 2050, per research published in window, when survival rates hit 99%. The Communications Earth & Environment in tool is available to women older than 40 late October. Traverse City startup Bale Craft without a referral and arrives as Grand hopes to bend that curve by bringing an TraverseVISION County’s mammography rate for age-old building material (and method) back women Develop ages 50 toa clean, 74 sits modern at 76.4%,building below that will serve various into the mainstream in 2026. the 80.3% targetfor setyears by thetoU.S. DepartIf the name didn’t give it away, that retailers come ment of Health and Human Services. material is straw, specifically Straw SIP “There was30 a time cancer In my years when in thebreast business, I’ve worked with many (structurally insulated panel) construction, rates incontractors Grand Traverse County throughout thewere state. Burdco is one of my favorites – the predecessor to today’s prefab. It’s higher honest, than theflexible average,” Kendra Mike Brown is a class act. all-natural, made from agricultural byprodandsaid responsive.

Worden, clinical administrator and ucts, cuts down on waste, and, perhaps Worden senior– lead Jerryadvanced Snowden practice provider most importantly for homeowners, creates for Munson’s Oncology Service Line. homes that are surprisingly energy efficient.

Miller Snowden Development Group Over the last decade, she noted, those And a rustic looking three little pigs > MUNSON EXPANDS numbers have seen a small decline. situation, it is not. In Straw SIP construcEARLY BREAST CANCER Nationally, one in eight women will be DETECTION TOOLS Jerry Snowden tion, insulation is swapped for tightly diagnosed with breast cancer during her Miller Snowden packed straw, while clay or plaster replaclifetime. Munson hopes the new Lifetime Development Groupes drywall, explained two of Bale Craft’s DESIGN/BUILD Risk Score will help catch more cases MEDICALgenetic discuss if Kelly Miller co-founders Sophie Pacelko and Ellis OFFICEScounselor as well to before they progress beyond early-stage COMMERCIAL genetic testing is appropriate forSnowden her,” Miller Wills-Begley. Since launching in 2023, Development Group disease. The score draws on a mix of data Worden their eight-person team, which includes ASSISTED LIVING said. and testing including the patient’s personUp next, Munson plansMike to add conBrown INDUSTRIAL a third co-founder, Joe Trumpey, has Owner, Burdco al, medical and family history along with trast-enhanced mammography (CEM), kicked off two residential builds. breast density, explains Worden. an imaging option that can betterMiller pinAdam It’s not necessarily cheaper (labor MillerbeSnowden Patients with a 20% or higher lifetime point areas where cancer may hiding shortages don’t help) but Bale Craft’s early Development Group risk may then be referred to Munson’s deeper than a standard mammogram market is environmentally conscious and High-Risk Breast Cancer Clinic, where a can detect. And, as a welcome breakwilling to make up the cost difference with nurse practitioner reviews risk-reduction through, CEM could minimize the need MILLER SNOWDEN sweat equity. For Pacelko and Wills-Begley, TRAVERSE CITY • GAYLORD • PETOSKEY DEVEOPMENT GROUP strategies and screening recommenfor biopsies by distinguishing benign both graduates of the University of Mich• 231.941.9074 BURDCO.COM dations.“The patient can meet with a tumors from malignant ones. igan’s Taubman College of Architecture,

“

> BALE CRAFT BETS ON STRAW

”

climate impact is the whole point – the building and construction sector makes up roughly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while Straw SIP carries a lower carbon footprint.

This year the pair plans to scale up by hiring their first full-time crew to help pack panels. They also aim to add commercial projects to their portfolio.

The biggest obstacle so far has just been getting the word out. As they put it: “We want to show our community what local materials and Straw SIPs are all about.”

grown right alongside a more than 10% 16 JANUARY 2026

something that’s not just another bar-

the same boxes that drive success at his

entire community,” he said.

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

WHAT2WATCH Munson Healthcare is rolling out a new personalized lifetime breast cancer risk score across its 11 mammography sites – an effort to spot cancers in that crucial early window, when survival rates hit 99%. The tool is available to women older than 40 without a referral and arrives as Grand Traverse County’s mammography rate for women ages 50 to 74 sits at 76.4%, below the 80.3% target set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“There was a time when breast cancer rates in Grand Traverse County were higher than the average,” said Kendra Worden, clinical administrator and senior lead advanced practice provider for Munson’s Oncology Service Line.

Over the last decade, she noted, those numbers have seen a small decline.

Nationally, one in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime. Munson hopes the new Lifetime Risk Score will help catch more cases before they progress beyond early-stage disease. The score draws on a mix of data and testing including the patient’s personal, medical and family history along with breast density, explains Worden.

Patients with a 20% or higher lifetime risk may then be referred to Munson’s High-Risk Breast Cancer Clinic, where a nurse practitioner reviews risk-reduction strategies and screening recommendations.“The patient can meet with a

Worden

> MUNSON EXPANDS EARLY BREAST CANCER DETECTION TOOLS genetic counselor as well to discuss if genetic testing is appropriate for her,” Worden said.

Up next, Munson plans to add contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM), an imaging option that can better pinpoint areas where cancer may be hiding deeper than a standard mammogram can detect. And, as a welcome breakthrough, CEM could minimize the need for biopsies by distinguishing benign tumors from malignant ones.

Demand for new construction has seesawed in the last few years, yet the industry is still projected to more than double its carbon footprint by 2050, per research published in Communications Earth & Environment in late October. Traverse City startup Bale Craft hopes to bend that curve by bringing an age-old building material (and method) back into the mainstream in 2026.

If the name didn’t give it away, that material is straw, specifically Straw SIP (structurally insulated panel) construction, the predecessor to today’s prefab. It’s all-natural, made from agricultural byproducts, cuts down on waste, and, perhaps most importantly for homeowners, creates homes that are surprisingly energy efficient.

And a rustic looking three little pigs situation, it is not. In Straw SIP construction, insulation is swapped for tightly packed straw, while clay or plaster replaces drywall, explained two of Bale Craft’s co-founders Sophie Pacelko and Ellis Wills-Begley. Since launching in 2023, their eight-person team, which includes a third co-founder, Joe Trumpey, has kicked off two residential builds.

It’s not necessarily cheaper (labor shortages don’t help) but Bale Craft’s early market is environmentally conscious and willing to make up the cost difference with sweat equity. For Pacelko and Wills-Begley, both graduates of the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture,

> BALE CRAFT BETS ON STRAW

climate impact is the whole point – the building and construction sector makes up roughly 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while Straw SIP carries a lower carbon footprint.

This year the pair plans to scale up by hiring their first full-time crew to help pack panels. They also aim to add commercial projects to their portfolio.

The biggest obstacle so far has just been getting the word out. As they put it: “We want to show our community what local materials and Straw SIPs are all about.”

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

17

WHAT2WATCH

> GRAND TRAVERSE STATE BANK CLOSER TO OPENING

> AI STEAMS AHEAD

After more than three years in the planning stage, Grand Traverse State Bank (GTSB) is nearing fruition.

“The buildout is nearly completed and regulatory approvals have been granted,” said bank founder Gregg Bigger.

GTSB will occupy 2,300 square feet on the first floor Boardwalk building at 232 East State St. Bigger says he expects the full-service bank will open by the end of March. GTSB will specialize in serving small and midsize businesses.

Bigger initially planned to open a startup Bigger “de novo bank” in Traverse City in 2022, starting fresh rather than growing through mergers or acquisitions. But faced with the prospect of high costs, he shifted gears a year later and acquired the First State Bank of Decatur, Michigan’s oldest commercial bank. Bigger then proceeded to establish Grand Traverse State Bank as a division of the Decatur bank, the name of which Bigger has since shortened to First State Bank.

A bank holding company, GTSB Financial Inc., was established to acquire the Decatur bank and is the parent company of Grand Traverse State Bank and Bank313, which opened last October in downtown Detroit. Bigger is chairman and CEO of GTSB Financial. Rob Farr, who founded and sold two banks in Oakland County, is the president and CEO of Grand Traverse State Bank, Bank313 and First State Bank.

Bigger says Grand Traverse State Bank will have about seven employees at its opening.

GTSB and its sister banks will utilize a technology platform that will allow small businesses to get a decision on loan applications in as little as 24 hours.

GTSB Financial has plans for further expansion in Michigan. Bigger says First State Bank is looking to offer banking services in the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo and Grand Haven markets.

“We’ll have three brands under a holding company,” Bigger said. “We want to triangulate the state.”

It seems that artificial intelligence is all anyone wants to talk about these days.

While it might be a few years before we can fully see how this rapidly developing technology will impact society (for better or for worse), one thing seems certain: It’s going to change the world.

From a business perspective, AI offers enormous potential benefits in terms of productivity, taking tasks that once took weeks or months and completing them in a matter of minutes or hours. This could substantially reduce costs for businesses, and ultimately, customers. There’s also been much discussion about AI replacing certain jobs altogether, especially analytical or data-heavy jobs that can be automated.

Many business leaders feel pressure to begin exploring or implementing AI, or risk being left in the dust.

While there’s no question AI is starting (and will continue) to produce tangible business solutions, local tech leaders interviewed elsewhere in this issue feel that we’re in somewhat of an AI bubble as scores of solutions hit the market that are of questionable value. Start with a problem that needs to be solved, they say, instead of chasing the latest programs that stack up in the inbox promising world-changing results.

Many local business leaders have already implemented basic AI programs that help with generating written or visual content and automating various tasks. As many of these programs were unavailable even 2-3 years ago, and since advancements are happening at a faster pace than ever before, business and tech leaders look to see what 2026 will bring in terms of new, truly useful programs and solutions.

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18 JANUARY 2026

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

WHAT2WATCH

> COMPASS/ANYWHERE MERGER: WHAT WILL IT MEAN FOR INDEPENDENT AGENCIES?

A proposed $1.6 billion merger between the nation’s two largest real estate companies could increase pressure on smaller, independent brokerages.

Announced in September and expected to be finalized sometime in 2026, the deal is between Madison, N.J.-based Anywhere Real Estate (owner of such nationally recognized brands as Century 21, Coldwell Banker and @properties) and New York-based Compass, the largest U.S. residential real estate brokerage by sales volume. The combined brokerage company is expected to be worth $10 billion and would create a combined 340,000-agent network, according to reporting by NPR. Many local companies and agents – including some of the largest and most prominent groups in northern Michigan – will fall under the newly merged company. Leaders from Anywhere and Compass have communicated to their employees and agents that each company will continue to operate separately and independently, maintaining their own “distinctive brands, platforms, and cultures” for the time being. Whether that continues post-merger is something to keep an eye on.

While there may be significant benefits for agents in the newly merged company, some industry insiders caution that the consolidated behemoth may increase pressure on smaller, independent brokerages by wielding substantial competitive advantage in terms of marketing dollars, technology, superior data tools and much more.

Whether that comes to pass – or whether local, independent agencies will continue to hold their own, as they’ve always done, against larger companies with more resources – will be something to watch in 2026 and beyond.

> BUSINESSES BRACE FOR MAJOR U.S. 31 OVERHAUL THIS SPRING Area residents have endured several major road rebuilding projects in recent years, with the complete, multi-year rebuild of Grandview Parkway/U.S. 31 from Garfield Road west up into M-22 in Leelanau County being the most notable.

In 2026, crews are expected to break ground on a major, $37.5 million overhaul of U.S. 31 between Reynolds Road and Sullivan Road.

The nearly eight-mile rebuild will includes a new roundabout at Interlochen Corners (the intersection of U.S. 31 and South Long Lake Road/J-Maddy Parkway).

Work is primarily safety-driven, according to MDOT Project Manager Lucas Porath, and includes adding center left-turn lanes throughout the corridor, widening the shoulders, and adding rumble strips. MDOT considered two options for the South Long Lake Road/J. Maddy Parkway intersection at Interlochen Corners – including signal modernization or a roundabout – and ultimately selected a two-lane roundabout as the planned design.

Significant detours are planned for construction, which is expected to start sometime in the spring and last through the fall. Crews will first rebuild U.S. 31 from Sullivan Road to Interlochen Corners and the roundabout, then build east to Reynolds Road.

Businesses in the region are bracing for impact, according to reporting by The Ticker (the TCBN’s sister publication), with many expressing hope that people will still put up with the construction to patronize their shops and restaurants.

> $10M LOAMSTEAD PROJECT TO MAKE HAY THIS YEAR

Plenty of food and wine eyes are on Leelanau County this year as The Loamstead Project takes shape.

The project is the brainchild of Amanda Danielson, best known as founder, co-owner, and sommelier at Traverse City’s Trattoria Stella. She and partners are buying the Shady Lane Cellars property in Suttons Bay with visions of creating “a transformational rural development initiative rooted in regenerative agriculture, sustainable wine production and community education.”

The project will retain the branding, identity, and team of the winery while also adding new components all around it, including a commercial kitchen, a culinary classroom, 8,500 square feet of new meeting and event space, and more.

The four-year, $10 million capital project is intended to transform “over 100 acres of Leelanau County vineyards and historic outbuildings into a working campus that connects researchers, students, farmers, and visitors from northern Michigan and beyond.”

The evolution is intended to accomplish one grand goal: turning Shady Lane and the Loamstead Project into examples for what northern Michigan wines – and northern Michigan ag in general – can be.

“We want to focus on quality and focus on making wines from Michigan-grown grapes, so we can show that northern Michigan wines belong on any table in any restaurant or any home around the world – and that they stand up in terms of quality to wines from other better known producing regions,” Danielson told The Ticker (TCBN’s sister publication). “We want to be able to say: ‘This is a way forward. This is a possibility for any winery or any small farm in the state.”

Danielson says there will be a “slow roll” of changes this year as the project unfolds.

A predicted dip in interest rates could make for a huge year in the mortgage market.

Industry observers say both new mortgages and refinances could spike if traditional 30-year mortgage rates drop to at or below 6 percent in 2026 (down from around 7 percent to start 2025). > POTENTIAL MORTGAGE RATE While it doesn’t seem DIP COULD SPUR HOUSING MARKET like much, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) says that even a 1 percent decrease in rates could add about 5.5 million households, including 1.6 million renters, to the pool of potential buyers. Many of these people have been on the sidelines waiting for rates to drop before diving into the action.

NAR’s outlook factors in several influences on rates, including the Federal Reserve’s recent cuts to its short-term interest rates, ongoing inflation trends, the federal deficit and national debt, the impact of tariffs, quantitative tightening and movements in the 10-year Treasury yield, according to a story on its website.

The full effect of a dip in the Grand Traverse region, where demand continues to be strong for a relatively tight supply of homes despite high interest rates, remains to be seen. A full 45 percent of purchases in Leelanau County and 35 percent in Grand Traverse County are cash sales, taking mortgages out of the equation entirely.

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

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WHAT2WATCH Courtesy ISEA

> CAPITAL CAMPAIGNS ALL OVER The Leelanau Conservancy’s $8 million campaign to reimagine the Sugar Loaf property isn’t the only capital campaign making big waves in northern Michigan lately. Here are a few others that either recently finished or are just kicking into high gear.

Inland Seas Education Association (ISEA): In the summer, ISEA went public with its $11.1 million “Campaign for the Future of Great Lakes Education.” That fundraising effort has been running for years, and the quiet phase has already paid for major investments at the nonprofit – most notably its 2022 purchase of the

schooner Alliance. The final public stages of the campaign are intended to finance the expansion of ISEA’s campus in Suttons Bay, including the purchase and renovation of a second building next door to the organization’s existing headquarters. The property, Suttons Bay’s historic Millside building, will become additional educational space and a boat maintenance workshop. Executive Director Fred Sitkins is hopeful construction on the project will start in May or June, with a completion target of spring 2027.

Women’s Resource Center (WRC): WRC is in the quiet stages of a $3 million

campaign to renovate its transitional home.

In addition to its 22-bed emergency shelter, WRC has a 12-bed transitional house where women fleeing abusive households can live for up to two years for affordable rates. According to Executive Director Juliette Schultz, the new campaign, called Home SAFE Home, will reimagine the transitional home from a community living layout to a more private environment, expanding the capacity from 12 to 16 in the process.

Northwestern Michigan College (NMC): This past spring, NMC’s Board of

Trustees approved a $60,000 contract with Farmington Hills-based consulting firm the Winkler Group to conduct a comprehensive capital campaign feasibility study.

As outlined in the study, the campaign would aim for $50 million to $75 million in fundraising, with a stretch goal of $100 million. According to a December memo from Katherine Marvin, vice president of college advancement for NMC, the college’s foundation now has the results of that feasibility study in hand, and will vote in February “whether or not to move forward with a comprehensive campaign.”

WHAT2WATCH

Estate Planning

2026 will be a big year at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC).

In addition to the new capital campaign > 75TH ANNIVERSARY, BOARDMAN LAKE outlined above, Traverse City’s commuCAMPUS SALE SPELL BIG YEAR FOR NMC nity college is preparing to celebrate its 75-year anniversary in 2026. Behind the Create peace of mind with a scenes, NMC has been working on a list of thoughtful plan that reflects your its top 75 alumni, which will be unveiled this month. Other highlights will include values and priorities. events like a student and community block party on April 25, a “history walk” Our tailored services provide on July 25, and a Founder’s Day celebraclarity, security and ease during tion on September 19. life’s transitions, by preserving Corresponding with the anniversary is the implementation of NMC’s your wishes, wealth and legacy new strategic plan, which will steer the college’s direction between 2026 and 2029. The plan, which NMC’s Board of Trustees approved at their December meeting, features three core strategies – future-focused education, enrollment and student success, and vibrant college community – each tied to 4-5 underlying objectives. Specific objectives include expanding on-campus student housing, their December meeting, the Board of would require NMC to find new locaeverything from strengthening outcomes transforming NMC’s Osterlin Building Trustees voted to enter into negotiations for several departments, including through “responsible and effective use” into a student services hub, and figuring tions with the Grand Traverse Band of its business and human resources offices Provide us with a better eligible price atto the time of purchase and we'll of artificial intelligence, expanding Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) and the NMC Foundation. match It. Find a better price within 30 days of purchase and we'll refundout what to do with off-campus property flexible options “so quote every the difference.learning Ad, written estimate or internet for identical tire(s) holdings like a 22-acre parcel the college to sell its Boardman Lake Campus.

That According to a tribal press release, from a competing tire retailer/installer withinand 100 miles of the student, especially adult,located rural, dealer required during guarantee period for price match. Tire match price owns off Eastern Avenue. building, located off Cass Road, served GTB plans to “repurpose the facility as a must be determined prior to applying a tire manufacturer rebate, if any. part-time learners, can advance toward 1M 11 am' "s While it remains to be seen whether as the NMC University Center for 30 centralized governmental services center At participating dealers only. employment or further education.”

Eligible brands: BFGoodrich, Bridgestone, Continental, Dunlop, Firestone, any ofCHEVROLET those projects will see progress years, before the college relocated its dedicated to delivering programs and Gener!, Goodyear, Kelly, Michelin, and Uniroyal.

The planHankook, also hooks intoPirelli, NMC’s HONDA in 2026, at least one key NMC asset university partners to main campus this services for Grand Traverse County and Offerends campus12/31/25. master plan, adopted in 2024. is headed for a major change. Also at past fall. Selling the property to GTB the surrounding region.” greatlakescenterforestateplanning.com That document identified priorities like

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a completion target of spring 2027.

Women’s Resource Center (WRC): WRC is in the quiet stages of a $3 million

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

the process.

Northwestern Michigan College (NMC): This past spring, NMC’s Board of

of that feasibility study in hand, and will vote in February “whether or not to move forward with a comprehensive campaign.”

WHAT2WATCH 2026 will be a big year at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC).

In addition to the new capital campaign outlined above, Traverse City’s community college is preparing to celebrate its 75-year anniversary in 2026. Behind the scenes, NMC has been working on a list of its top 75 alumni, which will be unveiled this month. Other highlights will include events like a student and community block party on April 25, a “history walk” on July 25, and a Founder’s Day celebration on September 19.

Corresponding with the anniversary is the implementation of NMC’s new strategic plan, which will steer the college’s direction between 2026 and 2029. The plan, which NMC’s Board of Trustees approved at their December meeting, features three core strategies – future-focused education, enrollment and student success, and vibrant college community – each tied to 4-5 underlying objectives. Specific objectives include everything from strengthening outcomes through “responsible and effective use” of artificial intelligence, to expanding flexible learning options “so every student, especially adult, rural, and part-time learners, can advance toward employment or further education.”

The plan also hooks into NMC’s campus master plan, adopted in 2024.

That document identified priorities like

> 75TH ANNIVERSARY, BOARDMAN LAKE CAMPUS SALE SPELL BIG YEAR FOR NMC

expanding on-campus student housing, transforming NMC’s Osterlin Building into a student services hub, and figuring out what to do with off-campus property holdings like a 22-acre parcel the college owns off Eastern Avenue.

While it remains to be seen whether any of those projects will see progress in 2026, at least one key NMC asset is headed for a major change. Also at

their December meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to enter into negotiations with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) to sell its Boardman Lake Campus. That building, located off Cass Road, served as the NMC University Center for 30 years, before the college relocated its university partners to main campus this past fall. Selling the property to GTB

would require NMC to find new locations for several departments, including its business and human resources offices and the NMC Foundation.

According to a tribal press release, GTB plans to “repurpose the facility as a centralized governmental services center dedicated to delivering programs and services for Grand Traverse County and the surrounding region.”

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

21

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> A BRAND-NEW MARIJUANA TAX

When the Michigan legislature finally reached a budget compromise in October, it included a dagger for the state’s marijuana industry: a new 24% wholesale tax, projected to generate $420 million for the Michigan’s $1.8 billion road improvement plan.

While the new tax reportedly helped legislators avoid sweeping budget cuts, it’s also drawn criticism from cannabis leaders who say it could destroy their industry.

“At a time when cannabis businesses already pay the highest federal taxes of any industry in the country, the state of Michigan is piling on with another 24%, so there will be an impact on our state’s entire cannabis industry,” Doug Hellyar, president and COO of Lume Cannabis Co., told the TCBN. Lume is one of Michigan’s leading marijuana companies, and has two locations in the City of Traverse City.

Lume is big enough that it can absorb some of the cost increases. Rather than a $10 product jumping to $12.40, for instance, Hellyar said customers can expect “most items that cost $10 today will increase anywhere from $0.60 to $1.20” when the new tax goes into effect Jan. 1, 2026.

Smaller operators could struggle, though. One example is Olean’s Northport, the lone dispensary in Leelanau County. Speaking to the Leelanau Ticker in October, Olean’s owner Daniel Caudill said “it was hard to make margins as it was,” and that Michigan’s new tax would push stores like his closer to the brink.

“The initial feeling is that, with all these additional taxes, a lot of the smaller players will have a much more difficult time, our store included,” Caudill said. “For now, it’s just a waiting game to see how things play out.”

If the tax does force industry consolidation, that will have an impact on local units of government. The Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act distributes some tax revenues from the state’s cannabis industry to each county and each city, township, or village in which dispensaries operate. For the 2024 fiscal year, Grand Traverse County received $931,658.56 in distributions from its 16 licensed dispensaries, while the City of Traverse City pocketed $756,972.58 from its 13 dispensaries.

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23

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS LEGENDS HALL OF FAME

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS LEGENDS HALL OF FAME Meet the new inductees Louise Hagerty and R. Floyd Clinch

By Art Bukowski Now more than a decade in, the Traverse City Business Legends Hall of Fame includes a robust and diverse collection of business leaders, civic champions, philanthropists and others who have left their mark on the Grand Traverse region. Each of these individuals – some living, some deceased – made lifelong contributions to the economic growth and/or long-term vitality of northwest Michigan. After a 10-member inaugural class in 2013, two members have been inducted each year. This year, we induct Hagerty Insurance Agency Co-Founder Louise Hagerty and early business leader R. Floyd Clinch into this distinguished group.

Louise Hagerty (1935-2024) “The Driving Force”

Rather than someone who was just along for the ride in the formative years of the world’s leading collector car insurance agency, Louise Hagerty was a driving force that helped set the company up for tremendous success.

Born in Pontiac, Hagerty (née Kucera) grew up in Leelanau County and graduated as class valedictorian from Maple City High School. She later met and married Frank Hagerty, and in 1984 the two famously launched what was then known as Hagerty Marine Insurance from the basement of their family home on Old Mission Peninsula. This endeavor was their attempt to fill a gap formed by traditional insurance agencies’ reluctance to insure classic wooden boats.

“They had one phone line and an answering machine. My dad was the salesman – outward-facing, relational, a natural storyteller. My mom was the operator. She built the machine that made his promises real,” their son and current CEO McKeel Hagerty said. “If you want to understand Hagerty, you have to understand that division of labor. Dad had vision. Mom made it work.”

Today, Hagerty employs about 1,700 people worldwide (including about 500 in the Traverse City region) and insures more than 2.5 million vehicles. Collector car insurance was added in 1991 and quickly overtook boat coverage, becoming the company’s hallmark.

Louise, who served as Hagerty’s first CEO, brought in key early talent, “insisted on systems and discipline before we even knew we needed them” and was adept at pursuing technology to scale service without losing quality, McKeel says.

Louise was a master of structure, pro-

cesses, preparation, goals and accountability, all while being polite and respectful to everyone, McKeel says. Her combination of business acumen and personal skills served her and the company tremendously over the years.

“The lessons I carry from her are simple but not easy: High standards can be quiet – and still be non-negotiable.

Good process is a form of respect. Trust good people, then expect them to be worthy of it,” he said. “And if you’re going to build something meant to last, invest in the community around it, not just the company.”

McKeel and his sisters Tammy and Kim Hagerty all played vital roles in the company over the years, in no small part due to Louise’s urging.

“Perhaps her best move was convincing all three of her children to return to Traverse City to join the family business,” Tammy said. “In doing so, she guaranteed the longevity and growth path of Hagerty.”

Louise also lived a rich life outside of the family business. She had active roles in the Traverse City Human Rights Commission, the League of Women Voters, Central United Methodist Church and the Friendly Garden Club of Traverse City. In addition, she served on the boards of directors at the City Opera House, Traverse City State Bank and Central Day Care. She was also a rabid Michigan State University sports fan, accomplished angler and very dedicated mother.

In 2007, her efforts were recognized with the Athena Award, honoring her role in helping other women reach their full leadership potential.

24 JANUARY 2026

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS LEGENDS HALL OF FAME There’s not a ton of readily available information about R. Floyd Clinch, but what little we do know makes him a shoo-in for the Traverse City Business Legends Hall of Fame.

Clinch was a son-in-law of Traverse City founding father A. Tracy Lay, who co-owned the tremendously influential Hannah, Lay & Co. When Julius Hannah died in 1905 (a mere 14 months after his father, Perry Hannah), Clinch helped in the operations of the company and later became president.

His most significant lasting influence is the Park Place Hotel, which was designed and built under his watch in the late 1920s.

Hannah, Lay & Co. owned a smaller, wood-framed hotel that sat on the site for about 50 years, and Clinch hired prominent Chicago architect Benjamin H. Marshall to design a modern brick tower to replace it.

Marshall was very popular at the time, and his hiring created considerable buzz in what was still a small northern Michigan town. The structure cost about $750,000 to build and opened to much fanfare in June, 1930.

With its welcoming beacon and imposing stature, the Park Place quickly became an iconic feature of Traverse City (and the finest hotel in all of northern Michigan).

Despite some tough times and various ownership changes over the years, the Park Place remains one of the city’s most prominent

and familiar landmarks and a successful business in the heart of the city.

Clinch spent much of his time in Chicago, traveling back and forth several times a year, and was heavily involved in various business and philanthropic activities in both Chicago and Traverse City. Aside from his leadership of one of Traverse City’s most influential companies in Hannah, Lay & Co., other local endeavors included serving as president of Traverse City State Bank and launching the Traverse City Refrigerator Company.

In 1929, he was the very first recipient of the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce’s (now Traverse Connect’s) annual distinguished service award. Nearly 100 prominent business and civic leaders have followed in his footsteps.

Clinch’s family was also the namesake of Traverse City’s Clinch Park and the Duncan L. Clinch marina. Newspaper records indicate R. Floyd had both a father and a son named Duncan L. Clinch, so he was influential enough to have the waterfront space named in honor of his father or son (or perhaps both). It is not clear if he or the company owned any of the waterfront land that became the park or marina.

Some sources suggest the park was named for R. Floyd himself, but the naming of the associated marina for Duncan suggests the park was also named for Duncan.

R. Floyd Clinch (1865-1930) “Father of the Park Place”

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25

TRAVERSE CITY HALL OF BUSINESS FAME PAST LEGENDS HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

A. Tracy Lay “Founder of the Village”

J. Perry Hannah “The Father of Traverse City”

R. Howard Whiting

Gerald Oleson Sr.

Henry Campbell

“The Poor Man’s Banker”

“The Philanthropist”

“The Utilities Man”

2013 INDUCTEE

2013 INDUCTEE He ended up a wealthy businessman who left his namesake on a beloved hotel in downtown Traverse City, but Howard Whiting will always be remembered for his generosity and enabling others to start their own farms and businesses.

Photo courtesy of NMC Archives

2013 INDUCTEE

2013 INDUCTEE He was Perry Hannah’s business partner, but Albert Tracy Lay did something perhaps even more significant: He laid out the 1852 plat map for the town of Traverse City, thus becoming the – Robert Wilson, author, “founder” of the village.

Grand Traverse Legends

2013 INDUCTEE “His leadership and vision during the first 50 years of Traverse City’s existence have left an indelible imprint on the modern community and its people.”

Photo courtesy of History Center of Traverse City

2013 INDUCTEE

Photo courtesy of History Center of Traverse City

BY AMY LANE

2013 INDUCTEE

2013 INDUCTEE

2013 INDUCTEE A humble grocer, land owner, buffalo farmer and millionaire, Gerald Oleson established the Northwestern Michigan College barbecue fundraiser and continues to give back to the community posthumously through a foundation he started with his wife, Frances.

Henry Campbell had the gumption to believe he could open the “largest and most elaborate hotel north of Grand Rapids.” However, his most significant contribution was bringing a waterworks system and electricity to the downtown area.

Frank Hamilton

Tom Deering

Les Biederman

Peter Dendrinos

Ray Minervini

“The Ambassador”

(Turned Entrepreneur)”

“Broadcasting Pioneer”

“The Born Leader”

“The Visionary”

2013 INDUCTEE

“The Butcher

2013 INDUCTEE

2013 INDUCTEE

2013 INDUCTEE

2013 INDUCTEE

Local meat cutter Tom Deering took a financial risk in the 1940s, opening a small market in Traverse City. His 11th Street store would become a seven-store enterprise, employing hundreds of area residents.

“Biederman was like nature, someone once observed, in that he sowed ideas like nature sows seeds.

Many of these never took root, but many did.”

John Parsons

Bryan Crough

“The Innovator”

James Munson

Arthur Schmuckal

Frank L. Stulen

“The Believer”

“The Healer”

“Mr. Oil”

“The Idea Man”

Frank Hamilton could be described as a reluctant Traverse City visitor who ended up becoming one of its most successful merchants and greatest ambassadors.

2014 INDUCTEE

“John Parsons gave numeric control to the world. Not only did he change the world of manufacturing, he helped weave the fabric of Traverse City’s strong manufacturing community today.”

– W. Dodd Russell, CEO, Skilled Manufacturing Inc.

2014 INDUCTEE

“Bryan Crough led the efforts to not only save downtown Traverse City, but to transform it into the dynamic heart of our region through his tireless efforts, relentless leadership, creativity and balanced perspective.”

– Marsha Smith, former executive director, Rotary Charities

A former all-state football player, Dendrinos launched a pie business that became the city’s largest employer and the top provider of pies to the U.S. food service industry.

– Former Traverse City Record-Eagle Editor Ken Parker

2015 INDUCTEE

Munson’s theories of psychiatry were revolutionary for the times; he did away with straitjackets, used drug therapy and had patients working the farm and growing the food the State Hospital needed. He also integrated social services with patient care. He believed in treating the patients and not just “warehousing” them.

“Ray Minervini has changed the landscape of Traverse City and the notion of redeveloping and being stewards of historic properties forever.”

– Doug Luciani,former CEO, Traverse Connect

2015 INDUCTEE

Schmuckal co-founded Slane and Schmuckal Oil Co., a Shell Oil Co. distributor, with George Slane in 1955. Northwestern Michigan College’s University Center is named after Art and Mary Schmuckal, thanks to their work with the college and their philanthropy. In 1999, they formed the Art and Mary Schmuckal Family Foundation.

2016 INDUCTEE

Frank L. Stulen turned inventor/ businessman John T. Parsons’ detailed instructions into calculations that eventually became numerical control – the automation of machine tools.

Numerical control is often called “the second industrial revolution.” Their innovations are the precursor for today’s computer-aided machining, which can make everything from truck panels to custom embroidery.

26 JANUARY 2026

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

HALL OF FAME PAST INDUCTEES

James W. Milliken

Elnora Milliken

“The Benevolent Shopkeeper”

“TC’s Grande Dame of Arts”

2016 INDUCTEE

2017 INDUCTEE

In 1868, James W. Milliken and his childhood pal Frank Hamilton arrived in Traverse City. Six years later, they opened the Hamilton, Milliken & Co. store, which grew so popular they built a bigger store at 204-6 E. Front St. Milliken’s, as it became known when their partnership amicably dissolved, had a reputation for caring for employees. Milliken himself was known for his “consideration and kindliness.”

Elnora Milliken is credited with bringing professional music and theater to the Grand Traverse region as founder of the Traverse Symphony Orchestra, originally known as the Northern Michigan Symphony Orchestra, in 1951 and Old Town Playhouse, origi-nally known as the Traverse City Civic Players, in 1960.

Julius Sleder

Judith Lindenau

“The Great Storyteller”

“Mentor Extraordinaire”

2017 INDUCTEE

2018 INDUCTEE

Bruce Rogers “Mr. Traverse City”

2018 INDUCTEE

Judith Lindenau was a Renaissance woman who left a legacy that continues to impact real estate agents around the world.

She was best known as the executive vice president of the Traverse Area Association of – Hal Van Sumeren, former Realtors (TAAR) and was pivotal president, Traverse City in the creation of BORIS, the Chamber of Commerce Board of Realtors Information Service, which launched in 1980 as the state’s first computerized MLS and the precursor to today’s modern online system.

“Julius was an institution. He operated an auto dealership downtown [Grand Traverse Auto] longer than anyone ever has … and was a huge advocate for downtown businesses.”

Longtime co-owner of Bartling’s with his wife, Joyce, Rogers was a leader in establishing Traverse City’s DDA and served for many years on the board as well as numerous endeavors that strengthened and propelled downtown Traverse City into a thriving retail center. A former Michigan Retailers Association board chair and member, he was often noted by industry peers for his visionary leadership, impact and mentorship.

HALL OF FAME PAST INDUCTEES

Dr. Edwin “Ted” Thirlby “Medical Pioneer”

Bill Marsh Sr. “The Classic Entrepreneur”

Arnell Engstrom

“TC’s ‘Dean’ of the Michigan Legislature”

Russell ‘Butch’ Broad “People First”

Ken Schmidt

“Legendary Traverse City Realtor”

2019 INDUCTEE

2019 INDUCTEE

2020 INDUCTEE

2020 INDUCTEE

2021 INDUCTEE

Dr. Thirlby is remembered as a pioneer in bringing modern medicine and surgical practices to Traverse City, as well as a patron of post-graduate medical education in Michigan.

Bill Marsh Sr. built an automotive dynasty that continued to thrive under the leadership of three of his sons.

He is remembered as a visionary and as a classic entrepreneur with a strong moral compass and positive energy who valued family and people.

Arnell Engstrom was one of the original planners, incorporators and a long-standing trustee for Northwestern Michigan College, the state’s first community college, and was instrumental in sponsoring legislation that supported formation of other Michigan community colleges.

In 1977, Butch Broad purchased Elmer’s, the family-owned company Elmer Schaub had founded in 1956. Today, Team Elmer’s is an industry leader throughout northern Michigan, operating six divisions (asphalt, excavation, concrete, aggregate, trucking and crane and rigging) and employing hundreds of skilled professionals.

Representing the third generation of Schmidt realtors, Traverse City native Ken Schmidt served as CEO of the Coldwell Banker Schmidt Family of Companies and helped steer the company's growth from a single office to one of the top three largest and most successful Coldwell Banker franchises in the country, with offices in Michigan, northeast Ohio, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

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TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

HALL OF FAME PAST INDUCTEES

Helen Childs Osterlin “Tiny but Mighty”

Captain Harris “Harry” Boardman

Bob D. Hilty

“The Humble Leader”

Ralph “Boots” Wolff, Jr. “Downtown’s Caretaker”

“The Pioneer”

Mary Jean Brick “The Advocate”

Photos courtesy of Traverse Area Historical Society, NMC Archives, Interlochen Center of the Arts and Tom’s Food Markets

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2021 INDUCTEE

2022 INDUCTEE

2022 INDUCTEE

Helen Osterlin dreamed of being an opera singer. Instead, she gave voice to countless Traverse City area artists, students, caregivers and projects that continue to impact the region. Osterlin is especially credited as a driving force behind the success of Interlochen Public Radio, notably saving radio station WIAA from closing in 1970 and creating its Community Advisory Committee.

Bob Hilty influenced the shaping of NMC, decades of growth leading to the Munson Healthcare system, creation of NMC’s University Center and Culinary Institute, founding of the Presbyterian Church, northern Michigan operations for Consumers Power and, most notably, development of Rotary Charities as a philanthropic powerhouse.

Captain Harris “Harry” Boardman is credited as being one of the first white settlers of Traverse City when he purchased property in 1847 and ventured to lands that had long been settled by the native Ottawa, Ojibwa and Potawatomi tribes. Historians refer to Boardman as a thrifty farmer living near Napierville, Ill. who purchased a tract of land from the U.S. government at the mouth of a river then known as the Ottawa, which flowed into Grand Traverse Bay. That property would become Traverse City.

Petertyl Drug owner Ralph “Boots” Wolff was a founding member of the Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) in 1979 and served on its board for 31 years, including time as chairman.

He is recognized for helping to create many of the things people enjoy about Front Street and the surrounding area to this day.

2023 INDUCTEE

Under Mary Jean Brick’s guidance, the area’s first-of-itskind Community Living Center opened in 1978 in Traverse City.

It was the first step for the notfor-profit organization known today as Brick Ways - a corporation and foundation that serves adults with developmental disabilities through housing and a continuum of support.

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29

HALL OF FAME PAST INDUCTEES

Bill Marsh Sr. Carol Hale “The Classic Entrepreneur” “Medical Pioneer” “The Merchant’s Mentor” “The Connector”

Dr. Edwin “Ted” Thirlby Maurie Allen

2019 INDUCTEE

2019 INDUCTEE

Arnell Engstrom Ken Schmidt Russell ‘Butch’ Broad Harold “Hal” Van Sumeren Frank Votruba “TC’s ‘Dean’ of the “Legendary Traverse City Realtor” “People First” Michigan Legislature” “The Convener” “The Retail Pioneer”

2020 INDUCTEE

2020 INDUCTEE

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2024 INDUCTEE 2025 INDUCTEE 2024 INDUCTEE 2025 INDUCTEE Arnell Engstrom was one of the Bill Marsh Sr. built an In 1977, Butch Broad purDr. Thirlby is remembered as a Representing the third original planners, incorporators chased Elmer’s, the family-owned generation of Schmidt realtors, pioneer in bringing modern medi- automotive dynasty that A man many have comecontinued to years of Elmer service, Hal had Trained in leather work in and a long-standing trustee After for 38company to Carol thrive Hale undertaught the for almost Schaub cine and surgical practices to TraTraverse City native Ken Schmidt wisdom lead- three Van Sumeren retired in 2002 as Team decades a Northwestern Michigan College, of three of hisand sons.served as the old country, Bohemian founded in 1956.

Today, verse City,admire as wellfor as ahis patron of andleadership served as CEO of the Coldwell ership, Maurie Allen opened executive director ofan what was leaderimmigrant thefor state’s first community colHe is remembered a visionary Elmer’s is industry TraverseasCity commissioner post-graduate medical education Frank Votruba started Banker Schmidt Family of and was instrumental in known as a classic entrepreneur the Captain’s Quarters onand Front throughout northern Michigan, then as the Traverse City in Michigan.

18 years, including a termlege, as the Votruba Leather Goods (a “tiny Companies and helped steer the sup-Chamber with a strong moral compass and operating six divisions (asphalt, Street in 1966. Around the Area of Commerce. city’s second female mayor.sponsoring legislation that harness shop in a wooden buildcompany's growth from a single ported formation of other Michipositive energy who valued excavation, concrete, aggregate, same time, he helped found the Friends, family and colleagues Perhaps most notably, she ing on the edge of the Boardman office to one of the top three gan community colleges. family and people. trucking and crane and rigging) Downtown Traverse City Assoremember Van Sumeren as was chair of the Grand Traverse River,” according to company largest and most successful and employing hundreds of ciation, a merchant group that being tremendously skilled at Commons Redevelopment Corp., history) in 1874. His business skilled professionals.

Coldwell Banker franchises in the works to advance, protect and bringing people together and which preserved the former prospered enough that he was country, with offices in Michigan, perpetuate business interests getting them to work toward Traverse City State Hospital from able to go in with his brothers-innortheast Ohio, Florida and the throughout downtown. common goals. He also helped destruction and paved the way for law Anthony Bartak and Charles U.S. Virgin Islands. launch the Traverse City Conthe multifaceted community that Wilhelm less than 20 years later vention and Visitor’s Bureau now occupies the space. to build the magnificent City (now Traverse City Tourism), Opera House.

Leadership Grand Traverse and the Traverse Bay Economic Development Corporation.

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KEEPING PACE NMC’s computer information tech program keeps up with latest in trends, cyber threats

By Craig Manning It was more than 25 years ago that Scott Goethals, now the program director of the computer information technology (CIT) program at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC), came aboard as part of the college’s early forays into computer education.

A quarter-century later, it would be difficult to think of another NMC program that has evolved more dramatically than CIT. Though a commonly used tool by the turn of the century, the internet wasn’t the all-encompassing driver of communication and commerce that it is today – to say nothing of the myriad new technologies and cybersecurity threats that have proliferated between 2000 and now.

All the change begs the question: How does the world of academia, so often grounded in the well-established facts that can be printed for evergreen posterity in a textbook, maintain a handle on an industry as ever-changing as computer science?

We sat down with Goethals to find out.

According to Goethals, NMC’s CIT program was still in relatively rudimentary

form even at the end of the 2000s. Most of the evolution, in other words, has happened in the last 15 years.

“At one point in time, we had a single program, and it was a general degree that was designed to prepare students for careers in information technology [IT],” Goethals explained. “That program included a little bit of everything.

It centered around folks getting skills not only in the networking infrastructure side, which is what we typically think of networking, but also on the software development side, where people would learn how to develop software and write applications and things of that nature. It was what I would call a balanced, generic degree.”

Around 2008 or 2009, Goethals says the program was encouraged by its advisory board to split those two pathways into separate associate’s degree programs.

“We had students that would say, ‘I’m not going to be a developer. Why are you making me take these development classes? I just want to focus on the infrastructure, the networking, the systems,’” he said. “And then we had other students that said, ‘I just want to do programming.

I’m not going to do that other stuff.’”

That expansion, from a one-size-fits-all model to a two-pronged approach, marked the biggest juncture yet for the program, and helped establish it as a modular educational path that could adapt to the latest trends.

More evolutions were to come. Toward the end of the 2010s, for instance, the college tweaked its computer infrastructure program, characterizing it as an associate’s degree in applied science and CIT infrastructure to include more of a cybersecurity focus. The program gained three security-focused courses and was rebranded as an associate’s in CIT infrastructure and security.

“The reason for that is, for years, people thought of cybersecurity as an IT issue,” Goethals explained. “When professionals talked about cybersecurity, they’d talk about it in the context of protecting the systems, protecting the network. Now, cybersecurity isn’t just viewed as an IT issue; it’s viewed as a business issue. If you think about it today, most organizations require their employees to go through at least yearly cybersecurity training, centered

around phishing, business email compromise, scams, privacy, all of those things.

Everybody in an organization has to be diligent about where the threats are, and that’s changed the job of the cybersecurity specialist.”

Keeping an eye on those changing trends – and adapting programs to align with the latest industry certifications – has allowed Goethals and his team to keep NMC’s CIT programs in a position where they can be useful to students and employers alike. Beyond the two associate’s degree pathways, the college also now offers multiple standalone or stackable certificates, including shorter-form programs in cybersecurity, infrastructure, web development, computer support and even Microsoft Office applications.

Partnerships are a key component of keeping NMC’s program on the cutting edge, as well. As is the case with many other NMC departments, the CIT program has longstanding connections with local industry, organizing regular “CIT Industry Night Out” events where technology leaders at local businesses host student information sessions.

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“We try to do one of those every month or so,” Goethals said of the Industry Night Out sessions. “The host business will invite our students in, provide some food and drink – usually just pizza and soda – and then our students get a chance to hear from the organization’s IT leaders, cybersecurity people and programmers. In the past 10 years, I think we’ve done 44 of those events, and the community connections have absolutely led to internships and job opportunities for our students.”

Goethals is proud of that employability factor with his students, many of whom start working for local businesses while they are still working on their degrees.

Current students John Brumbaugh and Zac Crowell, for instance, are both working at Munson – Brumbaugh on the help desk, Crowell as part of the network engineering team.

Also at Munson is Stephanie Cardwell, a 2014 graduate of NMC’s CIT program who now serves as senior network engineer and team lead for the healthcare system. Cardwell has paid her success forward by by conducting occasional “cybersecurity tabletop exercises” with NMC, which Goethals says are extremely valuable for giving students a sense of what life can look like on the job.

“A tabletop exercise is where Stephanie comes in and she has a scenario in mind,” Goethals said. “It could be something like, ‘OK, we just had a ransomware breach, and the person who heads up the cyber side of the organization is on vacation.

What do we do?’ And then you work through the scenario with regards to how it impacts your organization.”

Also in NMC’s program are local employers like Thrive (formerly Safety Net), Skilled Manufacturing and Frontier Computer, all of which Goethals says have hired numerous CIT program graduates over the years. Frontier Computer hosted the first-ever CIT Industry Night Out event a decade ago, and all three organizations have team members who serve on the CIT program advisory board.

The partnerships reach outside of the immediate local area, too. Per Goethals, many of the CIT program’s graduates will matriculate to four-year institutions for further study. NMC has an articulation agreement with Ferris State University specifically built to streamline that pathway.

“They have a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in information security and intelligence, or ISI,” Goethals said of Ferris.

“So, a lot of our students will go that route.”

If there’s an elephant in the room for Goethals and his students these days, it is artificial intelligence. Unlike the many industries and employers having debates about whether to embrace AI, though, Goethals says cybersecurity professionals are unique in that they really don’t have a choice in the matter.

“You can be certain that the threat actors out there are finding ways of using AI to become more sophisticated with their attacks, to automate methods of trying to breach into a network or into an organization,” Goethals explained. “And at the same time, the software companies and the technology companies that develop products are also implementing AI as a way to reveal these types of breaches and attack methods. So, both the red team and the blue team are using AI.” Regarding fears that AI is erasing jobs in the CIT industry, Goethals lands somewhere in the middle.

“There have certainly been a number of large organizations – Microsoft and others – that have laid off people, but I’m not completely in belief that it’s all AI driven.

I think the economy and other things are a big factor in that, too,” Goethals said.

“Ultimately, my view is that AI is a tool, and should be used to help us do things more effectively and more efficiently.

Right now, we’re finding ways to implement AI in our classes, which I’m looking forward to. Just recently, I had approval of a new course go through our curriculum committee that we’re going to be offering next fall on generative AI.”

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BEHIND THE SCREENS Munson Healthcare’s CIO on cybersecurity, AI and mountains of data

By Art Bukowski

Munson Healthcare has a lot of data.

Just how much, you ask?

“A thousand gigabytes is a terabyte.

And a thousand terabytes is what’s called a petabyte,” Munson’s Chief Information Officer Michael Saad said. “We have several petabytes of data at Munson Healthcare.”

Managing this eye-popping amount of data – much of it highly sensitive – is just one of the many critical tasks of the information technology team at northern Michigan’s largest hospital system.

About 300 in-house employees (and contractors where needed) handle data, networking, security and other IT tasks across the system’s eight hospitals and dozens of additional facilities.

The TCBN connected with Saad to learn more about the intricacies of IT at Munson, what opportunities lie ahead and what keeps him up at night.

On cloud nine?

Munson’s data is housed in a mixture of several on-site data centers spread throughout its large service area along with cloud-based services. What goes where depends on what it is, Saad says, with the most mission-critical data sometimes going both places for redundancy.

“A hybrid model is a good model because you’re not all-in [in either place],” Saad said. “If something happens on premise it can create its own set of challenges, and likewise, we’ve [recently

seen] what happens when cloud vendors become unavailable. So I think the sweet spot is in the middle.”

Munson will continue with this careful balancing act for now, though Saad is keeping his eye on a shift in strategy as it relates to this issue.

“A few years ago, there was a big push to move away from local data centers because there are a lot of capital investments needed to keep those systems up,” Saad said. “Now the story has really changed and we’re seeing local data centers become huge in demand because of AI. Now, health systems and organizations across the country are trying to invest more in data centers so they have computing power and can leverage AI.” Patient records make up the bulk of

Munson’s data and are the reason it has so much, particularly because it has to be retained for a long time. Michigan law requires records to be kept for a minimum of seven years from the last date of service (as a general rule). Munson’s policy sets the retention period at a minimum of 10 years from the last date of service, with some types of records retained in perpetuity.

This data is also very sensitive due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and internal policies, which adds another layer of complexity to its management. Employees come and go, and Munson regularly audits who has access to what.

“There are some very, very stringent and strict guidelines around what we can

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Cybersecurity is at the top of Saad’s list of concerns, in large part because the stakes are higher and the bad actors are far, far more capable.

“Ten years ago, it was people in mom and dad’s basement just trying to hack in systems for fun or to have bragging rights: ‘Hey, I got into Munson Health,’” he said.

“It is a very, very different environment now. We as an industry are being attacked by nation-sponsored entities. These are very well funded, very smart individuals that are leveraging the latest technology.”

There are now geopolitical motivations behind these attacks, Saad says, part of the reason they’ve become so sophisticated.

“President Trump put a 50% tariff on Brazil in August, and we had an immediate uptick in attacks from Brazil after that announcement was made,” he said.

Under its IT umbrella, Munson has an entire cybersecurity team tasked with nothing other than keeping the system safe from attacks and ready to respond should one be successful.

“It’s a tremendous group of professionals; men and women that do a great job every day waking up thinking about this and going to bed thinking about this,” Saad said.

This team fends off attacks “literally every minute” to the tune of thousands a day, Saad says. While Munson has been

“Ten years ago, it was people in mom and dad’s basement just trying to hack in systems for fun or to have bragging rights: ‘Hey, I got into Munson Health.’ It’s a very, very different environment now. We as an industry are being attacked by nation-sponsored entities. These are very well funded, very smart individuals that are leveraging the latest technology.”

– Michael Saad, Chief Information Officer, Munson Healthcare fortunate enough to dodge any major incursions, they are still constantly planning for one.

“The latest statistic I saw is that when an organization succumbs to a cyberattack, they’re down for 28 days,” Saad said.

“So what we’re thinking about, is should that happen to us – and obviously we have a lot of protections and hope it does not – how are [we prepared]?”

Twice a month, Munson’s executive team gets an update from a committee that is tasked with planning for just such a scenario.

“If a system goes down, whether it’s the result of something on the Mun-

son side or a [vendor outage], how do we make sure we have that business continuity plan in place? How do we make sure we continue to care for our patients?” Saad said. “There are a lot of very robust planning and conversations that go into that.”

This game involves more than battles with shadowy, anonymous attackers from far off lands. The vast majority of attacks still require an employee to do something wrong – click on a link, for example, or be tricked into changing a setting – so there’s a ton of internal messaging about avoiding such pitfalls.

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do with that data and who has access to that data, even among our own employees,” Saad said. “[We make sure] our employees have exactly the right amount of access they need to do their job, and no more.”

Munson this year completed a somewhat herculean task of combining separate health records and patient portals from several sites into one system, allowing patients and staff to go to one place for patient data instead of several.

“Our employees did a tremendous job to make this happen. The frontline staff, our registration clerks, everyone really stepped up and did a great job of making sure that was successful,” Saad said. “Our organization was really excited to see that come to life, and it’s really made a significant difference in the way we communicate with each other and the way our patients now have that single system.”

The work doesn’t stop though, as such projects often need optimization after they launch.

“You start to use the system, and you realize we’d be better off if we did X or Y or made this change,” Saad said. “[Our employees] provided a list of over 300 ways that we can enhance the existing product, so our IT team is now very focused on taking that enhancement list and implementing them to make that tool even better.”

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“People are still the weakest link in cybersecurity, in many cases well-intentioned people,” Saad said. “There’s a social engineering aspect of this, and our team is very focused on education.”

Dealing with cybersecurity from a personnel standpoint is a fine line.

“We need to make sure that we’re thoughtful about how we put protections in place, because it’s a balancing act,” he said. “You can be so locked down [that employees] can’t perform the functions of the organization. How do you protect the environment and still allow the providers to do what they need to do?”

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Along with many organizations, Munson is leaning into AI where it makes sense. As just one example, radiologists are now assisted by programs that help prioritize MRIs for reading by a radiologist.

“If there’s a lung nodule, that’s different than a ... collapsed lung. The collapsed lung should go higher in the queue, and the radiologist should read that one first because it’s more critical,” Saad said. “It’s just flagging the radiologist to say, ‘This one needs to go higher in the queue than that one.’”

It’s a scenario where Munson sees great potential for AI: Tools that enhance and speed up care provided by actual humans, ultimately improving patients’ access to timely care.

“It doesn’t make a clinical diagnosis, but it helps prioritize the work for the radiologist and speed up some of those reads, which then would translate back to more patients having MRIs done and getting the results faster because these tools help enhance the work by some of our clinicians,” Saad said.

Munson isn’t interested in having AI do anything more than support human caregivers, Saad says, though it could

stand to help tremendously on that front.

“The radiologist still is the ultimate say and still does a manual review of everyone. AI could never replace the clinician, whether it’s nurses or the physicians. They are skilled in what they do, and we need those skill sets,” Saad said. “But what it can do is help supplement and provide support around them.”

Munson’s employees are generally free to experiment with AI and share their findings with others, Saad says, though leadership has taken steps to ensure that only programs that protect data sensitivity are available. Throwing information into ChatGPT is a big no-no, whereas certain programs developed with data sensitivity in mind are fine.

“We want you to use AI, leverage it, find ways that you can learn from it and then share those experiences and those learnings with others, but we have guardrails in place,” Saad said. “We have HIPAA requirements we have to make sure we’re adhering to.”

While Saad is generally bullish on AI, he and the organization are taking a measured approach instead of diving in head first.

“AI can be a solution looking for a problem, and you can wear yourself out chasing all of these solutions. My inbox is … full of vendors reaching out trying to provide solutions to problems that either we don’t have or are not top of mind,” he said. “What we do is we bring it back to: What problem are we actually trying to solve?”

While it may not necessarily involve AI, Munson is also leaning into automating basic tasks so its professionals can spend time on more worthwhile endeavors.

“How do we leverage technology to enable our employees to operate at top of license or top of skill set?” Saad said.

“What are those mundane tasks our employees are doing that we can leverage technology to help address?”

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IT in 2026 Tech leaders provide advice for the year ahead

By Art Bukowski Business owners have a lot to keep up on, but few things are as rapidly changing as the world of technology.

From artificial intelligence and cybersecurity to automation and cloud computing, the decisions made now could substantially impact profits and sustainability in the long run.

The TCBN connected with leaders at three local information technology (IT) firms to see what’s on their minds – and by extension, what should be on their clients’ agendas – as we enter 2026.

Cybersecurity It’s the big one now and most likely well into the future. IT professionals are constantly chatting with clients about security and risk, and it’s a conversation that won’t be going away anytime soon.

Even in 2026, and even after abundant news about cyberattacks, it’s still a topic that sometimes requires a little pushing from the IT team.

“There are companies that feel as if the antivirus software that they’ve had in place for the last 10 years is fine and there’s no real need to continue to add more to cost associated there,” said Tim Cerny, area vice president for Thrive (which bought out Cerny’s Safety Net last year). “It’s just a matter of when they’ll get a ransomware attack.”

While hackers can and do target any system, most small to medium businesses in northern Michigan are unlikely to fall victim to the most sophisticated hackers, who are using the latest technology to focus on much, much bigger fish.

What this means is the hackers that are in fact targeting smaller businesses are most often going after the low hanging fruit: Employees who can be tricked into giving them access to the system.

“The big hacker group isn’t going after

$100,000 … so the whole idea of how you do cybersecurity [at smaller businesses] is different. It’s so user focused,” said Cody Lewis, IT manager at Anavon Technology Group.

“Your users are really the only avenue that these people are going after … and human error is the number one vulnerability.”

So while security software and other systems are indeed important, the biggest risk is still Debbie in the sales department.

“The biggest area we see cybersecurity problems is email, and the weakest link is the employee. It’s the user,” said Wyant Technologies CEO Tom Wyant. “We had three clients suffer business email compromises within about six months of each other. Because of tools we had in place we locked them down within like five or six minutes before anything happened, but the user let them in in each instance.”

The basic steps are still, even in 2026, the most important, IT leaders say. Train your employees to never click on even remotely suspicious links. Pick up the phone and verify emails that appear to be legitimate if they’re asking for sensitive information or tasks (or, for starters, always be sure to look at the sender’s address to assure it’s legitimate).

“I think we’ve done a pretty good job of training [clients] to not trust anything,” Wyant said.

All of this will get harder as even low-level attackers leverage AI to clean up their awkwardly worded emails – or worse.

Voice replication, deep fakes and more will likely present considerable threats to security in the years to come.

“The line between what’s real and fake is going to basically blur beyond recognition,” Cerny said. “So the way that we’re protecting clients isn’t just going to be cybersecurity. Customers are going to have to have protection in place to help their consumers, their employees or the world recognize what is real and what isn’t.”

Human weak links aside, making sure systems are updated is another huge com-

Lewis and Madsen

“IT is becoming like a strategic cornerstone of a business. It’s not just, ‘Hey, my computer’s broke, I need you to fix it.’ IT is doing so much more. We’re being looked at for proactive management, automation, risk reduction, and also like, ‘Hey, I’m growing my business.

How are you going to help us enable that?’”

– Michael Madsen, President, Anavon ponent of cybersecurity. Cerny says he’s encountered far too many systems that haven’t been properly maintained from an updates/patch standpoint.

“If there’s a patch available for the type of application that you’re working with or the computer that you’re working on, it was created because there was a vulnerability identified, and that vulnerability is posted on the dark web and out there for anybody to kind of see,” Cerny said. “Hold your IT team or your IT provider accountable to demonstrating the discipline that they have around patch management, because those things exist for a reason.”

Lastly, while not purely cybersecurity, data access continues to be a point of discussion.

“Most if not all small businesses, when it comes to data security, there’s none. There is still so much data on the network that probably should be locked down. We’ll talk to them and say, ‘What do people actually need access to?’” Wyant said. “For the longest time nobody cared, and I think it’s because they didn’t know they needed to.”

Tech debt Speaking of systems, hardware can be expensive. And like pretty much everything else, it’s getting even more pricey by the minute. What this means is that many businesses are at risk of falling even further into “tech debt,” IT professionals say.

Delayed spending on necessary upgrades to hardware, software and other tech components can eventually put businesses in a very daunting hole. In some businesses, it’s enough of an issue to be the number one risk to business continuity.

“Tech debt is probably a bigger problem in a lot of places than cybersecurity, because if they want to come into the future … they’re going to need to spend a ton of money to eliminate that debt and upgrade everything,” Wyant said. “But there’s a lot of people holding on to old stuff because it still works.”

Clients can be quite stubborn in this regard, particularly as components become more expensive. But kicking the can down

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

37

CYBERSECURITY & NETWORKING the road is never a good strategy.

“We deal with it on a regular basis where equipment becomes legacy or end of life, and it’s no longer receiving firmware upgrades, patch management, bug fixes, security fixes,” Anavon President Michael Madsen said. “Then you’re trying to talk to a customer and you’re like, ‘Hey, listen, you got to replace this,’ and they just say ‘No, it’s not broke.’”

Madsen says his team is regularly pushing clients to bite off upgrades in manageable chunks to avoid digging too deep of a hole.

“It’s manageable now, but if you keep pushing it off, it’s just going to pile up,” he said. “The idea is … to get yourself on a manageable schedule.”

Some of this can be solved by leasing instead of buying hardware, Cerny says.

Thrive can get clients set up with everything they need. “Hardware as a service” is the latest in a trend that started with cloud-based “software as a service” many years ago.

“You could write a big check and pay for a big project to have hardware … put in place or updated. Or you can just lease that and receive that hardware as a service, as well,” he said. “You move it from a big capital expenditure to an operational expenditure, one that you can count on consistently to be the same price every month.”

Artificial intelligence These tech professionals have a somewhat measured take on AI. Yes, they say, it’s going to be a major disruptor in business and society, and it’s something that all businesses need to be ready for. But it’s also somewhat of a bubble, especially on the consumer side, as various companies race to capitalize on the zeitgeist with endless AI solutions.

“Unless people are willing to invest a ton of money, it’s just a big marketing thing right now,” Wyant said. “Marketing fluff.”

There are specific ecosystems where AI is already having a big impact, Wyant says, like systems that assist with sales management and follow up. But effective AI is just not there yet in a lot of business segments and applications, he says. Wyant finds that as of now, many customers asking about AI are really asking for something else.

“Once we start talking to clients and get into the whole AI thing, a lot of it isn’t AI, it’s automation,” he said. “Do you really want AI, or do you just want this thing to run on its own?”

Cerny says Thrive is “all in” on AI, specifically finding solutions that help clients increase productivity. One example he cites is a tool that lets his private equity clients thoroughly analyze prospective business purchases and generate rock-solid

“The line between what’s real and fake is going to basically blur beyond recognition. So the way that we’re protecting clients isn’t just going to be cybersecurity.

Customers are going to have to have protection in place to help their consumers, their employees or the world recognize what is real and what isn’t.”

– Tim Cerny, Area Vice President, Thrive reports and recommendations in a matter of minutes, rather than weeks. Still, most of his clients are asking for much more mundane things.

“We’re seeing it for the simple things: Can it summarize my email? Can I have it write things for me? Can I build PowerPoints?” he said. “But what I’m not finding yet, and I expect we’ll start to see a lot more of that in the new year, is true business use cases: ‘If we could streamline this process, it would save us this amount of time, this amount of dollars and give us this kind of competitive advantage.’ That isn’t happening a ton within our market today, but it will be coming.”

Ultimately, most businesses just want to

make sure they’re prepared.

“What they are asking us to help them do is get ready for AI,” Cerny said.

“That readiness piece is probably the biggest trend.”

A big part of that, incidentally, is cleaning up what for many companies has become a file structure that is a “complete mess,” built up over time with old, useless data in cumbersome or confusing pathways.

“If you’re going to leverage AI, you’ve got to have that clean. You can’t have it mine old bad data. You can’t have it accessing files that people shouldn’t be accessing,” Cerny said. “Data and file structure management is a big deal.”

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CYBERSECURITY & NETWORKING Anavon’s Madsen says AI has already shown tremendous value in certain areas.

Anavon is a full-service technology company that (among many other services) installs and maintains security cameras.

One example Madsen cites is AI programs that allow hours of security footage to be text searchable, a massive improvement over having to watch all that footage to find what you’re looking for.

But like Cerny, Madsen doesn’t yet see a lot of strong use cases for many of his clients. They’re asking plenty of questions about AI, but Madsen would rather identify the problem that needs to be solved before chasing an endless buffet of solutions that are looking for problems.

“I think that we’ve still got to have those conversations about what the ultimate end goal is, and if they really need it,” he said.

Madsen is also curious to see how much AI end users will ultimately put up with.

“Even though I’m in technology, I still have a hesitation with AI. I still want to preserve that human factor, because I feel like it’s going to get lost as we just try to automate everything,” Madsen said. “If you try to go too heavily into something, there’s going to be pushback and blowback. I’m hopeful that people are still going to appreciate human voice and human interaction and not have it all AI driven.”

To the cloud Local IT companies are still badgering their clients to move their systems and data from on-site servers to the cloud. There are tons of benefits, tech leaders say, including (generally) better security and no longer having to worry about updates.

“With most of the applications our clients deal with, once they move to the cloud it’s just a treadmill of new features and updates,” Wyant said. “One day they walk into the office, they log in and there’s a new feature. Vendors are doing this now where instead of releasing software, you subscribe to their cloud plan, and it’s just constant features and upgrades and stability fixes.”

Many companies that couldn’t effectively use the cloud before because of enormous file sizes now have that opportunity, and they’re among the last to migrate over.

“There’s becoming more and more options for customers that have historically had to keep physical infrastructure in place, like architectural companies or manufacturing firms or engineering firms that are using large files,” Cerny said. “They haven’t historically been able to leverage cloud infrastructure because they’re moving giant files back and forth through their internet. That’s beginning to change.”

With more companies working on the cloud comes a lot more riding on that precious internet connection, Madsen says. Because internet outages can mean major problems for those who no longer

Wyant

house their own systems or data, a lot of companies are investing in fiber to reduce the risk of outages.

“We’re working weekly on building out the fiber networks to our customers so they have that reliability with fiber,” Madsen said. “And even outside of that, some businesses are saying, ‘Hey, listen, I got the fiber, and I understand it’s incredibly reliable, but I also need another redundant internet source.’”

‘So much more’ IT isn’t what it used to be, in large part because of how interwoven technology and the internet have become into our daily (and business) lives. As such, clients are increasingly looking to their IT companies for much more than setting up email systems.

“Our role has gone from being the guys who fix the PC to: We do everything,” Wyant said.

Cerny says IT companies like his are quickly moving from mere supporting actors to key advisors for business growth and success.

“We’re evolving from just providing vanilla technology solutions to being a real partner that’s involved in helping CEOs and business leaders identify ways to streamline their business and drive profitability for their companies,” he said.

The advent of AI is only accelerating this phenomenon as businesses lean on their IT teams or contractors to make sense of it all.

“It’s not just delivering a tool and monitoring a tool and providing support to that tool. It’s [looking at existing tasks and] saying, ‘Is there a way to streamline this and leverage AI to accomplish this task in a shorter time frame, in a more efficient and productive way?’” he said.

“How do we do that faster?”

Anavon’s Madsen agrees.

“IT is becoming like a strategic cornerstone of a business. It’s not just, ‘Hey, my computer’s broke, I need you to fix it.’ IT is doing so much more,” he said. “We’re being looked at for proactive management, automation, risk reduction and also like, ‘Hey, I’m growing my business. How are you going to help us enable that?’”

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CYBERSECURITY & NETWORKING

By Tim Cerny, columnist

Cyberattacks are no longer a looming threat, but a daily reality for businesses of all sizes.

Mid-sized companies, in particular, face unique cybersecurity risks. These businesses often operate across multiple locations, manage a mix of legacy and modern IT systems, and rely on interconnected networks to support day-to-day operations.

The combination of valuable intellectual property, sensitive customer information and operational complexity makes midsized organizations an attractive target for cybercriminals. Unlike larger enterprises, they may lack the resources to maintain around-the-clock security monitoring, which increases the risk that a breach could go undetected for critical periods, compounding financial and reputational damage.

While investing in firewalls, endpoint protection and network security is important, no system is impervious to a sophisticated cyberattack. Breaches are not a matter of if but when. For mid-sized businesses, pairing strong technology defenses with a structured incident response and remediation (IRR) plan is essential.

A proactive approach helps limit financial losses, minimize operational downtime and protect the company’s reputation when the unexpected occurs.

What is incident response and remediation?

IRR is the process of detecting, containing and resolving cybersecurity incidents.

It’s more than a technical fix – it’s a coordinated effort involving IT teams, security staff and leadership to minimize damage and restore normal operations quickly.

For mid-sized organizations, a well-designed plan provides both a roadmap for immediate action and insights into organizational vulnerabilities. This dual benefit allows companies to respond efficiently to attacks and strengthen defenses against future threats.

Understanding the need for an incident response plan 1. Limit damage and downtime When a cyberattack hits, every hour

CRISIS AVERTED Why mid-sized businesses must prioritize an incident response plan

of downtime can cost thousands in lost revenue and productivity for organizations. A clear, actionable response plan helps contain threats before they escalate and it accelerates recovery, keeping operations running and losses to a minimum.

2. Meet industry regulations Many mid-sized businesses operate in regulated industries, including healthcare, finance and manufacturing. Compliance frameworks such as HIPAA, GLBA, or industry-specific standards often require formal incident response protocols. Without proper planning, companies risk fines, penalties and legal exposure.

3. Protect customer and partner confidence Data breaches erode trust quickly.

Customers and business partners expect organizations to safeguard sensitive information. A prompt, transparent response demonstrates a commitment to security, helping mid-sized companies maintain long-term relationships and credibility.

4. Identify weaknesses and improve security Every incident provides an opportunity to learn. By analyzing the cause and impact of attacks, businesses can pinpoint vulnerabilities, update policies and strengthen defenses, reducing the likelihood of future breaches.

5. Mitigate reputational risks Cyber incidents can expose mid-sized companies to lawsuits and negative media attention. A documented response plan shows that the organization acted responsibly, which can be crucial in limiting legal and reputational fallout.

Building an effective plan for your business

Many organizations lack the internal expertise to respond quickly to attacks.

Partnering with a specialized managed security services provider (MSSP) can bridge that gap, offering both strategic guidance and hands-on support.

A comprehensive incident response and remediation program for mid-sized businesses often includes: 1. Preparation before an incident Security experts work with the organization to create a customized response plan.

This includes identifying critical assets, establishing backup strategies and pre-approving response procedures to ensure rapid, coordinated action.

2. Advanced response tools Proactive monitoring tools are installed to detect and contain threats quickly.

These tools also provide forensic data, helping teams understand attacks and improve security posture.

3. Initial threat assessment Providers conduct assessments to identify existing vulnerabilities or threats.

Organizations can address risks before they escalate, rather than react after an incident occurs.

4. Rapid incident management When an attack occurs, companies can access a dedicated security operations center for fast response. Analysts assess the threat, prioritize actions and implement a remediation plan to remove malicious activity while systems are secured.

By combining these elements, midsized businesses can reduce downtime, limit financial loss and restore operations efficiently. Beyond protecting current operations, a proactive approach also helps organizations plan for future growth while staying resilient in the face of evolving cyber threats.

Why acting now matters Mid-sized organizations occupy a critical space in the market – too large to ignore, too small to absorb a major breach easily.

Cyberattacks can be financially devastating and damaging to their reputation. A structured incident response plan empowers these organizations to respond immediately, protect operations and maintain trust with clients, partners, and employees.

Cybersecurity is not just about preventing attacks; it’s about creating organizational resilience. By preparing for incidents before they happen, mid-sized companies can respond decisively, adapt to evolving threats and operate with confidence in an increasingly digital world.

While cyberattacks are inevitable, their impact doesn’t have to be catastrophic. Mid-sized organizations that pair strong defensive technology with a clear, practiced response plan can protect operations, comply with regulations and preserve trust, even in the face of sophisticated threats.

Tim Cerny is the area vice president for Thrive in the Midwest. Thrive is a NextGen global technology outsourcing provider that develops solutions and strategies that standardize, scale and automate technology throughout the organization; thrivenextgen.com.

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

BOOK REVIEW

By Chris Wendel

Over the past few decades, the emphasis on corporate profits has forced business leaders to minimize labor costs and think of employees as a controllable line item to improve a quarterly earnings report. It’s argued in the recent book “The Case for Good Jobs” that this approach of reducing staff importance to a bare minimum has adverse impacts for both employees and organizations.

Written by MIT professor Zeynep Ton, “The Case for Good Jobs” doesn’t just challenge the diminished role of employees, but offers examples and case studies of companies that see that building a strong, loyal workforce is pivotal to long term success. Ton believes that investing in employees through higher pay, stability, and dignity is not only the right thing to do, but also a way to long term business success.

Ton’s book is relevant at a time when labor shortages, burnout, and employee disengagement have become common headlines. Drawing on her years of research and case studies, Ton introduces readers to what she calls the “Good Jobs System,” a model that replaces quick cost cutting with an investment in employees that builds loyalty and reduces turnover costs.

A big emphasis of the book is a clear contrast between two philosophies. The first is characteristic of many businesses: low wages and lack of flexibility that leads to high turnover, which causes chronic understaffing, poor service, frustrated customers, and eventually weaker financial results. This downward spiral encourages even more cost cutting, which continues the vicious cycle.

As an alternative, Ton recommends that companies not just pay employees fairly, but also offer stable schedules and invest in cross training that leads to a more committed workforce. That stability promotes better service, better productivity, and increased customer loyalty, which ultimately can improve financial performance, allowing them to make continued investment in its people.

How this good jobs investment takes place is not easy. First, leadership has to understand that the payoff for the company may not manifest itself in time for a CEO or leadership to survive. Ton is candid about the courage required from executives and owners to move away from ingrained cost-cutting habits. The fear of investor backlash and short-term pressure to profit is real.

The companies highlighted in the book demonstrate that long-term gains outweigh the perceived risks outlined in Ton’s theory. Leaders must commit to this consistently, signaling that good jobs are not a perk but a strategic priority.

Costco is discussed as a company that was both founded on paying higher wages, while providing consistent scheduling and superior benefits. For Costco’s rival Sam’s Club, the challenge to restructure

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THE CASE FOR GOOD JOBS: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay & Meaning to Everyone’s Work

By Zeynep Ton an existing company culture required both courage and foresight from its CEO. Ton emphasizes throughout her book that higher pay alone will not fix broken organizational systems. Instead, successful companies must make a series of intentional choices that allow good jobs to thrive. These include simplifying operations by reducing product complexity, standardizing processes so employees can focus on execution rather than improvisation, and cross-training workers so they can move easily between customer-facing and back of the house tasks. Just as important is building what Tons calls “slack” into the staffing model. Slack means having enough employees to meet demand without constant stress, so workers have time to serve customers well.

Throughout the book, Ton reinforces the idea that employees should be treated as assets rather than costs. When workers are trusted and empowered to solve problems, they contribute more value than traditional employment models. In short, companies that endure are those willing to look beyond quarterly results and invest in systems that support both people and performance.

It’s worth noting that Ton’s writing is both personable and enjoyable. Her conversations with the CEOs of the profiled companies add an interesting component to her work. If “The Case for Good Jobs” has an overall message, it is that companies cannot win with their customers unless they first win with employees.

Ton’s research-driven approach dispels the myth that treating workers well is incompatible with profitability. Instead, she makes a persuasive case that dignity, pay, and meaning at work are not just ethical choices, but competitive advantages.

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

For Traverse City area news and events, visit TraverseTicker.com

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TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

By Holly Gallagher, columnist As we start a new year, it’s common to set new goals, and improving one’s financial security is usually on that list.

The purpose of this article is to help you start off on the right foot by defining each position and who may best serve you.

Investment Advisor An investment advisor is someone who manages your investments. Their primary job is to build and monitor a portfolio that fits your risk tolerance, time horizon, and overall financial goals. Their focus is limited yet important.

It’s best to choose an investment advisor who has been trained in behavioral finance. Vanguard has done research they call “Advisor’s Alpha.” This research found that a behavioral coach who helps you avoid making investment decisions based on emotions can earn you a 1.5% better return over time. Investment advisors are an excellent fit for individuals who want professional oversight for their investments but have relatively straightforward financial lives. This person may have $100,000 to $1 million invested, a steady income and limited complexity around taxes or estate planning.

Financial Advisor A financial advisor takes a broader view of your financial world. They are responsible for investment management and for creating a detailed financial plan for you.

Their role is to help you plan for major milestones, such as retirement, funding children’s education and managing risk (think life, disability, long-term care, and umbrella insurance). Financial advisors help with retirement projections, insurance needs, cash-flow planning, college savings strategies, debt management and long-term goal setting. They can help you understand how different financial decisions fit together.

Financial advisors work well for families building wealth, professionals in their peak earning years, or anyone juggling mortgages, children’s education costs and retirement planning. While financial advisors can offer powerful guidance, they may not specialize deeply in advanced tax planning or estate structuring. Coordination with CPAs or attorneys is often limited, leaving you feeling like the proverbial “monkey in the middle” among your various advisors. Financial advisors are a good

Investment Manager, Financial Advisor, Wealth Manager: What do you need in 2026?

choice if you’re looking for well-rounded financial guidance without complex tax situations, business ownership issues or significant wealth transfer planning.

Wealth Manager A wealth manager provides the most comprehensive and sophisticated level of financial guidance. This role is designed for individuals and families whose financial lives require coordination across multiple domains – not just investing, but taxes, estate planning, business interests, charitable giving and long-term legacy goals.

Wealth managers help integrate all moving parts into a cohesive strategy.

They coordinate with attorneys, CPAs, insurance professionals and sometimes even family members. Their goal is to ensure everything – investments, trusts, tax structures, and long-term planning – works together efficiently. Wealth managers are ideal for high-net-worth individuals, business owners nearing a sale, executives with concentrated stock or equity compensation, families with a trust, or inheritors managing newly acquired wealth. These clients often have $1 million to $10 million-plus in assets and more complex planning needs. Wealth managers act as the quarterback of the advisory team. Instead of offering isolated advice, they build a

unified plan that integrates tax minimization, investment efficiency, retirement income, estate preservation, business strategy and generational planning.

assistance to coordinate their tax, estate planning, charitable giving, family values and cash-flow needs.

The need to move up to the next level of financial guidance often arises when your financial situation becomes more complex or your net worth increases significantly.

One of the best sources is asking people you trust and respect who they would recommend. This could be a friend or family member, a lawyer or a CPA you know. Look for someone with a team at their firm rather than a one-person shop. Today’s complex world should drive you to seek someone with at least 10 years of business experience.

You don’t want a new advisor to learn from your life savings. If you need a financial advisor or wealth advisor, they should be a CFP® professional. Additional steps you should take include visiting these sites and researching the advisor: https://brokercheck.finra.org https://letsmakeaplan.org

When to up-level The need to move up to the next level of financial guidance often arises when your financial situation becomes more complex or your net worth increases significantly. The sale of a business, a large inheritance, a liquidity event, exercising stock options and ESOP guidance are common scenarios we see. Additionally, the loss of the primary decision-maker in the family often leads the spouse and heirs to seek comprehensive ongoing

Where do I find a reputable advisor?

The up front effort is worth it as you want a solid advisor, someone who is a fiduciary and is paid a fee versus a commission.

Holly Gallagher, CFP®, Wealth Advisor, is the president of Horizon Financial, an independent firm serving northern Michigan for more than 33 years. Advisory Services offered through Commonwealth Financial Network®, a Registered Investment Adviser.

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

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TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

PASSING THE LEASH Second generation takes over at Pets Naturally

By Art Bukowski It all started, as these things often do, when Kathy Hyland couldn’t find good dog food in northern Michigan.

Hyland had a Boston Terrier named Lucy who was frequently ill. After doing some research online, she decided to try pure and natural dog foods instead of the highly processed, filler-stuffed products found on most store shelves.

It really helped Lucy, but there was one big problem: Hyland couldn’t find a local source for this type of food. She had to keep ordering it online. So Hyland, who with her husband Tim has been involved in several local businesses, decided to open her own store.

That store, Pets Naturally, grew into northern Michigan’s largest and best stocked purveyor of natural pet foods, supplements, treats, chews, toys and accessories. People travel from all over the region for its broad selection and unparalleled customer service.

It also has its own bakery – The DOG Bakery by Pets Naturally – that churns out thousands of wholesome treats for in person and online customers.

Now, 12 years after Hyland opened Pets Naturally, she sold it to her daughter, Jessica Follett. Follett is enjoying being at the

helm of a business she’s always loved after many years working remotely in marketing for major companies.

“Most recently I was working for Yelp, and I’d kind of been toying with the idea of looking for businesses to buy,” she said.

“And luckily my mom said she was think-

excited to continue that tradition while also shaping the future of our businesses.”

Hyland says she’s “confident that our loyal customers and their pets will be in the very best hands.”

“This business was built with love and a dedication to the health and happiness of

“I think that one of my main priorities is to bring it more into the present day from a digital perspective. We’re ready to get a whole new point of sale system, re-do both websites, things like that.”

- Jessica Follett, Owner, Pets Naturally ing about selling the pet store. I thought that was great because of how much I love animals and the meaning behind the store what we stand for here. It was just such a perfect fit.”

There’s also something special about taking over for family, Follett said.

“It means so much to me to carry forward what my mom built. Pets Naturally and The DOG Bakery by Pets Naturally have always been about community, compassion, and helping pets live their healthiest, happiest lives,” she says. “I’m

our community’s pets,” she said. “Seeing my daughter step into this role fills my heart with immense pride. She has the same passion, but also a fresh perspective that will undoubtedly bring new, innovative ideas to the business.”

Customers probably won’t notice much of a change, Follett said, and that’s because she doesn’t want to fix what isn’t broken. That said, there’s a few things that could benefit from extra attention in the coming months.

“I think that one of my main priorities

is to bring it more into the present day from a digital perspective. We’re ready to get a whole new point of sale system, re-do both websites, things like that,” she said.

“Things like that can actually grow the business because everything will work a lot more efficiently, but as far as the products and the people, everything will stay the same.”

The people are, after all, just as important as the products, Hyland and Follett said.

They know their stuff, and that means expert advice when you need it most.

“Everyone here is very well trained on not only the food, but the supplements.

[Our staff aren’t vets], but it’s almost like a vet-type conversation. ‘My dog has this problem. My cat has this problem.’ And then we guide you to a better food or supplement that might help them get better or live a healthier life.”

Oh, and one more thing. In a fitting twist, you’ll see Follett followed around the store by her very own Boston Terrier, also named Lucy. She wasn’t, as you might assume, named after her mom’s Boston Terrier Lucy.

“During COVID, I wasn’t really looking for a dog, but I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll get one.’ I was scrolling Facebook, and a rescue that I don’t even follow came up on my page, and they had a baby Boston that they had named Lucy. And I said, ‘Well, that’s meant to be.’”

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

JANUARY 2026

45

NEWSMAKERS

1 // SARA ANDRUS

2 // PATRICK ZIONSKOWSKI

3 // AUBREY JABOUR

4 // CHANDLER WILLIAMS

5 // JAMIE BELL

6 // KATE MEAD

7 // LIA COOK

8 // GINGER KADLEC

9 // LANCE BOEHMER

10 // LAURA NESS

11 // KEITH BUGAI

12 // STEVE RITTENBERG

>> BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES 1 - Sara Andrus recently joined Dart Bank in Traverse City as treasury management officer. Andrus brings extensive experience in client service, financial operations, and investigations to her new role expanding business banking in the region.

2 - Patrick Zionskowski has joined The Cardinal Insurance Group in Traverse City as a customer service representative. Zionskowski brings more than 15 years of customer service experience from the automotive industry to his new position.

>> NONPROFIT 5 - Jamie Bell has been named executive director of Better Together of Northern Michigan. Bell brings a passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion in helping to grow this new Traverse City nonprofit serving people living with disabilities. She previously served as director of donor engagement for the Women’s Resource Center in Traverse City.

6 - Kate Mead has joined the Better Together of Northern Michigan board of directors. Mead’s leadership is helping bring the arts and social belonging to local community members living with disabilities. Mead has more than 25 years of experience in the risk management industry.

at Motive, a national automotive technology company, and brings more than 15 years of experience in digital marketing, business development, public-private partnership development, and team leadership. He also serves on the Bay Area Transportation Authority board.

10 - Laura Ness, newly-elected member of the Traverse City City Commission, was recently appointed to the Traverse City Light & Power board. Ness has been active in a variety of organizations, including the City of Traverse City and Garfield Township Recreational Authority, Hickory Hills Advisory Committee, Botanic Garden at Historic Barns Park, and the Traverse City Area Public Schools.

>> HEALTH CARE 3 - Aubrey Jabour, doctor of physical therapy and founder of Northbound Physical Therapy in Traverse City, has been awarded the Emerging Leader Award by the American Physical Therapy Association of Michigan. The award honors individuals who demonstrate exceptional service, leadership, and commitment to advancing the physical therapy profession.

4 - Chandler Williams, nurse practitioner, has joined the Hospice and Palliative Care team at Munson Healthcare in Traverse City. Williams is board certified as an Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

7 - Lia Cook has joined the Inland Seas Education Association in Suttons Bay as volunteer coordinator. .

8 - Ginger Kadlec has joined the National Alliance on Mental Illness Grand Traverse board of directors. Kadlec brings nearly four decades of leadership and marketing experience to the position. Most recently, she served as CEO of the Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center in Traverse City.

>> OTHER 9 - Lance Boehmer, newly-elected member of the Traverse City City Commission, was recently appointed to the Traverse City Light & Power board. Boehmer is the director of enterprise sales

11- Keith Bugai has joined Springfield Roofing and Transport in Kingsley as fleet manager and transport specialist.

12 - Steve Rittenberg has joined Traverse Body & Paint in Traverse City as general manager.

Rittenberg brings more than 30 years of industry expertise to his new role, including experience in body work, paint, estimating, collision repair and shop leadership. Most recently, he was part of the Sonny’s Body Shop team in Traverse City.

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

46 JANUARY 2026

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

EXPOSURES

Traverse Connect ambassadors joined Harbor Springs Mattress Co. staff for a ribbon cutting to mark the opening of the new Harbor Springs Mattress Co. at 415 South Union St. in downtown Traverse City. The family-led business also has showrooms in Harbor Springs, Birmingham and Naples, Fla. Crystal Mountain Director of Communications Brittney Primeau spoke at the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association’s annual Women in Hospitality Leadership Conference in Grand Rapids. The discussion was moderated by Pure Michigan VP Kelly Wolgamott. Other speakers included Steph Castelein, Mackinac Island Tourism; Kate Lieto, Experience Grand Rapids; and Sammie Lukaskiewicz, Manistee County Tourism.

The Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation recently awarded $378,098 in grants to 75 organizations across Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Leelanau counties and the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Pictured is grant recipient 22-2-NONE, a nonprofit led by a board of veterans to help raise awareness and provide support in hopes to combat veteran suicide. The $5,000 grant will be used for transitional housing for veteran families.

Brian Simerson, social services technician for Thomas Judd Care Center, and Megan Brown, Munson Healthcare’s chief marketing and communications officer, were at the center’s grand opening inside the Foster Family Community Health Center in Traverse City. The Thomas Judd Care Center provides care to people in northern Michigan living with HIV/AIDS and to those at risk of contracting the disease.

Participants were honored with a traditional blanket ceremony at IndigiPitch, an all-new event hosted by 20Fathoms that gathered together Native American entrepreneurs and supporters from around Michigan. The $7,000 first place award went to Nokomis Everstory, which “bridges sacred storytelling tradition with modern technology to preserve voices in living form.”

Photo courtesy Michigan Economic Development Corp.

Please send Exposures by the 10th of the month to news@tcbusinessnews.com (labeled Exposures).

TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

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JANUARY 2026

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TRAVERSE CITY BUSINESS NEWS

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