We're sorry, but our site is built to take advantage of the latest web technologies that Internet Explorer 8 and below simply can't offer. Please take this opportunity to upgrade to a modern browser, like Google Chrome or Internet Explorer 11.
Posted By: Macomb Daily on March 15, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
An automotive supplier with deep local roots is expanding operations at its locations in Warren, Shelby Township and Pontiac, while a California company that makes alternative fuel storage systems is opening a plant in Wixom, according to state officials.
The projects by Paslin Co. in Warren and Quantum Fuel Systems LLC near Los Angeles will create 187 jobs and generate nearly $35 million in capital investment, with support from the Michigan Strategic Fund, according to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
She said in a press release the projects will not only create jobs but “build on our leadership in advanced manufacturing.”
“I am grateful to The Paslin Company and Quantum Fuel Systems for betting on Michigan,” Whitmer said. “Together, we are bringing the supply chain, creating good-paying local jobs for Michiganders, and driving $35 million of investment into our communities.”
Paslin, which manufactures assembly and automation systems primarily for automotive customers, is expanding in Pontiac, Shelby Township and Warren due to having more work, officials said. The company is leasing more space at its Pontiac site and will add a total of 75 jobs there and at its Shelby Township location. It will also make building and equipment upgrades to one of its Warren facilities, where 25 jobs will be added, company officials said.
Paslin’s $12.3-million expansion will receive support from a $1 million Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant.
The company chose Michigan for the project over competing sites in Mexico and the southern United States because of the ease of collaboration with its customer base and the partnership with the state, officials said.
“Paslin is excited to continue its partnership with the state of Michigan as we continue to expand,” said Paslin CEO Joe Perkins. “We remain committed to the state as we further strive for additional growth opportunities. We value and appreciate the partnership with the state.”
State Sen. Paul Wojno, a Warren Democrat, called Paslin “another Michigan success story, building on our automotive manufacturing heritage and expertise and continuing to grow and create jobs here at home while doing business around the globe.”
Shelby Township and the cities of Pontiac and Warren have offered to help Paslin find employees with job fairs and hiring initiatives. The company plans to work with Michigan Works! for local talent.
Pasin was founded in 1937 in Warren. In 2016, it was acquired by China-based Zhejiang Wanfeng Technology Development Co. It has three locations in Warren, and one location each in Pontiac, Shelby Township, Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, and Changchun, China.
Meanwhile, Quantum Fuel Systems, which serves OEMs in the automotive and mobility industries, is locating a manufacturing facility in Wixom, where it will produce lightweight compressed natural gas storage tanks, officials said. It provides low emission and fast-to-market solutions to support the integration and production of natural gas fuel and storage systems.
Officials said the company is growing, and the new site will allow it to increase production to gain more business with mobility and automotive companies.
“Quantum Fuel Systems is enthusiastic to work with the MEDC and other government authorities to further the commercialization of clean energy transportation,” said Quantum CEO Dean Varley. “Being located in Wixom, we will have close proximity to many of our global automotive customers.”
The $22.5-million project, which will create 87 jobs, will benefit from a $870,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant.
The company, located in in Lake Forest, Calif., chose Michigan for the project over a competing site in Tennessee due to the strong automotive and mobility presence here, officials said.
The company says it trains and develops its employees, and supports cross training and personal growth. It also plans to utilize Michigan Works! to attract workers.
City of Wixon administration officials have recommended to their city council to award a tax break.
“We are thrilled to welcome Quantum Fuels Systems to Wixom, and appreciate their commitment to our community,” said Drew Benson, assistant city manager and director of economic development. “Wixom has a long history as a home to innovative companies in the mobility space, and we look forward to supporting Quantum Fuel Systems and their unique technology solutions in the future.”
Posted By: REjournals on March 27, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
More commercial real estate transactions coming in the next six months? That’s what Altus Group is predicting. And that’s good news for CRE professionals.
Altus Group Limited on March 26 released its first quarter 2024 CRE Industry Conditions & Sentimement Survey, one that includes feedback from nearly 470 CRE professionals representing more than 120 firms in the United States and Canada. Altus collected the opinions of these commercial real estate leaders from January 23 through February 9 of this year.
And the results? They should bring a smile to the face of commercial real estate pros who have been waiting for commercial sales to finally pick up again.
According to Altus’ report, a whopping 80% of survey respondents said that they expect their near-term transaction activity to pick up over the next six months. These respondents indicated that they are ready to sell, buy or both.
Of course, respondents aren’t viewing all commercial properties equally. Survey respondents said that they were most interested in buying or selling industrial and multifamily properties. Respondents said that they expected office assets to be the worst performers during the next 12 months.
Also interesting? U.S. respondents ranked retail assets as being more favorable today than both multifamily and self-storage properties.
“The survey findings underscore the intricate relationship between the commercial real estate asset class and the macroeconomy and capital markets, which Altus’ portfolio analytics increasingly validate are impactful drivers of asset performance,” said Omar Eltorai, director of research at Altus Group.
“With recession concerns moderating and notable improvements in capital expectations, the first quarter of 2024 survey results show signs that the CRE industry at large has a robust transaction appetite and is anticipating a stabilizing environment ahead.”
Posted By: CoStar on March 24, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Office tenants across the country have been shedding large amounts of real estate for the past several years, but some building features can not only convince tenants to keep leasing the space, but get them to pay a premium for it.
Roof terraces, sky lounges and outdoor courtyards with plenty of seating options, as well as fully outfitted fitness centers, are sparking more deals and driving rent growth, according to a report from real estate firm JLL. Properties with these types of features have collectively leased about 23.5 million more square feet than was vacated since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020. Meanwhile, other urban, top-tier properties have lost upward of 50 million square feet.
Most of the strongest rent premiums are associated with some form of outdoor space, according to JLL, and properties that include them generated the largest increases in rental rates compared to other higher-end buildings that tout a different package of amenities. Buildings with a gym, for example, showed only a 0.5% rent premium compared to other similar properties, while those with a fitness center stocked with features such as locker rooms, showers and other convenient perks generated a premium more than five times larger.
To be clear, upgrading a building to include one or more popular attributes probably won’t be enough to boost occupancy levels or drive meaningful rent growth, according to CoStar analysis. Other factors such as location, proximity to public transportation or a building’s age also come into play, and what’s more, the pool of tenants looking to shed space is still larger than the one looking to expand.
That has pushed the national office vacancy rate to a record high of nearly 14%, CoStar data shows, and new leasing activity has fallen to about 15% below the levels reported in 2019.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on March 18, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Swiss-based ABB Robotics has opened a $20-million expansion of its U.S. robotics headquarters and manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills, which is part of a plan to further develop and manufacture robotic solutions in the U.S.
The work done in Auburn Hills is part of approximately $170 million ABB is investing in its electrification and automation businesses across the U.S. The refitted facility includes a new training center to be used to educate more than 3,000 workers and students each year.
The expansion is expected to create 72 new jobs in the area and is supported by a $450,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant.
“The opening of our refitted state-of-the-art U.S. robotics headquarters in Auburn Hills is a significant part of our global growth story, reaffirming our commitment to industry leadership in the U.S.,” says Sami Atiya, president of the robotics and discrete automation business area for ABB.
“Robotics and AI are essential tools for companies in addressing critical labor shortages, localized supply chains, and the need to operate more sustainably. The advances in AI-driven software and hardware make our robots more accessible to a wider range of businesses, enabling them to increase resilience and become more competitive.”
With a 30 percent increase in facility space, the new Auburn Hills facility was designed to enhance ABB’s ability to serve its growing customer base. Through the new customer experience center, ABB can showcase its hardware and software solutions and the latest digital and AI-powered automation technologies with customers.
The site will support ABB Robotics’ specialist centers, including its packaging and logistics hub in Atlanta, its life sciences and health care hub at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, and its AI research lab in San Jose, Calif.
“Through our expanded facility, partner ecosystem, and comprehensive AI-enabled product portfolio, we are pushing the boundaries of technology to drive performance to new levels,” says John Bubnikovich, president of the U.S. robotics division at ABB. “We look forward to increasing support for our customers, to expanding our role as an employer, and to energizing the transformation of society and industry to achieve a more productive, sustainable future.”
In addition to capitalizing on the concentration of technical skills in the community, ABB will provide upskilling and career opportunities to train workers with no prior experience or degree with the skills needed to start a career in the robotics and automation industry.
ABB Robotics has invested $30 million in the U.S. since 2019 across four locations, opening its original Auburn Hills manufacturing facility in 2015.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on March 18, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Applied Intuition Inc., a vehicle software supplier for automotive, trucking, construction, mining, agriculture, and other industries with offices in Royal Oak, has raised a $250 million Series E financing round, giving the company an estimated value of $6 billion.
“Applied Intuition benefits from generational megatrends including generative AI, autonomous systems, and software-defined vehicles,” says Bilal Zuberi, general partner at Lux Capital in New York City.
“It is no wonder the company has built a scalable business and become an indispensable partner to top automotive OEMs and the U.S. military. Applied Intuition is at the forefront of the AI revolution to transform the global transportation industry, and we are excited by its growth and distinctive position in the market.”
The company will use the financing to make investments in generative AI technology. With recent advancements in large language models (LLMs), Applied Intuition can develop ways to help its customers improve the vehicle software development process.
The investments will also help the company recruit software and AI engineers to further expand its offerings. The goal is to enable its customers to have the world’s most advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving (AD) solutions.
The round was led by Bilal Zuberi at Lux Capital, Elad Gil, and strategic investor Porsche Investments Management S.A. representing the sports car manufacturer from Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen.
Other Applied Intuition investors include Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalys, Mary Meeker at BOND, Human Capital, Henry Kravis, Mustafa Suleyman, Ray Dalio, John Quinn, and Nico Rosberg.
According to Applied Intuition, it has maintained sustainable triple-digit percentage growth year-over-year, profitably. Besides its headquarters in Silicon Valley and offices in Royal Oak, the company now has offices in Washington, D.C., Germany, Korea, and Japan to serve its customers worldwide, including 18 of the top 20 automotive OEMs.
Posted By: mlive on March 28, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A Kraft Heinz plant in Holland that makes mustard, barbecue sauce, pickles, relishes and vinegars is expected to get $13 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to cut the plant’s greenhouse emissions.
The award, announced this week, is part of a larger package of $6 billion in grant funding for 33 projects in more than 20 states that are designed to cut carbon emissions in energy-intensive industries.
Kraft Heinze is slated to get $170 million for projects at 10 of its U.S. plants. Of that, $13 million is slated to go to the company’s Holland plant, 431 W. 16th St., a company spokesperson said.
“At Kraft Heinz, we’re on a journey to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” Marcos Eloi Lima, chief procurement and sustainability officer at Kraft Heinz, said in a news release. “This investment will give us critical resources to make necessary improvements in our plants to help increase their energy efficiency and reduce emissions. This investment recognizes our continued efforts to reduce our environmental footprint, and we’re eager to get started.”
The Holland Heinz plant opened in 1897, and has been called the community’s longest continuously operating employer.
Projects planned by Kraft Heinz include the implementation of heat pumps, electric boilers, anaerobic digestors, electric heaters, biogas boilers, solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, and thermal energy storage, the company said.
In 2016, Kraft Heinz announced it was making a $17 million expansion at the factory to begin producing the company’s Grey Poupon French-style mustard. The expansion included additional production lines and an upgraded onsite wastewater treatment facility. At the time, Kraft Heinz employed 300 full-time workers and about 100 seasonal workers at the plant.
The company opened its Holland plant in 1897 after a group of West Michigan cucumber growers passed the hat and raised about $800 for 2 acres, rail access and a dock on Lake Macatawa.
Posted By: mlive on March 27, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Core Plaza is reimagining an historic building in downtown Muskegon that was once the city’s premiere bank.
Located at 221 W. Webster Ave., the old bank National Lumberman’s Bank building is now being converted into a multi-use complex that plans to include a restaurant collective, retail boutiques, private business tenants and a variety of co-working spaces.
The building was originally constructed for $2 million in 1962 and opened with fanfare – giving away a car, radio and television. It later became the state’s first rooftop heliport in 1965.
Flipping the old bank building, which hadn’t been occupied in a decade, gives space to new entrepreneurs and a new direction for the city, Troy Wasserman, co-partner at Core Realty Partners, told MLive on Monday, March 11.
Wasserman’s family owns Muskegon’s oldest business, the 144-year-old Wasserman Flowers and Gifts.
“I get to work in the oldest business from Muskegon and I get to work with a lot of the people that are doing the newest businesses in Muskegon,” Wasserman told MLive.
The food hall plans to open this summer.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on March 14, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Toledo must mount a marketing campaign to stress its affordability and availability of jobs to build up its work force, a Huntington Bank executive said during an economic outlook meeting Thursday morning.
While labor pools in Ohio’s three biggest cities have rebounded, those in Toledo and other mid-sized cities remain below where they were before the coronavirus pandemic, and that’s making it hard for local employers to fill vacancies even though wages have risen and the cost of living is low, John Augustine, the bank’s chief investment officer, told the gathering of several dozen people in a downtown Hilton Garden Inn ballroom.
“This is the issue: getting the kids to stay, and getting people to move in,” he said. “We have a high-quality life and low-cost living. We need to tell people about that, because we need people…. We have to let people know how good it is in Toledo and northwest Ohio.”
While competition for workers is “healthy for consumers,” it’s unhealthy for employers and also constrains the supply of customers for businesses that sell goods and services locally, Mr. Augustine said.
Jeff Schaaf, the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce’s director of talent strategy, said separately Thursday that targeted recruiting “is the core of what we’re doing with our talent attraction work.”
The chamber’s Toledo Region Talent Connection Portal is designed to identify people who have interacted with any of several social-media platforms who might be interested in moving to the Toledo area and provide them information at regular intervals about opportunities in their career fields as well as about recreational interests they may have.
“They might not be ready to move to Toledo tomorrow,” Mr. Schaaf said, but keeping them up on what’s available here will inform their decision-making when the right time arrives.
And for new arrivals, he added, the chamber then matches them with peers in the community who can assist them in adapting their lives by guiding them toward events and services they may need or be interested in.
Comparable cities have used similar efforts to attract up to 500 people, Mr. Schaaf said, so a reasonable starting goal for Toledo’s effort is 200 to 300.
Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati also are helping themselves by building the service sectors of their economies, while Toledo remains mostly manufacturing, Mr. Augustine said. Diversifying Toledo into services and making it easy to set businesses up here is vital, the 30-year investment veteran said.
Development related to Intel’s Columbus headquarters and several warehousing operations associated with Cincinnati’s airport also are helping those metro areas advance.
“Keep your headquarters here,” Mr. Augustine said. “Headquarters, right or wrong, bring a lot of wealth into the community.”
Overall, Mr. Augustine said, election years are good for the domestic stock markets, and 2024 is starting out no differently in that regard with American indexes at record highs. The one global stock market currently struggling is in China, which is “still struggling getting out of the pandemic, economically.”
While economic forecasters both at the Federal Reserve and in the private sector expected a recession during 2023, that didn’t happen, he said, and now it appears that gross domestic product growth this year will also be higher than the Fed expected a few months ago.
“It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with next week when they update their projections,” Mr. Augustine said.
On the flip side, he said, that means interest rates may not come down as much as previously expected, and while that’s good for bond investors, it’s unfavorable for borrowers — including people who carry credit card debt.
“Consumer spending, that’s what we’re watching — it’s two-thirds of our economy,” the analyst said. “What will consumers do this spring? Higher interest rates are a big headache for credit borrowers and the housing market.”
The two product areas that mean the most to consumers are groceries and gasoline, Mr. Augustine said.
Commodity prices for corn, soy, and wheat have come down, chicken is starting to drop, and beef and hogs are holding their prices, he said in a follow-up interview. And while oil prices have pushed higher of late, Mr. Augustine said the futures market does not believe they will go high enough to push gasoline above a key $4 per gallon threshold unless geopolitical tensions arise that are worse than the current wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Low unemployment and a cooling inflation rate mean that the “misery index” — a measure of how ordinary people are affected by the economy that balances employment and consumer prices — is currently low.
Mr. Augustine said that since the term was coined during the 1970s, a low “misery index” in a presidential election year has been good for incumbents. All of the sitting presidents whose re-election bids failed during that half-century, he said, were up against high “misery index” data: Gerald Ford in 1976, Jimmy Carter in 1980, George W. Bush in 1992, and Donald Trump four years ago.
But he predicted government debt will be a campaign issue, as for the first time in 16 years, interest rates are high enough to significantly increase the cost of debt. The current annual interest on the United States’ debt, $950 billion, exceeds the entire Department of Defense budget.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on March 21, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Ford Motor Co. is nearing completion of a giant parts packaging and distribution center in Monroe Township, a part of the business that became notable during last year’s United Auto Workers strike against the Detroit Three.
Ford’s newest parts distribution center is located at 14741 LaPlaisance Road, just west of I-75 and in the middle of the township’s bevy of recreational marijuana dispensaries at the intersection. It is called the Monroe Packaging Center.
Township Trustee John Manor said the 1.1 million-square-foot monolith is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Ford has pledged to employ 600 at the facility when it is fully operational.
“It’s an outstanding anchor for the LaPlaisance corridor,” Mr. Manor said.
Ford needs to make some minor plumbing adjustments at an eye-washing safety station to get a temporary certificate of occupancy to open, said Kim Fortner, Monroe Township community development director and zoning enforcement officer.
She said Ford is planning to lease the facility from a limited liability company that developed it. The cost of the project, she said, totals about $64 million in permits pulled so far, including $38 million for the exterior construction and $22 million for the interior buildout, pump station and utility room.
She said it is, by far, the largest structure ever built in the township.
Ford will use the facility to package parts trucked from the factory, then store them and deliver them to 25 nationwide parts depots it operates for distribution to franchise dealers, Ford spokesman Lars Weborg said in a statement Wednesday. Dealers use the parts for customer repairs and maintenance.
The center also will ship directly to dealers for critical repairs, he said.
“The Monroe Packaging Center will enable us to provide Ford and Motorcraft parts to customers and dealers more quickly, as our most efficient and technologically advanced U.S. packaging facility,” Mr. Weborg said. “We are happy to create hundreds of new local jobs and look forward to contributing to the Monroe Township community.”
He said the packaging facility will open for some process and machinery testing next week.
The importance of auto parts depots fell in the spotlight last fall during the contract talks between the Detroit Three and UAW.
As part of a rolling strike strategy, UAW President Shawn Fain struck the parts depots of General Motors and Stellantis NV during the second week of a strike against the Detroit Three, ratcheting up pressure on the carmakers to settle. Ford was spared a shutdown of its depots because Mr. Fain said it was making progress in its talks with the union.
The strike of the GM and Stellantis depots, however, quickly caused parts shortages at their dealers and inconvenienced customers wanting or needing original-equipment parts for their repairs. GM brands include Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac and Buick, while Stellantis U.S. brands are Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram.
Harley Shaiken, professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley and a former GM autoworker, said the strategic use of the parts depots by the UAW during the strike gave greater consumer appreciation for them.
“The strike raised their visibility in the public eye,” Mr. Shaiken said. “Up until then, they had been invisible.”
Adding to their profile, President Biden selected GM’s Willow Run parts distribution warehouse in Van Buren Township for his historic visit to a UAW picket line on the 12th day of the strike.
The UAW settled its strike with the Detroit Three in November, winning record wage gains and a restoration of a long-lost cost-of-living inflation adjustment, among other gains.
Mr. Manor, the township trustee, said the new Ford parts warehouse will change the complexion of the intersection. It adds industry and blue-collar jobs to an area that now hosts more than a half dozen marijuana dispensaries serving consumers from Michigan, Ohio and points beyond.
He said it defuses criticism from many residents that the dispensaries, while lavishly restoring empty storefronts in the area, portray a checkered image of the township.
“There has been criticism that we have too many eggs in one basket,” he said of the dispensaries.
Mr. Manor said the Ford packaging warehouse has fast access to the freeway for the trucks that will soon be going in and out.
And the prospective opening next year of the new Gordie Howe International Bridge over the Detroit River to Canada makes the location even more convenient not only for the Ford depot but several large tracts of empty land in the township that could house warehousing and logistics operations, he said.
LaPlaisance has been fitted with roundabouts and a traffic light at the entrance of the center, Mr. Manor said.
Truck traffic will be considerable on the road given that the distribution center has about 100 doors, he said.
The advent of several marijuana dispensaries had already raised patron traffic in the area, though Mr. Manor said the stores have not been disruptive either from a crime or traffic standpoint.
The Monroe Packaging Center is located on about 142 acres that once was home to the Harbor Dunes Golf Club. Much of the work force when it becomes operational will be represented by the UAW.
“The location was selected because of its proximity to I-75 and other Southeast Michigan distribution centers,” Mr. Weborg said.
Our boss, Steve, has officially been named one of the Best Bosses on the 2024 CRE’s Best Bosses list! We’ve always known he’s the cream of the crop, and this award helps confirm it. Steve’s dynamic leadership and genuine care for his team shine through every day. A huge thank you to GlobeSt.com for recognizing Steve’s remarkable leadership with this prestigious award! Read below for Steve’s profile featured on the list.
Steve Gordon is founder and president of Signature Associates, a full-service CRE team in operation since 1989 that provides project and property management, tenant/purchaser representation, investment sales and corporate services for a wide variety of segments. Described as bold, dynamic and professional, he is a top broker in the Midwest who leads a company that values team members above all else. Under his leadership, Signature Associates has built a friendly, cooperative, and professional atmosphere, hosting team-building events throughout the year to further the team’s education and strength its connections. Signature offers a Summer Friday schedule, flexible daily hours to accommodate personal/family time and generous vacation and holiday time off. Signature’s office includes amenities like a stocked café and private workout and wellness rooms that contribute to employee wellbeing. A colleague highlighted Gordon’s ability to create an environment that fosters loyal, long-term employees. “He is a hard-driving aggressive entrepreneur and broker and at the same time caring and loyal to his team,” the colleague says. “Steve continually thinks of his team members and their wellbeing. Whether it’s organized company events or closing the office early for holidays, to advances, loans and other accommodations for team members in need, Steve is always there for his team. He engenders loyalty from his team and he’s easy to ‘get behind’ in his endeavors.” The company’s CFO says Gordon makes employee wellbeing a priority, pointing to his decision to absorb health care premium increases following the pandemic. A marketing associate who has been with the company for two decades says Gordon is tuned into what is going on in the office and with employees. “Having a leader who is deeply invested in the company culture, celebrates victories, and provides unwavering support during challenging times significantly impacts the overall work environment and employee morale.”
To read more about Steve and all the other award recipients, click here: https://bit.ly/48RgvVF
Posted By: Detroit Free Press on March 11, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Franchise operators of Caribou Coffee brands opened a second, stand-alone, cabin-style location in metro Detroit.
A Caribou Coffee cabin is now open at 16006 Southfield Rd. in Allen Park. On a busy stretch of Southfield between Allen Road and Insterstate-94, the 600-square-foot building features the company’s blue and brown signature colors and has a drive-thru and pick-up window.
This is the second new location for the Caribou Coffee brand, which largely left Michigan a decade ago. The group previously opened a Caribou Coffee opened in late December at 22134 Woodward Ave. in Ferndale.
About five years ago, the brand resurfaced inside Einstein Bros. Bagels locations.
Caribou Coffee is a brand under Panera Brands company, which includes Panera Bread and Einstein Bros. Manna Development Group, a Panera Breads franchisee operating 165 of the bakery-cafes in 10 states, is the group behind bringing Caribou Coffee back to metro Detroit.
Like the Ferndale location, Caribou Coffee in Allen Park offers its signature line of a variety of coffee and other beverages, all made with real ingredients, the company said, like real chocolate chips and caramel sauce. Also on the menu are teas and a line of “BOUsted” beverages made with caffeine from coffee, plus guarana and ginseng. Caribou Coffee’s food menu includes breakfast sandwiches, baked goods and snacks.
Next Monday at 10 a.m., an Allen Park location ribbon-cutting grand opening takes place. During the grand opening, the first 100 guests receive a free Caribou Coffee mug. There’s also a free coffee for a year giveaway tied to the grand opening. You can enter by becoming a Caribou Perks member and making a purchase March 18 through March 24. The winner receives one free beverage per week loaded onto their Caribou Perks account.
The Allen Park location had a ribbon-cutting grand opening Monday morning. The first 100 guests received a free Caribou Coffee mug. In addition, a coffee giveaway is tied to the grand opening. You can enter by becoming a Caribou Perks member and making a purchase Monday through March 24. The winner receives one free beverage per week loaded onto their Caribou Perks account. For details of the giveaway, visit cariboucoffee.com where you can also sign up for its loyalty program.
Founded in 1992, Caribou Coffee is known for its handcrafted coffee beverages including signature mochas, espresso, Caribou coolers, teas and specialty coffees. For its coffees, Caribou Coffee is committed to sustainable practices, serving 100% Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee beans, according to a news release. Globally there are more than 800 Caribou Coffee locations that are a mix of company-owned, non-traditional and franchise locations. Caribou Coffee also sells its coffee in bags and K-cup-style at grocery and retail stores.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on March 1, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The Macomb Group in Sterling Heights has announced an expansion in Tennessee with a 68,500-square-foot building located at 113 Water Tower Trail in La Vergne, a southeastern suburb of Nashville.
Founded in 1977, the Macomb Group is a leading wholesale distributor of pipe, valves, and fittings. By the end of 2024, the company plans to have a total of 26 branches located throughout Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.
The Macomb Group serves a diverse mix of end markets, including automotive, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, general manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturing, hospitals, schools, power plants, and general industry.
In the last nine months, The Macomb Group has established four new branches totaling 300,000 square feet as it continues to expand to meet the needs of its customers. New branches include Columbus, Ohio; Raleigh, N.C.; Indianapolis; and the recent addition of Nashville.
The latest regional branch near Nashville is in a new industrial park strategically located off I-24 that is expected to open in March and will be the 25th location.
The new operation is situated 70 miles southeast of The Macomb Group’s Clarksville branch. The combined resources of the new branch, led by Regional Sales Manager Derek Robinson and the existing location in Clarksville, led by Branch Manager Greg Shrum, will provide a major enhancement to the region.
Robinson, who has 21 years of PVF experience, says he’s excited to grow the business and expand on Macomb’s “Built To Say Yes” philosophy in the region.
“Macomb has a great reputation for service and we plan on bringing more of the same to Nashville and Middle Tennessee. We’re working on building a team with vast experience and knowledge as well as cultivating new business opportunities,” Robinson says. Bondy Insulation, a Macomb Group company, also has a location in Clarksville and Robinson says he hopes to leverage them as a service for the Nashville market.
The branch will house an inside, outside sales team aided by a will-call customer sales counter and a warehouse that will stock pipe, valves, and fittings. Chief Sales Officer Chuck Raymond said, “Our expansion into Nashville has been a long time coming. The facility will provide our area customers with greater access to Macomb’s wide ranging inventory offering and service resources.”
Posted By: DBUSINESS on March 6, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Schoolcraft College in Livonia and Nino Salvaggio International Marketplace, which owns and operates four gourmet markets in metro Detroit, are in talks to potentially add a new retail market with educational capacities on Schoolcraft’s main campus in Livonia.
A non-binding memorandum of understanding has been signed between the two organizations to possibly bring a new facility that could span 50,000 square feet of space to the north end of the campus, located at 18600 Haggerty Road, on land currently occupied by a large parking lot.
“This agreement is the first step to an exciting development here on campus,” says Glenn Cerny, president of Schoolcraft College. “Bringing Nino Salvaggio International Marketplace to campus would not only benefit our students with brand-new educational opportunities, but add another exciting business to the bustling Haggerty Road corridor (between Six Mile and Seven Mile roads).”
Founded by the late Nino Salvaggio in 1979, the company would expand its footprint to the tri-county area with the opening of the Livonia store. Today, Nino Salvaggio operates stores in Bloomfield Township, Clinton Township, St. Clair Shores, and Troy.
“On behalf of the entire Nino Salvaggio family, we are excited to work with Schoolcraft College to debut a vibrant new grocery store on the Livonia campus with a state-of-the-art educational facility for students,” says Leo Salvaggio.
Plans are in the works for student learning opportunities in culinary arts, supply chain management, as well as business, accounting, and human resources.
Schoolcraft College’s Culinary, Brewing, and Hospitality Program offers classes in brewing and distillation technology, culinary and dietary operations management, culinary baking and pastry arts, and professional culinary arts. Students also can take courses in baking, culinary arts, culinary management, and nutrition and food science.
The school’s culinary arts programs have a national reputation for quality, creativity, and culinary excellence. The institution produce chefs who distinguish themselves at some of America’s and Europe’s most-recognized restaurants.
More details on the project will be released at a later date.
Schoolcraft College is a public community college, offering traditional classes as well as distance learning opportunities. The college enrolls more than 30,000 students each year in both credit programs and personal and professional development courses.
The college has more than 130 programs leading to a skills certificate, certificate, associate degree, or post-associate certificate, plus a Bachelor of Science degree in Culinary and Dietary Operations Management. Students can take advantage of other bachelor’s programs offered by several university partners onsite or transfer credits to other four-year institutions, saving time and money in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree.
Posted By: Detroit News on March 13, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Dollar Tree swung to a surprise fourth-quarter loss and will close nearly 1,000 stores after the discount retailer slashed the value of a rival chain it acquired almost a decade ago.
Dollar Tree plans to close about 600 Family Dollar stores in the first half of this year and 370 Family Dollar and 30 Dollar Tree stores over the next several years.
Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar for more than $8 billion in 2015 after a bidding war with rival Dollar General, but it has had difficulty absorbing the chain.
On Wednesday, Dollar Tree said that it would record a $950 million impairment against the trade name Family Dollar, on top of a $1.07 billion goodwill charge. Family Dollar will spend more than $594 million closing or rebranding stores, essentially erasing profits from the holiday season.
“This dramatic cull is the coup de grâce in the rather botched acquisition of the Family Dollar chain, which has caused Dollar Tree nothing but hassle since it was completed back in 2015,” wrote Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData. “Basically, almost ten years on, Dollar Tree is still sifting through the mess it inherited and has not been able to completely turn around,” Saunders said.
Saunders said in an emailed statement that nearly 12% of current Family Dollar stores will be closing over the next three years.
Shares of Dollar Tree tumbled 14% at the opening bell Wednesday.
For the three months ended Feb. 3, Dollar Tree lost $1.71 billion, or $7.85 per share. A year earlier the Chesapeake, Virginia, company earned $452.2 million, or $2.04 per share.
Stripping out certain items, earnings were $2.55 per share, which is still short of the per-share earnings of $2.67 expected on Wall Street, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.
Revenue climbed to $8.64 billion from $7.72 billion, a bit below Wall Street’s estimate of $8.67 billion.
Dollar Tree has been attracting consumers that have been stung by inflation as they seek to cut spending. During the quarter, sales at Dollar Tree stores open at least a year climbed 6.3%, with traffic up 7.1%. While more shoppers were heading to stores, they were closely watching how much they spent, with average ticket down 0.7%.
At Family Dollar, sales at stores open at least a year slipped 1.2%. Traffic edged up 0.7%, but average ticket fell 2%.
For fiscal 2024, Dollar Tree anticipates earnings between $6.70 and $7.30 per share. Revenue is expected in a range of $31 billion to $32 billion.
Analysts polled by FactSet expect full-year earnings of $7.04 on revenue of $31.68 billion.
Dollar Tree expects first-quarter earnings of $1.33 to $1.48 per share on revenue in a range of $7.6 billion to $7.9 billion.
Wall Street anticipates first-quarter earnings of $1.70 on revenue of $7.68 billion.
Posted By: WOODTV on March 7, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A West Michigan-based truck part company is expanding with a facility in the Wyoming area, Crain’s Grand Rapids Business reports.
Weller Truck Parts has renovated the 131,000-square-foot building at 1250 60th Street near Burlingame Avenue in Byron Township to include remanufacturing space for electric vehicle components, according to News 8 partner Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.
Weller Truck Parts President and COO Terry Stranz told Crain’s that electric vehicles will be a large part of the company’s future growth.
“As we expand into newer products, both on the electronic side and non-electronic products in the EVs that are coming, we know that’s going to take an expansion of people,” Stranz told Crain’s.
The facility is expected to add 130 new jobs over the next three to five years, Crain’s reports.
The company was first started in Muskegon in 1928, before moving to Grand Rapids in 1949. It has now grown to include more than 30 locations throughout the country, according to its website.
Posted By: WOODTV on February 29, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Businesses in Kentwood, Holland and Plainwell are set to expand, creating dozens of jobs.
In total, the three projects are expected to invest $49.5 million in West Michigan communities and create 82 new jobs, the Michigan Executive Office of the Governor announced Thursday in a release.
Kentwood’s SnackCraft LLC is planning a 186,000-square foot expansion, investing $29.9 million and creating 37 new jobs. The project is supported by a $400,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant, according to the release.
In Holland, Uniform Color Company is set to expand its headquarters. The governor’s office says the project, supported by a $195,000 Micro Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant, is expected to create 13 jobs and generate a total capital investment of $12 million.
Finally, Kalamazoo-based Profielnorm USA, LLC — a subsidiary of a Dutch flooring company — intends to build its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Plainwell, creating up to 32 jobs and investing up to $7.5 million in the community. The work is supported by a $320,000 Micro Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant, according to the governor’s office.
“Today’s investments will create 82 good-paying jobs and invest nearly $50 million into communities in West Michigan, building on our economic momentum,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. “I applaud these companies for their decision to invest here in Michigan.”
Posted By: Toledo Blade on March 9, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A Swiss company that has purchased NSS Enterprises Inc., a century-old cleaning equipment maker in Toledo, is bringing work here from overseas and doing its part to reverse the decades-long general trend of work being outsourced away from Toledo.
Munchwilen, Switzerland-based TASKI has made the NSS manufacturing complex at 3115 Frenchmens Road its new North American headquarters, said Mark Palumbo, 53, executive director of TASKI North America.
TASKI, which is a global cleaning machine maker several times larger than NSS, felt it important to have a major manufacturing presence in North America to support customers here, he said.
In the year since TASKI bought NSS from owner Mark Bevington of Ottawa Hills, engineering between Toledo and Switzerland have been combined and TASKI cleaning machines have begun to be manufactured at the Toledo factory, Mr. Palumbo said.
Moreover, he said the workforce in Toledo that now stands at about 55 is expected to be expanded to more than 100 in the near future. The company is currently hiring customer service representatives.
“TASKI has been growing in the North American market and we wanted to have a North American footprint in the United States or Canada but we chose the United States,” Mr. Palumbo said after a factory tour last week.
“As a rapidly expanding business, we wanted to expand both our capabilities and portfolio (of products) in North America. So, we acquired NSS to have manufacturing, engineering, sales, cross-selling of products as well as being able to make and distribute TASKI products across North America.”
Terms of the NSS acquisition and the sales of the now-combined company are not being disclosed, he said.
TASKI cleaning machines are easy to identify being pushed or guided in a hospital or school by their orange water tanks and black frames. NSS machines are black.
Over the years they have tended to serve complementary customer bases, Mr. Palumbo said. TASKI is big at selling directly to institutions that need heavy cleaning such as hospitals, schools and office buildings, while NSS sells largely through distributors and to contract cleaning companies.
Mr. Palumbo said he sees opportunities for cross-selling machines to each of the customer bases.
Mark Bevington was the third-generation owner of NSS before he sold it to TASKI. He ran it for 24 years after buying it from his dad, John Bevington, who ran it for 28 years, he said. The company was founded in 1911 in Toledo.
Mr. Bevington said the industry was undergoing rapid consolidation when he began thinking about selling NSS, considered a smaller player in the industry. Then the coronavirus hit, with its subsequent supply-chain problems, and he made the decision to combine with a bigger competitor.
“It made sense to sell to one of the bigger players to ensure the future of NSS and its people,” he said via text message.
TASKI and NSS were previously a part of cleaning chemical maker Diversey. It was subsequently bought by Solenis, a large maker of water treatment and other chemicals based in Wilmington, Del.
Dave Patlin, union shop chairman at NSS for 28 production workers represented by UAW Local 12, said TASKI has kept the promises it made after buying NSS and breathed new life into the operation.
No workers were laid off, even during the ownership transition. And sales growth could add to the workforce, he said.
That has allayed initial fears that a big company like TASKI could swoop in, dismantle the business and only keep a few patents or product lines for itself, Mr. Patlin said.
“You’re concerned that they’re buying it to make it go away,” he said. “But their idea is to expand it.”
Mr. Patlin said the union’s current contract with TASKI expires in August, 2025, with the sides interested in negotiating. UAW Local 12 also represents about 5,000 workers at Jeep’s Toledo Assembly Complex among other local businesses.
While walking around the factory floor, Mr. Palumbo noted a new cell manufacturing line that was built to produce TASKI machines previously only built in Switzerland.
NSS today builds its machines mostly on assembly lines. But cell manufacturing, in which a worker knows how to operate all the machines configured in a cell, yields high quality and is more efficient, he said. In fact, one worker individually builds an entire TASKI machine and then certifies it.
Eventually, TASKI intends to have all products in the factory produced in cells, Mr. Palumbo said.
Machine engineering and design also have been combined between staff in Switzerland and those in Toledo, he said.
“We’ve integrated engineering teams, sales teams, logistics and customer service,” Mr. Palumbo said.
TASKI has always prided itself on Swiss craftsmanship. But TASKI designers and engineers also have learned some tricks from the simplicity of NSS designs, he said.
The joint teams are well along in designing together a large auto scrubber expected to launch in the coming months, Mr. Palumbo said.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on March 5, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Paul Hackett has been on a hot streak really since a day in 1982 off the Falkland Islands near Argentina when two aerial bombs flew into the side of a British Royal Navy frigate upon which he served.
The bombs fired by Argentinian planes during the short but bloody Falklands War pierced the hull and killed two shipmates.
But the bombs did not detonate because they had been fired too close to the ship to complete their firing cycle, Mr. Hackett, 69, said. And it gave the British time to evacuate Mr. Hackett and his crewmates before the British later sank the disabled ship.
The memory of surviving that direct hit in the most fortuitous way is never too far from Mr. Hackett’s consciousness, so much so that he told the story on the eve of a grand opening being held Monday to celebrate the construction in Sylvania Township of a manufacturing plant for his company H2flow Controls. Township officials have been invited to the afternoon festivities.
H2flow makes equipment to control and monitor water flow, especially for the pool and spa industry.
It was established by Mr. Hackett in 2009, growing out of a distribution business that he had owned for 10 years set up to sell a Swedish manufacturer’s equipment.
H2flow is growing leaps and bounds today as pool owners and builders try to reduce their energy costs and regulators prompt them to do so, said son Gavin Hackett, 42, who is now in charge of the company and been running day-to-day operations for about five years.
H2flow posted sales in 2023 of about $5.2 million, up 33 percent from the $3.9 million achieved in 2022, he said.
In three to five years, the company expects sales to be in the $15 million range and require a second plant to be built behind the 15,000-square-foot building that just opened last month. The Hacketts made sure to have land to accommodate growth when they bought two acres at their new address at 7629 New West Road in Sylvania Township.
“For a number of years in the company’s existence, we were a distributor for a Swedish company,” the elder Mr. Hackett said. “There’s an element of risk involved in being a distributor because they may find a bigger, better distributor and all of a sudden your business ceases to exist.”
“As a manufacturer, I wanted us to be more in control of where we were going with a more secure future. Plus, we wanted to do more for the community by employing local people in manufacturing.”
Mr. Hackett said the new building equipped cost about $1.8 million funded in part by a loan from Signature Bank. The company also received a 10-year, 50 percent tax abatement.
H2flow makes numerous products but two that are driving sales are its variable frequency drives and a flow meter called FlowVis. The FlowVis, which is built into pipes, allows pool and pump operators to accurately monitor water flow to adjust pump motor speeds to optimize electricity use. It accounted for about $2.5 million in sales last year.
Rob Morgan, president of Sunbelt Pools in Dallas, Texas, buys H2flows variable frequency drives. Sunbelt is a major builder of commercial pools for cities and institutions such as Texas universities, he said.
Mr. Morgan said the drives are critical to saving energy. He said there are numerous competitors to H2flow, but he has been a customer for more than 12 years because of the support that he receives on an excellent product.
“They are very responsive,” he said.
Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken said small companies like H2flow add manufacturing diversity to an economy more associated with big manufacturers.
They create jobs, pay taxes, and use a skilled workforce that is the hallmark of the community, he said.
He said it is easy to overlook them as they sometimes operate in the shadow of the better-publicized glassmakers and auto companies.
“We need to quit looking just at the tall grass and appreciate the beautiful little plants below,” he said.
After a 12-year stint in the British Royal Navy, the elder Mr. Hackett yielded to entrepreneurial aspirations. He became part-owner of a company outside Birmingham, England, that designed and built electronic monitors used to see how fast drill bits and other perishable tools were wearing out on manufacturing machines.
Efforts to expand the company’s footprint to the United States prompted Mr. Hackett in 1992 to relocate his family, including then 11-year-old Gavin, from England to Toledo. The company called Deemstop Inc. grew until Mr. Hackett and his partners sold it to an Ann Arbor competitor in 1997.
Shortly thereafter, he worked with a Swedish maker of variable frequency devices and other electronics to become the company’s U.S. sales arm.
A tragedy pushed Mr. Hackett to establish H2flow in 2009, he said.
In late 2007, Congress passed the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, requiring safety improvements at public pools and spas to prevent suction entrapment in drains.
It is named after Virginia Graeme Baker, a seven-year-old who drowned when she was trapped underwater by a powerful spa drain. She was the granddaughter of James Baker III, who served in cabinet positions in both the Reagan Administration and that of George H.W. Bush.
H2flow developed a shutoff device for pool motors that put the company on the map as public pools across the country were retrofitted with those types of devices, the younger Mr. Hackett said.
That product gave H2flow entrée to pool operators and builders nationally, leading to sales and the development of other water flow controls and monitoring devices, he said.
The company assisted in the development of the FlowVis flow meter in 2012.
“Government regulations have actually been a good thing for us in the sense that we got into the pool industry with our product called the PSP 20, which is an anti-entrapment device to stop children from getting sucked onto the main drain and not being able to release themselves,” the elder Mr. Hackett said.
Two years ago, more regulations helped the company. The U.S. Department of Energy, in an energy-saving move, mandated that all new residential pools with a motor exceeding one horsepower be variable speed, the younger Mr. Hackett said.
That has spurred sales of its FlowVis monitor as customers use it to vary pool pump speeds to optimize energy use, he said.
Signature Associates’ Joe Banyaiand Ben Wilkiemeyer represented the seller. Signature is proud to have been a part of this amazing deal!
For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Posted By: Crain’s Detroit Business on February 28, 2024.
Posted By: Detroit Free Press on February 22, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
General Motors will break ground on the site of the former Palace of Auburn Hills this summer, beginning its plan to redevelop the former concert and sporting stadium into a parts plant for electric pickup trucks.
The former home of the Detroit Pistons closed in 2017 when the team moved from Oakland County to downtown Detroit and faced the wrecking ball in 2020. GM announced plans in April 2023 to use the site to support the assembly of the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV pickup, and create about 1,000 new jobs there, according to Automotive News.
The Palace Research and Technology Park is zoned for mixed-use, retail, medical, and research development, according to Livonia-based developer Schostak Brothers and Co. The site will sit on 110 acres of land, featuring a walkable campus filled with outdoor community spaces connecting the land’s three structures.
“General Motors has identified the former Palace of Auburn Hills site as a potential location for a supplier park to support its Orion Assembly Plant, which will be expanded to produce electric pickup trucks,” GM spokeswoman Maria Raynal said in a statement.
Posted By: The Detroit News on February 27, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article
The Michigan Strategic Fund board on Tuesday approved a $6 million grant to support California-based electric vehicle startup Lucid Motors in establishing a $10 million engineering and research center in Southfield.
The project, supported by the governing board of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., is expected to create up to 262 jobs paying an average wage of $2,048 per week plus benefits, according to an MEDC memo, which also noted the company considered Ohio and Texas for the investment. Lucid picked Michigan “because of the state’s workforce expertise and the number of suppliers in the region,” the memo said.
Lucid is expected in April to open a space in Travelers Towers on Evergreen Road, The Detroit News reported last week. Lucid, a luxury EV maker that makes the Air sedan and plans to launch the Gravity SUV later this year, already has more than 25 remote employees based in Michigan.
The company is based in Newark, California, and has a production facility in Arizona. The Michigan engineering center will be the company’s third employment hub.
Lucid’s Michigan expansion comes as the EV sales pace is slowing, causing concerns for startup companies and legacy automakers spending billions on the transition from gas to electric.
Lucid’s stock dropped 17% last Thursday after it reported a fourth-quarter loss of $653.8 million and a full-year loss of $2.83 billion.
Posted By: CoStar on February 26, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Signature Associates’ Joe Hamway and Greg Hudas are proud to be the leasing team for Eastland Commerce Center mentioned in this article. Contact them for leasing details.
The industrial building boom that began in 2020, spurred by a surge in e-commerce distribution leases and rock-bottom interest rates at the time, has reached historic proportions. But it hasn’t saturated every U.S. market.
In 2022 and 2023, the stock of U.S. industrial property grew by 1.3 billion square feet, equivalent to the size of 22,600 football fields, or all the industrial properties in metropolitan Chicago combined. This marked the most rapid growth recorded for any U.S. commercial property type in a 24-month period in more than 30 years.
With developers focused on building the biggest projects they can, availability rates within existing and under-construction logistics properties measuring 500,000 square feet or larger have surged nationally and rose above 20% in key markets including Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Savannah, Georgia, and Orlando, Florida.
However, there are still a handful of U.S. distribution hubs, including Detroit, Jacksonville in Florida, and Reno, Nevada, where tenants looking for mega-warehouse space defined as larger than 500,000 square feet have very few options. The recent nationwide pullback in industrial construction starts suggests these shortages could persist beyond 2024.
Detroit
The majority of industrial buildings larger than 500,000 square feet in Detroit are manufacturing facilities operated by major automakers or their suppliers. But thanks in part to metropolitan Detroit’s population of more than 4.4 million residents, the region is also home to over 41 million square feet of mega-warehouse properties.
This cohort of properties has increased by 36% or 10.7 million square feet in the past three years as several companies including Amazon, FedEx and RGL Logistics have opened new distribution centers spanning more than half a million square feet in the region.
While Amazon has at least nine distribution facilities in local properties within this size range, none of these locations have been listed for sublease even as the e-commerce firm has been busy adjusting its warehouse footprint across the U.S. since 2022.
Higher short-term interest rates have also hampered the new construction of big box distribution centers.
Across the entire Detroit metropolitan area, only a single modern distribution center with a contiguous space larger than 500,000 square feet is available for lease, Building 2 within NorthPoint Development‘s Eastland Commerce Center, which recently completed construction near I-94 in Harper Woods.
Posted By: mlive on February 28, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Fifty people attended an open house Tuesday night at Grand Valley State University to learn about the proposed Grand Rapids soccer stadium, an 8,500-seat venue that supporters want to build downtown next to the David D. Hunting YMCA on Pearl Street NW.
The open house kicked off with a presentation from Grand Action 2.0, the private economic development firm leading the project. Officials gave an overview of the project, including how many matches would be held there, the economic impact of the stadium, and the venue’s parking plan.
They also discussed what they learned from the community meetings and focus groups Grand Action has hosted since January, which officials say have been attended by more than 300 people. The stadium is proposed for a 7.3-acre site near the corner of Pearl Street NW and Pearl Street NW Summer Avenue NW.
“I think there’s a lot of excitement for the project,” Kara Wood, executive director of Grand Action 2.0, said after the meeting wrapped up. There have been “really good questions and concerns, certainly ones that we’ve been working on and will continue to work on through the design phase of the project.”
Soccer fans, by and large, support the project, saying they’re excited to see a parking lot owned by the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority (DDA) transformed into a stadium for the world’s most popular sport.
The business community is also on board. They want to see bars, restaurants and other downtown businesses get a boost from the fans expected to pour into the city for matches and other events at the venue. In addition, they say the stadium would be another community asset that makes Grand Rapids and West Michigan a desirable place to live and work.
But some neighbors are concerned.
Because there are no plans to add additional parking, they are worried about attendees parking on their streets and taking up spots they or their visitors would regularly use.
“Our biggest concerns are going to be parking and traffic flow,” said Margo Johnson, 67, a member of John Ball Area Neighbors, the neighborhood association where the project is located. She said she hopes to avoid traffic that is “so dense, as people are coming and going, that it creates issues for neighbors.”
While no additional parking has been proposed, Grand Action is confident there’s enough spaces to accommodate the project. They will point attendees to what they say are 16,000 parking spaces within a 15-minute walk of the venue. Those spaces include metered street parking, as well as public and private surface lots and parking garages.
“It’s going to be taxing on the system, but the infrastructure is there,” said Bill Culhane, who’s serving as the project’s architect. “We have a lot of parking in downtown.”
Tuesday’s meeting is one of the final community meetings about the stadium before the project goes before the Grand Rapids Planning Commission for a public hearing on March 28. For the project to move forward, Grand Action needs the commission to approve a special land use permit for the stadium.
Beyond that, other work remains too.
Financing for the stadium, which is expected to cost $108 million to construct, needs to be lined up, Wood said. Additional design work and due diligence, including land acquisition, also must be completed. The team that would call the stadium home has not been announced either.
As of now, the 7.3-acre site where the stadium would be located consists of a parking lot owned by the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority that’s used by downtown office workers and others. It also includes property owned by the YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids.
The site also includes the now-shuttered Big Boy restaurant on Pearl Street. The Big Boy property was purchased in July 2022 by Dan and Pamella DeVos for $3.2 million. Earlier this month, they donated the property to the DDA.
Dan DeVos, who is chairmen of the Orlando Magic and co-owner of the Grand Rapids Griffins, was not available for an interview earlier this month to discuss his interest in the site. But family spokesperson Nick Wasmiller said in a statement that the DeVoses acquired the” property because they believed it held tremendous potential for a future community use benefitting West Michigan residents, employees and visitors.”
While much work remains, Wood said she and her colleagues would like to have the stadium open in time for the 2026 World Cup. The event kicks-off in July and will be played in cities throughout Canada, Mexico and the U.S. Soccer fans who attended Tuesday’s open house are eager to see that happen.
“I think it’s good for the economic development of a growing city — it’s another draw to get people here,” said Bobby Charlton, 26, who lives in Grand Rapids and sells market research software for a living. “I’m excited about soccer. It’s another way to separate the city.”
Posted By: Yahoo News on February 23, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Corewell Health is working on large service center in Wyoming.
The close to 300,000 square-foot consolidated service center is planned for a 40-acre site at 300 36th St. SW near Buchanan Avenue, planning documents say. The property has sat vacant for years. It had been the home of an auto plant starting in 1936 until GM closed it in 2009.
The center will have supply chain offices, document and mail services, and shell space. It will include a parking area for Corewell Health’s lab courier fleet, plus electric vehicle charging stations.
Along the east of the property, Corewell Health plans to add a walking path people can used to get to the planned 36th Street Marketplace, which is expected to be done in late 2024 or early 2025.
During the Wyoming Planning Commission on Tuesday, Corewell Health VP of Operations Sarai VanderWood said the center would be “state of the art” and would support the company’s work throughout the state of Michigan.
“We are really excited to work with the city of Wyoming on this project,” she said. “It is a strategic project that we’ve been working on for a really long time.”
The Planning Commission voted to approve the site plans.
“Thank you for choosing Wyoming,” Chairperson David Micele said. “We are very, very excited to have you guys here, and we’re looking forward to working with you not only today, but in the future. You made our day. You really made our day.”
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on February 19, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Though still not committing itself to a restart date, Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies said it remains determined to finish construction of a massive, indoor salmon-rearing facility it has been trying to build inside the North Pioneer Industrial Park on the outskirts of this Williams County village.
It’s unclear how strong its finances are now, though.
The company announced Wednesday that it is putting its Albany, Ind., plant up for sale as part of “a wide range of financing alternatives to strengthen its balance sheet and increase its cash position.”
That plant has been growing the company’s genetically engineered salmon since 2019. It has been seen as a smaller-scale version of a land-based plant that AquaBounty hopes to finish building near Pioneer.
At 479,000 square feet on an 85-acre site, the one planned for Pioneer would be eight times larger than the one being sold off in Indiana.
The company said the Indiana facility “has succeeded in its objective to demonstrate the company’s ability to grow and sell its salmon in the market.
“With construction on its Ohio farm site roughly 30 percent completed, the company plans to prioritize the financing alternatives necessary to resume and complete its construction, while the proceeds from the sale of its Indiana farm are expected to provide needed liquidity to AquaBounty’s balance sheet,” the statement read.
Sylvia Wulf, AquaBounty’s chief executive officer and chairman of its board, said the decision to sell the Indiana facility was a difficult one because the company felt it had “built a strong operation there with a passionate and experienced team.”
“Our focus will be on harvesting the remaining GE Atlantic salmon for sale over the coming months to ready the farm for a new owner,” she said.
Pioneer is about a 65-mile drive west of Toledo. The company has been working with its mayor, Ed Kidston, on building one of the nation’s largest indoor salmon farms there. Mr. Kidston was not available for comment Monday.
The project has drawn opposition from residents throughout a nine-county area in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio who get their well water from what’s known as the Michindoh Aquifer. They contend the plant’s massive water draw-down could impact their private water wells. Much of the opposition has come from an activist group called the Williams County Alliance.
“The sale of the Albany, Ind., plant is yet another indicator of a failing business attempting to prop itself up financially in order to continue their ‘pump and dump’ salmon plant in Pioneer, Ohio,” said Sherry Fleming, the group’s spokesman. “A ‘house of cards’ best describes AquaBounty’s business plan.”
The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority agreed in the fall of 2022 to sell up to $425 million in bonds to help finance the project. That’s $125 million more than the original $300 million in bonds the port board had agreed to sell in October, 2021 for AquaBounty.
Kayla Cunningham, the port authority’s communications manager, said Monday no bonds have been issued. She said the agency has not received an update from AquaBounty and is not aware of any future plans outside of what was announced publicly.
Ashley Epling, director of the Williams County Economic Development Corp., is optimistic the Pioneer project will be finished, although she recognizes the company’s financial issues and rising construction costs. Some are believed to be the result of pandemic-related supply chain issues.
“The cost of things continue to rise,” Ms. Epling said. “I do believe AquaBounty is trying. I know there are mixed opinions about it. [But] I know it would be an amazing economic development project for the county.”
She said she recognizes concerns about water usage, but believes agencies such as the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources would step in if there was a danger of lowering the water table.
“I think it would be a good economic investment for the county,” Ms. Epling said. “I put my faith in people empowered to make those decisions.”
To help facilitate the project, Ms. Epling appeared before the Pioneer Village Council last Wednesday with a request to amend the enterprise tax zone agreement for AquaBounty, which the council did by a 5-1 vote.
She said that was necessary to get a potential end date of August, 2026 on record. The original agreement called for construction to be finished by Dec. 31, 2023, she said.
“That was the date they had given me,” Ms. Epling said of the new 2026 target date for completion. She said the company has not given her a restart date, though.
Another possible delay is the Williams County Board of Commissioners’ decision last week, by a 2-1 vote, to appeal a recent court decision about right-of-way use for water lines.
That vote came Feb. 13 in response to a long-awaited ruling by visiting Judge Reeve Kelsey, whom the Ohio Supreme Court had appointed to hear the case in Williams County Common Pleas Court.
Though generally supportive of the project, the county commissioners asked for a ruling because they believed it might not be proper for a water line to pass through public land and be built with public money to supply only a private business. The question was whether the lines could be legally considered a public utility.
In a 14-page order, Judge Kelsey said he found the county commissioners took an “arbitrary and capricious” position when it voted against letting AquaBounty and the village of Pioneer build the plant-related water and wastewater pipelines.
Commissioners Lewis Hilkert and Bart Westfall voted to appeal the judge’s ruling. Commissioner Terry Rummel dissented.
In minutes from that Feb. 13 meeting posted online, Mr. Rummel was quoted as saying that he knows his vote in favor of proceeding “may not [be] as popular amongst everybody but it is great for the village of Pioneer, it is great for the North Central Schools.”
He said he would be in favor of allowing access for the pipes because the plant’s tax revenue to the village and school district would be “substantial.”
The other two commissioners said there are “just a lot of unknowns” and reminded Mr. Rummel that Kidston Consulting owns the well field from which AquaBounty wants draw water for the plant, according to the meeting transcript.
Two attorneys advised the board that a developer “cannot take private and run it through public right of way to another private company,” Mr. Hilkert said, according to the board minutes.
“The three of us made a decision to decline the application based on the information we were given,” Mr. Hilkert said. “Judge Kelsey came in and I am not sure Judge Kelsey really understood the whole gamut of this operation.”
None of the three commissioners could be reached for comment Monday.
“The decision that we are making isn’t necessarily just for the village of Pioneer. This is a decision for 37,000 people that live in this county,” Mr. Hilkert added, according to the transcript of the minutes. “I think we owe it to our citizens to appeal it and let a three-judge [appellate] panel make the decision and not one single judge that was visiting.”
Mr. Westfall agreed, calling the decision “strictly legal.”
“It has nothing to do with water consumption,” he said, acknowledging in the transcript he was “at a loss” over how to vote, but then went along with Mr. Hilkert in agreeing to spend money on an appeal.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on February 18, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
From church bells to wedding bells — that was CJ Estel’s vision for Sacred Heart Church in East Toledo.
Through community partners and investors, he had hoped to repair and transform the former Catholic church into a wedding and event venue.
But the Diocese of Toledo announced Sunday its decision to decline Mr. Estel’s offer and to follow through with its initial plan to demolish the church.
“After careful and prayerful consideration, Epiphany of the Lord Parish … with the support of the Diocese, intends to move forward with the original plan,” wrote Bishop Daniel Thomas in an op-ed published Sunday.
His letter outlines considerations that contributed to the decision, including that Mr. Estel’s offer of $1, which the investor sent to the diocese Dec. 27, did not include the required proposals regarding how the building would be used and how it would be maintained and repaired.
Bishop Thomas relegated or deconsecrated the church, which was in need of an estimated $1.5 million in repairs, in October and Masses have not been celebrated there since Jan. 6. Only two of the six original Catholic churches in East Toledo remain, and they comprise Epiphany of the Lord Parish.
Church law requires a 10-day period after a relegation is made public during which people can object to the decision. They can then file a formal appeal to the Vatican. One petition seeking to overturn the bishop’s decision was rejected by the Holy See, according to the diocese.
Church law does not, however, require presenting an opportunity for the community to propose a plan to preserve the building. Though the community was given 30 days to present a purpose and source of funding, Bishop Thomas wrote, the offer it received did not meet the criteria and was “strikingly similar to prior transactions” involving other former churches in the diocese.
“The former church buildings of Holy Rosary, Saint Hedwig, and Saint Anthony stand as daily reminders of perhaps well-intentioned yet failed preservation efforts within the City of Toledo,” he wrote. “These buildings continue to be a blight for the community at large and do not reflect their inherent dignity as former churches.”
Mr. Estel said he was informed of the declined sale Thursday but without details on the reasoning. Though the letter did not address a recent verbal proposal to lease the building, and he doesn’t suspect there will be further consideration, Mr. Estel said he will still follow up with church leaders.
“I did expect that they probably would go this route. I just wish there would be more transparency into the reasoning behind it. I think that we do have a really good group of people,” the Lancaster-based investor said.
“This is not just me, somebody who grew up in the area but lives out of town,” he continued. “I’m working with investors and business owners in the Toledo area,” including Dan Nester, CEO of Polaris Logistics Group, and Tim Croak, CEO of Croak Capital. Mr. Estel said he’s confident that a substantial amount of funding would be covered to restore the building and benefit the East Toledo neighborhood.
He’d like to hear what would be an acceptable offer for the diocese to consider, he said, and he’s open to abiding by any restrictions the diocese may place regarding use.
Bishop Thomas’ letter concludes by stating the Catholic Church’s dedication to the salvation of souls and that “Epiphany of the Lord Parish and the Diocese of Toledo remain committed to continuing the Church’s mission of spreading the Gospel in East Toledo.”
Mr. Estel wishes to see the church carry out that mission without razing Sacred Heart.
“The church stated in a Dec. 14 [community] meeting that their goal was to save souls and not buildings. I would imagine if they were to put that money toward savings souls, it would go a lot further than demolishing a building somebody else is willing to save,” Mr. Estel said, estimating that a demolition of the church could cost the diocese $150,000.
Kelly Donaghy, senior director of communications for the diocese, wrote in an email Friday that plans to raze the church are not finalized and quotes have not yet been sought to anticipate the cost of the project. The parish must first remove all sacred objects from the church, she said.
Joe’s dedication, expertise, and unwavering commitment to excellence have truly set him apart in the real estate industry. We couldn’t be more inspired to see his hard work and achievements, and for him to be acknowledged in such a prestigious way.
Posted By: Detroit Free Press on February 8, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
In a sudden change of heart, Sheetz pulled back its application to open a convenience store and round-the-clock gas station in Madison Heights, and Monday’s public hearing on it was scrubbed.
It is the second Michigan community where the family-run, Altoona, Pennsylvania-based company has faced concerns as it seeks to expand into Michigan.
Local pushback shows communities may not be as eager to embrace it as the company anticipated. In its letter to Madison Heights, Sheetz said it needed more time to gather information to address “certain matters raised” at a November planning commission meeting.
Madison Heights City Manager Melissa Marsh said the city council and staff “do not have opinions or comments regarding the acceptability of this project as we have not heard the public comment yet.”
And unlike in Fraser, where the planning commission recommended to the city council that it reject Sheetz request to open a location there, the Madison Heights Planning Commission avoided making any recommendation at all.
But commissioners, Marsh said, questioned how the 24-hour operation would affect nearby residents, including the increased noise, light, and traffic, and whether the proposed development fit into the city’s overall development goals.
She added they also wondered about pollution — and whether Sheetz was doing enough to accommodate electric vehicle charging, an increasing concern as Detroit automakers aim to move to an electrified future.
Nick Ruffner, a spokesman for Sheetz, did not explain why the retailer abruptly changed course, but said in prepared remarks that the company is “excited to be planning a new store location in Madison Heights” and that it is seeking more time to introduce the brand to the local community.
In many ways, the concerns raised by the planning commission in Madison Heights were similar to those also raised by the planning commission and residents in Fraser. In the Macomb County suburb, the commission’s chair, Kathy Czarnecki, went so far as to say that she didn’t think the gas station was a “good fit” for the community.
Fraser could still approve a Sheetz, but the commission’s decision makes that less likely.
Last week, Sheetz announced to the Free Press its plans to open two metro Detroit stores ― one in Romulus on Middlebelt Road north of Interstate 94, and another in Chesterfield, off 23 Mile, east of I-94, later this year — with more in the works.
Sheetz also aims to build a store in Rochester Hills.
Sheetz is a family name that started in 1952 when Bob Sheetz bought one of his father’s dairy stores in Altoona and gradually began to open more. By the early 70s, he had more than a dozen stores and added gas pumps.
Sheetz, which now has about 700 stores and pokes fun at its scatological-sounding name, said in 2022, it planned to enter the metro Detroit market with dozens of new locations throughout the state and expected Michiganders to embrace the brand.
And while the Sheetz brand has a loyal following because of the convenience it offers — calling itself “a mecca for people on the go” that is open at all hours, including Christmas — some argue that the retailer is disruptive to local neighborhoods and, like many chain retailers, pose a threat to local, independent businesses.
Signature held its Annual Sales Awards celebration at our Southfield headquarters on the evening of Tuesday 2/13/2024.
The night was full Signature team stories, camaraderie and an amazing dinner prepared on-site by Andiamo. The focus was again, on the importance of our culture and the lasting relationships we continue to build going into our 35th year in business!
Posted By: The Detroit News on February 2, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Despite elevated interest rates posing challenges for Detroit’s mortgage and auto manufacturing industries, the city is expected to see economic growth pick up later this year and continue at a steady pace for the next few years, University of Michigan experts said in a report released Friday.
A February executive summary update to the Detroit Economic Outlook for 2023-28 notes that Detroit’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continues to progress despite factors including job losses in the financial services sector, a series of strikes last fall and the continuance of remote work.
“The economic data for Detroit have been telling a mixed story recently,” UM economists wrote.
The report notes that from mid-2022 through the first quarter of 2023, hourly and salaried jobs inside the city’s boundaries declined by 3,300.
“While our forecast suggests that Detroit payroll employment had recovered much of that loss by the end of 2023, we do not expect the city to exceed its high from 2022 until mid-2024,” economists wrote. “On the other hand, the count of employed Detroit residents rose at a healthy pace through most of 2023, reaching 1.5 percent above its pre-pandemic level in September.”
Experts say they expect payroll jobs to increase by 3,000 this year after 600 net job losses last year. Job gains are expected to accelerate to 3,800 in 2025 and then stabilize to an average 1,700 additional jobs each year through 2028.
Detroit’s jobless rate is expected to average 8.2% and drop down to 7.1% by 2028, when the city is expected to reach its highest labor force level since 2013. The report notes that between April and November last year, the city’s labor force gained back more than 15,000 people, well above pre-pandemic levels.
“Slower national economic growth in 2024 poses risks to the local economy, but we expect Detroit’s economy to display encouraging resilience in the face of a challenging external environment,” economists said. “The possibility of a national and statewide recession in 2024, however, remains a risk to our outlook.”
For employed Detroit residents, average pay is expected to increase 42% from 2019 to $50,000 by 2028. However, experts say inflation will reduce a significant majority of those gains.
“Still, Detroit residents’ total real income per capita grows by a cumulative 7.7 percent from 2023 to 2028, which would be welcome progress,” economists said.
Blue-collar jobs and lower-educational attainment services, which include retail and hospitality jobs, are expected to exceed pre-pandemic employment levels by the end of 2028. Jobs in higher-ed attainment service industries, such as health care and finance, are expected to be 2.5% below pre-pandemic employment levels, weighed down by a slow recovery in financial services.
Posted By: mlive on February 7, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Demolition continues on the towering Regent Court office building along Executive Plaza Drive in Dearborn.
The 670,000-square-foot office building formerly occupied by Ford Motor Co. changed hands in November 2022, after being purchased by local developer Mike Shehadi.
Shehadi is the CEO of Farmington Hills pharmacy company, Pharma Script, and said he purchased the property with plans of creating a mixed-use development space.
“The last thing I want to do is demolish this iconic building,” Shehadi told the Free Press in 2022.
Construction began on the property last November and is running behind as original expectations were to have the site cleared by spring.
Communications Director for Ford Land Gabrielle Poshadlo told the Detroit Free Press in 2022 that the company no longer had enough employees willing to work in person to justify keeping the space open.
Poshadlo said the company switched over to a hybrid model in 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and “non-site-dependent” employees just couldn’t fill Regent Court.
Shehadi told Freep he initially floated potential development proposals but ultimately found the most economical choice was to fully raze the structure.
He said his initial plan of converting the space into 420 residential units proved too costly, estimating the project at around $100 million. Shehadi also purchased 34 acres of land behind the structure from Ford.
Posted By: mlive on February 1, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) has approved $87.5 million in grant funding for 18 projects across the state of Michigan — including two in metro Detroit — through the Strategic Site Readiness Program (SSRP), which support the state’s efforts to compete for and win transformative projects.
One local site is a 440-acre section of Van Buren Township, at Ecorse and Belleville roads, being prepared for development by the Detroit Aerotropolis. It received $18.6 million. The other is a brownfield site for a crosswind runway at Coleman A. Young International Airport (formerly Detroit City Airport). That project received $510,000.
“With a resetting of the industrial landscape currently underway in the U.S., the communities and economic development agencies that are proactively preparing industrial sites and training the workforce of tomorrow will be the winners in this race — the outcome of which will determine which states and regions will lead in economic and equitable prosperity over the next 20-30 years,” says Maureen Krauss, president and CEO of Detroit Regional Partnership.
“The approval by the MSF Board in the Strategic Site Readiness Program is paramount to Michigan’s success, and the Detroit Regional Partnership is aligned with the MEDC through our Verified Industrial Properties Program (VIP by DRP) to support our region’s commitment to ready more sites, to help Michigan win its share of the critical job creation projects.”
Through this funding for strategic site readiness and collaboration with local, regional, and energy partners, communities across Michigan are expected to experience increased economic development opportunities to support in their business development efforts.
“On behalf of the MEDC, it is exciting to be able to support local communities in their business development efforts as they bring forth sites of all sizes to prepare for economic development opportunities in their region,” says Terri Fitzpatrick, executive vice president and chief real estate and global attraction officer at MEDC. “While this is a good start, the demand remains substantial and will require continued funding for years to come.”
Applications for the grants were accepted from Sept. 18-Oct. 30, 2023. The MEDC received more than 70 applications totaling $420 million in requested funding — more than four times the SSRP allocation. Funding was awarded in nine of the state’s 10 prosperity regions, representing at least one grant for every region that submitted applications.
Of the 18 awardees, 10 are brownfield sites that will be receiving 49 percent of the award funding. The remaining awardees are greenfield sites throughout the state.
The full list of SSRP awardees by prosperity region includes:
Region 1
Hancock Business and Technology Park, City of Hancock: $969,352
Muskegon Heights Industrial Parks – West and East, Muskegon Area First (brownfield site): $121,200
Covenant Business Park, The Right Place: $17,500,000
Region 5
3 Mile and Wilder Road, Bay Future (brownfield site): $4,161,500
Region 6
Flint Commerce Center, Flint Genesee Economic Alliance (brownfield site): $5,900,000
Corunna – Parmenter Road, Shiawassee Economic Development Partnership: $435,000
Region 7
Lansing RACER Trust Plant 6 Site, City of Lansing (brownfield site): $18,975,000
Delhi College Road Site, Lansing Economic Area Partnership (brownfield site): $6,500,000
Region 8
Southwest Michigan Commerce Park, Southwest Michigan First (brownfield site): $2,106,000
Hartford Industrial Site, Market Van Buren (brownfield site): $467,250
Benton Harbor Data and Tech Park, a partnership between Cornerstone Alliance and developer Franklin Partners (brownfield site): $3,600,000
Region 9
AICP – Lot 14, City of Saline: $15,350
LAC Site, Monroe County Business Alliance: $82,310
Latson Innovation Interchange Technology and Industrial Park, Ann Arbor SPARK: $6,500,000
Pleasant Valley Development, Ann Arbor SPARK (brownfield site): $604,000
Region 10
440 Acres in Van Buren Township (Ecorse and Belleville Roads), Detroit Aerotropolis: $18,600,000
DET Crosswind Runway, Detroit Economic Growth Corp. (brownfield site): $510,000
The remaining funds of the full $100 million SSRP allocation will support applications requiring more time and evaluation, additional needs that may come up later in the year and to have funds available to support sites that enter the site readiness certification program, which is scheduled to be launched this fiscal year.
Posted By: mlive on February 10, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The $250 million Adelaide Pointe, a mixed-use development and marina planned for the Muskegon Lake waterfront, is gearing up for a huge summer. Developers Ryan and Emily Leetsma are transforming the previous industrial site into a tourist destination. Plans started rolling in 2022 for the proposed hotel, luxury condos, marina, restaurants, bar, event center, bike trails and fishing pier.
Now five major components are on track to open this summer.
1. Marina
Adelaide Pointe will offer both wet and dry slips for boaters. The new marina will have 161 slips available, 40 of which will be transient slips to encourage tourists coming for shorter stays.
The wet slip marina is built for vessels between 40 and 180 feet in length. Every slip has access to 30, 50 or 100 amps of electricity, EV charging, municipal water and IPV6 wireless internet, according to Adelaide Pointe’s website. Reservations for wet slips range from $2 to $7,700 depending on the length of the boat, according to the website.
Additionally, all wet marina customers have access to a dedicated Captain’s lounge, Dockmaster’s office, ship’s store and a 25-yard lap pool. Private restrooms, showers and laundry are also being built to accommodate boaters. The 258 dry slip reservations range from $1,700 to $3,570 depending on size.
The building can accommodate vessels up to 40 feet in length in a fire protected bunk stacked inside a building protected by 24-hour daily monitoring. Captains can use an app to schedule their vessel to be placed in the water. The marina and all its amenities are set to open May 1 until Oct. 31.
2. Luxury Condos
Those taking up residency at Adelaide Pointe will see sweeping, unobstructed views of Muskegon Lake from the moment they walk through the door.
The 45 condos are designed facing the lake with living spaces and balconies along the water’s edge. Condo square footage ranges from 1,484 to 1,726 square feet based on a two or three-bedroom floor plan. Prices range from $699,000 to $949,000.
Five penthouse suites will wrap around the north side of the building, which faces the water. The top floor will be 60 feet above the water.
Approximately 3,200-square-foot penthouses will have five bedrooms, four bathrooms and a gathering area twice the size of the standard condos. The starting price is $2 million. Three penthouses have already been sold.
The six-story condo building will be the first mass timber housing structure in Michigan, Leetsma said. Mass timber is a type of bonded wood that can replace concrete and steel – hailed as a more sustainable construction material with less of an impact on the climate.
The condos have garnered interest from both Michiganders and out-of-state visitors, Leetsma said. Approximately half of the condos have been claimed with down payments, he said.
The condos are expected to be move-in ready in July.
3. Brewery and event space
Part of the Leetsma’s vision is to make Muskegon Lake a destination for all types of events. Under the umbrella of Emily Leestma’s IBEX hospitality company, a new mixed-use building will host a brewery and event space.
Events are already scheduled for fishing tournaments, powerboat events, class reunions and weddings this summer, said marketing manager Aubrey Glick. In the spirit of reviving Muskegon, the Leestmas are resurrecting The Muskegon Brewing Co. The brewery operated from 1877 to 1957 and was located on Brewery Hill. It was one of two U.S. locations that bottled Guinness Beer, according to Muskegon Heritage Museum of Business and Industry.
With the help of Pigeon Hill brewers, specialty beers will be on tap at Muskegon Brewing Co. this summer. The four-story building will be home to a yacht brokerage, Muskegon Brewing Co., Adelaide Events and executive offices.
4. Man caves and she sheds
Private and shared storage options are also available at Adelaide Pointe. The 20 private storage units started garnering public interest when Ryan Leetsma marketed them as “man caves” and “she sheds.”
The private storage options come in two different sizes: 24 by 90 and 36 by 90 feet. Space that could be used to both store and work on boats, cars, and businesses — all of the above currently happening. As of February, 17 of the 20 are booked. A range of tenants are using the space to store classic cars or run small businesses, Glick said.
Each unit is outfitted with utilities. Pricing varies by square footage and lease length. Shared storage is also available.
The storage building can accommodate vessels up to 40 feet in a fire protected bunk stacked inside a building protected by 24-hour daily monitoring. Captains can use an app to schedule their vessel to be placed in the water, according to the website.
5. Public access and fishing pier
Cleaning up Muskegon Lake’s long history of industrial pollution took 35 years and tens of millions of dollars. Now that the lake is clean, the Leetsmas are working with the city to keep public access a priority. Adelaide Pointe is installing a double reinforced dock for a fishing pier, as well as maintaining clean and sandy areas.
The Muskegon City Commission unanimously approved a “cooperative use” agreement that allows public access on the two peninsulas of Adelaide Pointe. This allows Leetsma access to a third, city-owned peninsula to the east where he is planning shoreline restoration and other improvements. The developers and the city are working together to create parks and bike trails throughout, as well.
“All of our waterfront is available to the public. So even if you don’t have a boat, and you can’t afford a condo, there’s something for you here as well,” Ryan Leetsma said in an August MLive interview.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on February 12, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Downtown Toledo offices continued to empty out last year, while downtown’s typically low apartment vacancy rate ticked up slightly as well, according to new reports from the real estate firm Reichle Klein Group.
Downtown office vacancy stood at 33 percent at the end of the year, compared to 20 percent for the larger Toledo area, Reichle Klein found. Nationwide the office vacancy rate is about 18 percent, the report said, citing data from the firm CommercialEdge.
Apartment vacancy downtown, meanwhile, increased slightly from 3.5 percent at the end of 2022 to 6.4 percent now. That’s in contrast to the Toledo area overall, which saw a vacancy decline, to 3.8 percent, even as new apartment complexes are completed and offered to renters.
“This bears watching,” Harlan Reichle, president and chief executive of Reichle Klein, said of the downtown apartment trend. He said it’s too early to sound any alarms, and the downtown housing market may very well get back on track.
Offices
Office vacancy was highest, at about 43 percent, in downtown’s more upscale “Class A” buildings.
Various corporate users have continued to want less space following the pandemic, the report noted, while ProMedica’s financial challenges also were a “gut punch” for downtown as it has drastically cut back on its office needs.
“It’s not a good time to own a tower downtown,” said Sam Zyndorf, managing partner of the commercial real estate firm Signature Associates in Toledo. He said he expects the pendulum to swing back, at least slightly, as some companies decide they want workers in the office more often.
“ProMedica’s issues are what contributed, in particular, to that big second-half vacancy that came on the market,” Mr. Reichle said, referring to almost 107,000 square feet of office space that opened up in the latter half of 2023.
ProMedica spokesman Tausha Moore didn’t respond to questions about the company’s plans for three of the major buildings it has a presence in downtown, 333 and 300 N. Summit St., and 300 Madison Ave.
“Like most larger organizations, ProMedica regularly re-evaluates its office space needs,” she said. “Business changes and evolving trends like work-from-home have resulted in less office space needs for our organization over the past few years.”
Brandon Sehlhorst, the city’s economic development director, said downtown’s true office vacancy rate is actually much higher, when factoring in all the buildings that are fully vacant and no longer being actively marketed.
“It’s a national problem,” he said of empty office space, but one Toledo already has some experience solving, as it’s carried out several office and retail building conversions to housing over the years.
The suburban office scene doesn’t look quite as bleak as downtown, the report said, especially smaller buildings that user-buyers have continued to snatch up. Still, many office users there, like downtown, are looking to shrink their space as their leases come up.
Apartments
Overall, the apartment market in the Toledo area is healthy, the report said.
Rents have continued to tick up slightly, and now stand at an average of $967 per month, Reichle Klein said. Meanwhile, rising interest rates have not slowed new apartment construction, with new units under way increasing from 444 a year ago to 742 today. Perrysburg is the most active area for new apartments.
Mr. Reichle said it’s possible that some of the new suburban apartment complexes have pulled residents away from downtown, leading to higher vacancy there. Downtown’s Fort Industry Square also put about 100 new units on the market not long ago, Mr. Sehlhorst said, which may have contributed.
Still, any softening in downtown’s apartment market could be concerning for long-range plans there. Downtown Toledo’s recently refreshed master plan states that 911 units have been added since 2015, and it says the area could support between 1,000 and 1,300 more in the next decade, with about 500 of those already planned.
A top priority, the master plan says, should be increasing downtown’s housing supply. The Overmyer Lofts project, at 15 S. Ontario St., is now completed and will start leasing its 75 units in the coming weeks, while a coalition of developers and local agencies is also hoping to turn two old office buildings at Madison Avenue and Huron Street into 370 units in the next couple years.
“It’s definitely a metric that we’ll continue to watch, especially as we have a number of units coming online,” Mr. Sehlhorst said of the downtown vacancy.
Retail
Retail vacancy in the Toledo area stood at 7.7 percent, down from 8.4 percent a year ago, the report said.
That’s partly thanks to customers taking over empty retail spaces, mostly smaller ones, but also because of a smaller overall inventory after several former retail buildings were demolished, Reichle Klein said.
Some popular retail areas, such as along Secor Road near Central Avenue, are seeing mixed results, with some major stores, such as Whole Foods, closing, with others, like Kirin Asian Mart, deciding to open up in a large vacant space, Mr. Reichle said.
One trend that will likely increase overall vacancy in 2024 is Rite Aid locations that continue to shut down locally, related to the company’s ongoing bankruptcy, he said.
Industrial
The recently red-hot industrial real estate market — think large manufacturing and logistics spaces — “took a breather” in the second half of the year, the report said.
Still, there’s nothing to be worried about yet, Mr. Reichle said. Vacancy remained below 4 percent, the report said. Companies continue to build buildings for themselves, the report said, but spec buildings have been dropped or postponed amid higher interest rates and construction costs.
He noted the vacancy numbers will improve this year, after First Solar recently confirmed it had purchased the massive former Peloton building in Wood County.
Posted By: The Monroe News on February 6, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The Monroe County Business Alliance will receive $82,310 in grant funding to help prepare a 143.25-acre piece of property for future development. The property is southwest of Sterns Road and Dixie Highway in Erie and Bedford townships.
Monroe County’s grant was one of 18 awarded last week by the Michigan Economic Development Corp.’s Strategic Site Readiness Program. A total of 72 entities applied for grants. In all, Michigan is spending $100 million to create investment-ready sites that will draw companies to Michigan and create new jobs. Ten of the sites are brownfields that will receive 49% of the award funding. The Monroe County site is considered a greenfield because it’s undeveloped.
“We applied for the grant around six month ago,” said Sean Strube, vice president of economic development for the Monroe County Business Alliance. “Our ask was the amount we receive.”
MCBA will use the funds to survey and evaluate the property.
“The funds will be used for a range of reports and surveys to be conducted on the site,” Strube said. “The work should be completed within the current year. The grant continues to improve the attractiveness of the site for potential businesses that may not choose Monroe County otherwise. These types of opportunities allow the Monroe County Business Alliance, partnered with local developers and communities, to proactively prepare and market properties for the best use and greatest benefit to the community.”
The Monroe County property has municipal water and sewer services, a natural gas line and direct access to the CSX railroad. It’s less than three miles from I-75. Within a 30-minute drive of the site are 19,887 businesses and a workforce of 320,593 people.
In 2022, the site had a due diligence review through Verified Industrial Properties, according to documents from LAC Real Estate, the firm listing the property. The site is listed at $4,212,000, which is $30,000 an acre. The property is zoned industrial.
“The final plans for the site will be determined by the two municipalities that the land is within, Bedford and Erie Townships,” Strube said. “Through strong partnerships with the local municipalities, regional partners and state organizations, this grant funds important work that will create jobs and positive economic impact.”
Sen. Joseph Bellino Jr., R-Monroe, applauded the Michigan Economic Development Corp.’s Strategic Site Readiness Program for awarding the grant for the Erie and Bedford townships site.
“It is great to see a Monroe County site earn one of these highly competitive grants — designed to help position our state for economic development and job creation,” Bellino said. “This program is about making Michigan competitive for large-scale projects, such as attracting businesses to come here and build new manufacturing and energy facilities. These are the types of long-term investments that we should be doing — those that can help improve our communities for generations to come.”
According to Bellino’s office, the MEDC received 72 applications totaling more than $420 million in requests.
“The state prioritized projects that included repurposing brownfield or former manufacturing sites, those that are highly marketable due to location, those that can be developed quickly and those most likely to have a significant impact on the state and regional economy,” Bellino’s office said.
The Monroe County Business Alliance is the merger of the former Monroe County Business Development Corporation and the former Monroe County Chamber of Commerce. MCBA focuses on the economic development for both new and existing businesses in Monroe County. It is governed by a 20+ person board of directors who represent multiple business, educational and governmental sectors and geographic perspectives of the county.
Posted By: woodtv.com on January 30, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
New renderings of the planned $300 million Kalamazoo event center have been released. See the renderings HERE
The 320,000-square foot facility is expected to host more than 230 events a year and create hundreds of jobs. According to Southwest Michigan First, it is expected to pump $57 million annually into the local economy.
The event center will include two basketball courts, practice ice, an event hall and two parking decks. It will also house Western Michigan University’s men’s and women’s basketball programs, as well as its hockey program.
“We’re excited about the future of this project and honored to collaborate with stakeholders committed to ensuring the arena and event center benefits the entire Kalamazoo community,” WMU Director of Athletics Dan Bartholomae said Friday in a statement. “Together, we look forward to creating a space that not only houses national championship programs but also becomes a source of pride and shared enjoyment for the community we call home.”
Kalamazoo County’s Board of Commissioners in July 2023 approved closing on the property.
Signature Associates’ Ben Wilkiemeyer and Paul Saadrepresented the seller and Peter Vanderkaay represented the purchaser. Signature is proud to have been a part of the is amazing deal!
Posted By: DBUSINESS on January 18, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Porsche Detroit North, touted as a state-of-the-art Gen-5 Porsche dealership, has opened in Shelby Township.
The latest addition to the Rafih Auto Group, formerly Porsche Motor City, offers what owner Terry Rafih calls “a revolutionary and immersive experience for customers and Porsche enthusiasts.”
“I am thrilled to announce the opening of Porsche Detroit North,” Rafih says. “This dealership represents a ground-breaking collaboration between manufacturer and dealership, embodying the unparalleled luxury and innovation that define the Porsche brand.”
Porsche Detroit North, located at 45100 Mound Road (just north of M-59), is 10 times the size of the dealership’s previous facility, with a 40 percent increase in inventory capacity, Rafih notes. The dealership is designed to fully encompass the vision shared between Porsche Cars North America and the dealership group.
“Porsche Detroit North is the most-awaited dealership in Detroit and plans to bring unmatched luxury and innovation through the history of Porsche to the Shelby Township community,” Rafih says. “We are excited to introduce Porsche Detroit North to the Shelby Township community, allowing experiential elements that transform the experience of buying this luxury brand.”
The dealership is designed to blend modern architecture with cutting-edge technology to create a fully experiential environment, serving as a central hub for the community. Customers and team members will interact in various “worlds and lounges” throughout the facility, fostering a “unique and engaging experience.”
Upon arrival, visitors can walk through the entire facility, a stroll that culminates in a formation of cars resembling a racetrack starting grid. The visitor-centric building design celebrates all facets of the Porsche brand, offering client amenities, technology-driven conveniences, and design innovations through audio, visual, and virtual reality experiences.
Porsche Detroit North features social spaces with ample seating, corners for kids, and a full-service café. Clients will be surrounded by the latest Porsche models alongside legendary vehicles from the automaker’s past, creating a full brand experience.
The expanded service department will house 12 service bays, two classic bays, and two electric bays, all visible to guests through a large viewing window. The higher capacity service bay design, including reception lanes for service pick-up and drop-off, is intended to deliver shorter wait times and improved client satisfaction.
The new dealership was designed by Stucky Vitale Architects in Royal Oak.
Posted By: The Detroit News on January 18, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article
William Dabish was looking for a location to open a new Powerhouse Gym and settled on a former anchor space at The Mall at Partridge Creek in Clinton Township. The draw? The shopping center’s location along busy Hall Road.
“The traffic here is really high and the demographics are more than any gym we have in Michigan,” Dabish said.
When it opens in 2025, the workout facility will cover 120,000 square feet and offer a variety of amenities, including a swimming pool, basketball court, state-of-the-art fitness equipment, a spin room and a dry sauna.
The business is among the new additions to the 607,000-square-foot Mall at Partridge Creek. After years of financial instability, it appears the tide is turning for the Macomb County shopping center. In addition to the Powerhouse Gym, the open-air mall announced this past fall that it was expanding its more than 80-store roster with several new businesses, most expected to open in 2024.
Among the new businesses are gift and accessories retailer Box Lunch and athletic shoe and clothing seller JD Sports, which opened last year, and a women’s clothing store, Windsor, which opened last week. Furniture retailer Lovesac is expected to arrive in late February and indoor playground Kids Empire during the summer.
It’s an encouraging sign for the mall to have so many newly signed leases, said Kees Janeway, a retail mall expert and managing partner at Iconic Real Estate in Detroit.
“The landlord’s responsibility is to keep the property relevant,” he said. “How you drive sales for all your tenants is keeping those storefronts filled and creating an atmosphere where shoppers want to go. I think Partridge Creek, in particular, Hall Road is a phenomenal corridor. That high-speed road that goes east to west — it gives those businesses a huge draw in terms of geography. And by mixing up the tenant base, you create more reasons for them to stop there and spend their money.”
The Mall at Partridge Creek has had to contend with two large empty anchor spaces after losing two department stores: Carson’s in 2018 and Nordstrom in 2019.
The mall, owned by Florida-based Starwood Capital Group, went into receivership in 2021 after defaulting in 2019 on its mortgage that includes three other properties in other states. The receivership happened amid a global pandemic and the growth of online shopping.
According to Coresight Research, malls have been rebuilding occupancy rates since the pandemic.
There was moderate retail growth for much of 2023, as some would-be shoppers stayed home, concerned about economic challenges such as inflation, according to Placer.ai, which tracks retail foot traffic. Visits to indoor malls, outlet malls and open-air lifestyle centers grew in early 2023 and then remained relatively steady.
Janeway said it can be a challenge to fill large anchor spaces at malls. A large user, such as a gym, can be the answer.
“I think we’re seeing more and more interesting uses of these things, like more of these pickleball facilities, or gyms … or Urban Air,” he said. “So (taking) these like attraction-based, large-format spaces and repurposing. Without tearing them down, what can you do with them?
“There’s the self-storage example. It’s not very exciting, but that’s one route,” Janeway said. “And with the malls and sort of larger developments, they’ve got lots of potential encumbrances, exclusive agreements that they have to abide by. So it can be really challenging to fill these spaces. And sometimes, gyms just make sense.”
Melissa Morang, general manager for the mall, said that since Spinoso Real Estate Management Group took over management in 2021, it has done a good job marketing the property. Morang did not share mall occupancy figures.
“Occupancy is doing really well at Partridge Creek … with all our new stores opening and certainly with our leasing team talking to multiple opportunities coming in this year as well,” she said. “So we are looking forward to a successful year right now.”
JD Sports, which recently acquired Finish Line, is among the recent stores to arrive at the mall. Greg Grambell, the district manager for JD Sports, said the company had been looking for the past couple of years to move to Partridge Creek from Lakeside Mall, which announced in late 2022 that it would transition to a mixed-use development called Lakeside Town Center.
“When we had the opportunity to kind of get in there and move away from Lakeside, we jumped on it,” Grambell said. “We opened up there in October, about mid-October, and we’ve seen a major lift in business even in our infancy in this location.”
Grambell said that they’ve seen some repeat customers from Lakeside Mall but have also developed a new customer base since opening in the new location. The holiday season went well financially for the company at Partridge Creek, he said.
“It was one of my top five performing locations in the entire state. …” he said. “We were brand new in the middle of October in a mall that we’ve never been in, and it performed as one of my top-performing stores in the entire market. I really do think the future is very bright for us there.”
Grambell said he is excited about the upcoming opening of Powerhouse Gym.
“It’s somewhere where our clientele is going to be frequenting from to come get their workout attire, hopefully,” he said.
Powerhouse Gym will occupy the space formerly housing Carson’s, which was known as Parisian when the mall opened in 2007. Demolition work is underway inside the former department store space.
Dabish said the new location will allow the gym to offer all of the amenities the owners want to incorporate in a space almost twice the size of their largest locations in Novi and Northville. He said after they opened the gym in Novi, it brought 2,000 people to the area daily. He expects a similar draw for Partridge Creek.
“For a lot of people, the gym is their training and their social life,” he said. “So they’ll go, ‘I’ll grab lunch, have dinner, breakfast after or before we train,’ etc. So it brings a lot of traffic to the center.”
At Trollbeads, store manager Melissa Clark said she’s noticed new tenants moving into the mall.
“I’m always happy when we have stores coming in because any shopper who sees empty stores, you start to have a different view of the mall,” she said. “So I’m really glad that we’re filling some of these empty spaces and especially getting one of those anchors filled in is great because people are going to come to the mall. And anything that’s going to increase traffic, various new stores and new draws I think is awesome. And it’s about time, so I’m excited for it.”
Clark said the mall is starting a discount program for employees, and she plans to become better acquainted with the new stores.
“I’m going to be going around to all those new stores and introduce myself,” she said. “So, for the next few weeks, I’m hoping to build some relationships and get some collaborations going.”
Posted By: BISNOW on January 22, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The number of apartment spaces being created in office buildings across major cities this year has risen to over 55,000, four times higher than the 12,100 under conversion in 2021, according to a new report.
The 55,339 office-to-apartment makeovers scheduled for this year mark a record high, according to the RentCafe report released Monday. The report cites surging demand for residential space and nearly $150B in office mortgages coming due this year as driving forces behind the trend.
The number of units under conversion to apartments in former office spaces has steadily increased over the past four years, coming in at 23,100 units in 2022 and 45,200 in 2023, according to RentCafe.
Looking forward, about 147,000 apartments are on the way in future adaptive reuse projects, the report states. Office buildings make up the largest share of buildings being converted, at 38%. Hotel buildings follow, making up 24% of apartment conversions.
Washington, D.C., has the largest number of units under conversion from offices this year, at 5,820, the report shows. This is an 88% increase from the year prior, and there are another 9,021 future conversions planned, according to the report. Office-to-residential conversions are a key pillar of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s effort to liven up the city’s central business district and add 15,000 residents to the area by 2028.
New York City is next in line, with 5,215 apartments under conversion from offices, followed by Dallas at 3,163, Chicago at 2,822 and Los Angeles at 2,442.
New York is slated to see several high-profile conversions, including at 25 Water St. and the iconic Flatiron Building. Also in New York, a 113K SF office tower near Penn Station is being considered for a residential conversion.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth metro, researchers last year identified more than 50 buildings that could be converted to residential, including downtown high rises and older, suburban office properties.
“[Conversion] paves the way for restoring asset values and tax revenues, alleviating housing shortages, and meeting climate goals, while mitigating the negative externalities of vacant offices,” that report said.
The average age of office buildings being transformed into rentals this year is 72 years, which is about 20 years younger than those previously converted prior to 2021, according to RentCafe.
U.S. office vacancy has already broken an all-time record this year, with about 19.6% of office space in major U.S. metros sitting vacant at the end of 2023, up from the previous record of 19.3% reached in 1986 and 1991.
The increase in office-to-residential conversions is “a testament to how our cities are transforming for a new generation that wants to live where they used to work,” the RentCafe report states
Posted By: The Detroit News on January 16, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Sector leaders in Michigan showed modestly increasing optimism in the economic outlook and that Michigan is a good place to business, according to annual survey results from Ann Arbor’s Baker Strategy Group.
The state posted improvement in four of five key measurements identified by the consultancy with a question around whether the state is a great place for young professionals the only one to fall. That’s a significant point of discussion as Michigan experiences an aging population that is growing slower than its neighboring states.
“When we talk about our population challenges … population growth and economic growth are sort of mutually reinforcing,” Michigan Chief Growth Officer Hilary Doe said during a meeting of the Detroit Economic Club at the MotorCity Casino Hotel, moderated by The Detroit News’ Senior Business Editor & Columnist Daniel Howes, where the survey results were shared. “Michigan particularly has to be cognizant of the fact that … we were losing more folks than we’re gaining historically, so that’s a particular concern.”
More survey respondents say they are likely to recommend Michigan as a place to do business than last year, with the score rising to 71 from 69 on a scale of 100. Their view of the state’s economy improved, too, with 42% holding a somewhat or extremely positive outlook compared to last year’s 36%. Negative views fell to 30% from 38%.
Breaking that down, leaders responded that they view the next six months as more difficult than they had a year ago with sentiment on the 100-point scale falling to 67 from 70. The 12-month outlook was flat at 71, but the three-year outlook improved to 75 from 73.
Gabriel Ehrlich, director of research seminar in quantitative economics at the University of Michigan, said that aligns with the university’s state economic forecast.
“We do expect Michigan to have a little bit of a soft patch for economic growth in the early part of this year,” Ehrlich said. “High interest rates are going to make it tough. It’s a challenge for the mortgage industry, the auto industry, the building trades, so you have that challenge. The good news is inflation is falling right now. That’s going to leave the Federal Reserve space to pivot away from fighting inflation and towards supporting growth a little more and actually get some relief to Michigan. We expect growth to start picking up in the second half of this year and then into 2025.”
Around the five key metrics at which the survey looked, indicators including that Michigan is a great state to raise a family rose to 73 from 71, is business-friendly increased to 62 from 61, has a strong economy went to 61 from 59 and is on the right track increased to 61 from 59. The goal is to see the results in the 70s and 80s.
The one indicator that fell was whether Michigan is a great state for young professionals, which dropped to 64 from 65.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer launched the Growing Michigan Together Council that developed a set of policy recommendations to help grow the state’s population. Doe said that work showed neighboring states with growing populations had higher median incomes, greater bachelor’s degree attainment and walkable communities with access to transportation.
“Cost of living and keeping costs low is critical as part of the formula and is one thing that we have to offer,” Doe said. “It’s not sufficient by itself. We really have to have that quality of place, every opportunity along with cost of living.”
The policy recommendations will seek to improvement in those areas, but that could take years. Quentin Messer Jr., CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., said Michigan and its residents can help sharing what makes the Great Lakes State a desirable place to live, work and play today.
“You have to win the recruiting battle in your own backyard,” Messer said. “If the people who know us the best and know us the longest give us a pass (on staying), then it’s going to be harder for those who you’re trying to encourage or who may not know us, or may know us only in passing or having dated perception.”
Ehrlich added that policies extend beyond those within the state to immigration policy, as well.
“The reality is, for the foreseeable future,” he said, “we really are going to be looking at international immigration if we want to grow the way that state leaders say they want to grow.”
Alex Akins is just the kind of resident Michigan is seeking to attract. The 26-year-old Indiana native attended school at the University of Detroit Mercy, stayed and is working in the financial sector.
“I wanted to work in a city, and growing up in Indiana, it’s been a breath air,” he said after the DEC’s presentation, but “I’ve had a lot of friends go to Austin, (Texas), and out west to San Diego.”
His peers, he says, have gone for jobs that they view as exciting and innovative. He thinks examples like the University of Michigan’s research and education center are a smart step forward to help fuel excitement for Detroit and Michigan.
Patrick Lindsey, 64, of Detroit is Wayne State University’s vice president of government and community affairs. Following the discussion, he emphasized the work in the school’s efforts to educate students economically and socially, noting that many live in Detroit, are active in the community, and volunteer.
“More than 80% of our students,” he said, “stay after graduation.”
Posted By: The Detroit News on January 25, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
General Motors Co. and Honda Motor Co. have launched commercial production of jointly developed fuel cells systems at their manufacturing site here, the companies said Thursday.
Workers at the Fuel Cell System Manufacturing LLC plant, the first large-scale manufacturing joint venture to build fuel cells, develop fuel cell systems for both companies. The competing automakers then sell or use the systems separately. The facility covers 70,000 square feet.
Honda and GM engineers started working together in 2013 to develop the next-generation fuel cell system. The companies established FCSM in the Downriver township in January 2017 based on a joint investment of $85 million. The facility will create 80 jobs to make hydrogen power solutions for various applications.
Hydrogen fuel cells are a key part of the Detroit automaker’s electrification strategy because the technology has the capability to power larger modes of transportation, from semis to trains, free of emissions.
“GM views fuel cells as being a complement to lithium-ion battery technology. Each has a role to play,” said Charlie Freese, GM executive director, Hydrotec. “Fuel cells uniquely fill the need of the heaviest, most capable vehicles that carry the largest payloads, the longest distances, and also require fast refueling to make that work.”
GM and Autocar Industries LLC in December announced they signed a joint development agreement to create vocational vehicles powered by GM’s Hydrotec hydrogen fuel cell power cubes. The partnership will give Autocar, a customized vocational trucks company, the opportunity to access fuel cell technology that will support customer needs to meet Environmental Protection Agency requirements.
Also in December, GM and Komatsu, a global manufacturer of mining and construction equipment, will jointly design and validate the technology that will be used for Komatsu’s 930E electric drive mining truck.
Honda hasn’t announced any specific customers for the fuel cell systems, but later this year it will introduce an all-new CR-V fuel cell electric vehicle that will be sold in California, where hydrogen fueling stations exist. The CR-V fuel cell vehicle will be built at the HondaPerformance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio.
Honda also plans to market the fuel cells for commercial vehicles, stationary power stations andconstruction machinery. The company expects initial sales of 2,000 units per year by mid-decade. GM hasn’t provided any initial sales expectations.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on January 18, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Wood County leaders said Thursday they were relieved that a reliable local company had purchased the massive former Peloton building and surrounding land.
First Solar Inc. — headquartered in Arizona but with much of its domestic panel manufacturing, research, and development operations in Wood County — confirmed Wednesday that it was buying the more than one-million-square-foot Troy Township building, The location was initially built to manufacture exercise equipment before Peloton pulled back on its expansion plans in 2022 and put the property on the market.
Property records show First Solar bought the building last week, along with some surrounding land, for $33 million. The company said it would use the space initially as a warehouse, and later for light manufacturing.
“I’m happy it’s First Solar,” Troy Township trustee Skip Recker said, noting multiple people have looked at the former Peloton site. “It is a relief. I’m glad it’s a nice local company we can work with.”
The waiting was difficult, he said, but township officials had been in regular contact with the Wood County Economic Development Commission and were confident a new owner would be found.
Wood County commissioner Doris Herringshaw said she was pleased that the existing building on the site would be used. The site is just north of the Home Depot Distribution Center as well as Pilkington Glass’ manufacturing plant.
“I’m glad somebody can take a building that is already pretty much together, and make it useful for whatever they need it to be,” she said.
Brent Welker, Eastwood Local Schools superintendent, said First Solar has a good track record with area districts, such as Lake.
“It’s great news for the district. First Solar has been an outstanding partner to our neighbors to the north,” he said.
The district recently received its first tax abatement check for the property. The $389,000 was paid by POP Real Estate Holdings, the property holding company for Peloton that sold to First Solar. POP still owns more than 100 acres near the building, property records show.
Mr. Welker in December said he was so unsure about the Peloton tax abatement payment being received that it was not in the district’s 2024-25 budget, which totals $21 million. On Thursday, he said the $389,000 will go into the general fund.
Wade Gottschalk, executive director of the Wood County Economic Development Commission, said the Peloton building and surrounding acreage was a prime location for developers.
“It is a great location, with great utilities and infrastructure access,” he said.
He is happy that First Solar bought it, calling the company a “fantastic corporate citizen in Wood County.”
Wood County has a fair amount of sites in this 100-acre range, he said, but not all are in the ready-to-develop stage. The Peloton site was also unusual in that it had the almost-finished building on it, he said.
Mr. Gottschalk said there is a lot of acreage in Wood County that could be developed, but most is not zoned for industrial or manufacturing, or even for sale.
“There’s obviously a lot of opportunity there throughout the county,” he said. “We’re just glad First Solar made this acquisition.”
First Solar’s purchase is the latest in a series of big domestic investments by the firm since mid-2022.
The company produces advanced thin film photovoltaics for commercial and residential users, and is one of the country’s largest solar panel makers, operating in an industry dominated by players outside the United States.
Those big domestic investments have included new manufacturing plants in Alabama and Louisiana. Locally, it has included a $270 million research and development center in Perrysburg Township, and a $185 million investment to grow production capacity across its existing trio of northwest Ohio manufacturing facilities.
The company has been on a spending tear in large part thanks to 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act, which provided big federal incentives for clean energy including solar power manufacturing. The company also has offices and plants outside the United States, and recently announced a new facility in India.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on January 25, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A $4.7 million downtown beautification project is planned for Perrysburg and will be introduced to the public Wednesday.
Business owners and the public are invited to view renderings and ask questions at an open house from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Schaller Memorial Building, 130 W. Indiana Ave.
“This is a true revitalization project,” said Joe Fawcett, city administrator. “It’s a big investment in the downtown area. The renderings show what the downtown could look like on the back end of this, complementing the historic nature of the downtown and maximizing some of those really neat features of the downtown: the really wide sidewalks, the outdoor dining.”
The project is estimated to cost $4.7 million. The city is reviewing several options on how to pay for the project, which include applying for grants, utilizing reserve funding and money from the general fund, paying with cash set aside in the 2024 budget, or a combination of borrowing and cash.
The city is also looking at ways to assist business or building owners who may want to make their own accessibility improvements by offering grants from remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Another cost to the city will be propping up affected businesses during the construction, Mr. Fawcett said. This could include marketing, helping with signage, and obtaining private parking spaces for business use, he said.
The 2025 construction will likely move the tremendously popular farmers market out of the downtown that summer.
“We’re working through with Visit Perrysburg about the ’25 market, where it would go, how it would look,” Mr. Fawcett said. “And then plan for 2026 and have a huge celebration of the markets’ back in the downtown.”
The market could be moved to the Commodore lawn, he said.
“We don’t know yet, but it is certainly fair to say there is going to be an impact to the downtown,” Mr. Fawcett said.
Christine Best, executive director of Visit Perrysburg, said the market could be held in an amended downtown area, Levis Commons, or the Country Charm Shoppes parking lot.
“I think it will be a good thing, and from the renderings, it’s beautiful,” she said. “It’s in dire need of those outdoor speakers, better lighting, better wiring.
“The growing pains will be worth it,” Ms. Best said.
Mr. Fawcett said this process started as an Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility project.
“The city … received significant feedback from the downtown property owners and businesses that they did not like the [initial] plan,” he said. “The mayor and council listened to their concerns and took a step back and re-evaluated the approach.”
They re-envisioned the parameters and embraced it as an investment, he said.
“It turned into a true revitalization and streetscape project,” Mr. Fawcett said.
The downtown sidewalks will be cut into four zones. Starting at the business and going toward the street, there will be a 5-foot building zone, followed by 8 feet of sidewalk and 8 feet of amenity zone, which would be for outdoor dining or vendor tents for the farmers market. The last section is for curbs.
There will be planters, updated lighting, and public art, he said.
There will also be a ramp system into buildings for people with mobility issues, Mr. Fawcett said.
“Another thing we found is that the slope of the road doesn’t meet current ADA standards, the cross slope of the sidewalk doesn’t meet current ADA standards — so there’s accessibility issues throughout,” he said. “People will be able to take steps up into buildings, or the ramps around.”
Shelby Lahey, who manages marketing and the website for downtown businesses Angel 101 and Gather, said she hopes the plan will keep downtown businesses competitive and current while maintaining their historical nature.
“I saw the ramps and the flower beds, and it seems like a really good collaboration,” she said.
Other representatives of downtown businesses who did not want to be quoted said they would like more parking.
“The guidance to the architect was we’re not losing parking and anyone with outdoor dining is not losing the amount of outdoor dining they can have,” Mr. Fawcett said.
The project needs to go through the legislative process of authorizing the mayor and finance director to contract for the remaining design and engineering work. More public open houses will be held to gather input.
An ad-hoc steering committee of downtown business owners, property owners, and members of the public will be formed.
The goal is to have the design phase completed by November. The next phase would begin in January with construction beginning in March, 2025, and completed in the fall of 2025.
Posted By: mlive on January 27, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Muskegon turned the corner economically and is now headed in the right direction to avoid a potential national recession, according to the economic forecast presented to 400 stakeholders on Friday, Jan. 26.
The Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce hosted Paul Isely, associate dean and professor of economics at Grand Valley State University, to present his economic forecast for 2024 at the VanDyk Mortgage Convention Center.
The West Michigan region is looking better than the national outlook, Isley said. West Michigan’s strengths in increasing population, strong housing demand and diversified industries will help it weather any downturn and in some cases outperform the rest of the country.
“Muskegon is behaving differently, and it’s going to behave differently over the next five years than the rest of Western Michigan. So we have to be prepared for that and sort of think about where we’re heading,” Isley said.
Here’s a few things Muskegon has going for it, and what it can further capitalize on:
Workforce is younger and more educated than pre-COVID
From 2006 to 2019, Muskegon’s working age population was declining. That started to turn around in 2020 and the years after. This increase is coming from young people moving to Muskegon, rather than an increase in young residents entering the workforce. However, Isley notes this timeline also overlays with the Muskegon Promise’s expanding eligibility.
In 2022, the scholarship program for free tuition changed its GPA requirements from 3.5 to 3.4, adding 625 more eligible students. The following year the requirement lowered to 3.25 grade point average, or to rank within the top 30% of their graduating class. That 2023 expansion added more than 850 eligible students.
“It’s right in line with Muskegon promise, which might be holding some students here in Muskegon for a longer period of time and they would have been otherwise,” Isley said.
Similarly, the data shows the average education of a Muskegon worker is going up faster than the rest of the region.
“That’s also indicative of the fact that that policy change is actually doing some of the stated goals that we’re getting towards to help anchor some young people here and to increase the education of our workforce,” Isley said.
The overall increase brings Muskegon workforce close to the 2009 levels, Isley said.
Muskegon County’s neighbors, Kent and Ottawa, are growing at a rapid pace — they’re leading the state. It’s hard company to keep up with but when zeroing in on just the last three years, Isley said Muskegon’s workforce population grew more than both Kent and Ottawa.
“[That] is a stunning turnaround from 10 years ago,” he said.
Kent and Ottawa are still fierce competitors for jobs, though, Isley said. Nearly 55% of Muskegon’s working population of 20- to 55-year-olds are commuting outside of Muskegon County for work. A third are going to Kent, a third are going to Ottawa and the last third are going elsewhere.
“This tells us that they we have some work to do here with creating job opportunities that are competitive,” Isley said. “Because people aren’t going to travel all the way to Kent or Ottawa county if there’s something here that pays the same.”
To right the course, Isley predicts that more Muskegon employers will increase their pay faster than in other areas. He also considers this a selling point for companies relocating to Muskegon because the county has a young, growing workforce looking for closer opportunities.
A more affordable option to live by the lake
Despite Muskegon’s persistent commuter problem, the hybrid work shift has made the housing market more desirable — and competitive. Isley’s calculation estimates 700 people per year move from Ottawa County to Muskegon County in search of more affordable housing. The median home price for Ottawa County in 2023 was $352,000 compared to Muskegon’s $209,000, according to Redfin data.
Demand is pushing housing prices in Muskegon up, even as sales are trending downward. This is a symptom of the stagnant supply, Isley said.
The city of Muskegon released a housing report that found a shocking deficit in housing at all income levels. The study determined a need for 1,611 additional rental units and 1,313 homes for sale in the next five years. That represents about a 20% increase in overall housing stock.
To start the new year, the city committed to adding homes for ‘working class’ residents on the 36 vacant lots owned by the Muskegon County Land Bank Authority.
Part of the city’s ambitious housing initiative is to use $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to support housing construction and cover differences between sales prices and construction costs. The goal is to sell roughly half of new infill homes to people earning between 80% and 120% of the area’s median income.
Future investments
Isley’s main takeaway for the audience was that a recession in Muskegon County is unlikely, and that’s because the economy has diversified away from making and selling things to selling experiences and services.
“We’re seeing value added across the greater set of industries, where before you were mostly foundries, medical care, and some other assorted manufacturing,” Isley said. “You’re now getting a broader set of industries. A broader set of industries will make you more resilient.”
Muskegon’s tourism has taken off.
In 2022, the tourism industry had an economic impact of $366.6 million, according to research company Tourism Economics and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.
The impact of lakeshore events, arts and cultural organizations made up 18.4% of that economic impact. Festivals brought in an estimated $67.6 million in revenues and value to the region in 2022, according to Visit Muskegon, the county’s destination marketing organization.
Muskegon is leaning into its cruise appeal as well. More than 3,000 passengers arrived in Muskegon via the Great Lakes this year, bringing with them almost $1 million in additional revenue for the city.
The $80 million investment in ridding Muskegon Lake of industrial pollution is paying off, and has even more to offer, Isley said.
Adding infrastructure around the lake for public access and zoning ordinances for secondary homes and short-term rentals will continue the momentum, he said. Both have been recent topics at city and county commission meetings.
“I think that’s the low hanging fruit and you’ve been attacking it as a as a city already,” Isley said. “But you need to double down on that. Because if you bring people here for the lake, they’re going to come downtown and you’re downtown is going to grow.”
Posted By: mlive on January 29, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A developer plans to bring four new shops, and an estimated 10 new jobs, to Grand Rapids’ southeast side.
1947 Eastern Avenue, LLC has plans to rehabilitate two existing buildings – 1947 Eastern Ave. SE and the adjacent 1941 Eastern Ave. SE – to house five commercial storefronts.
The buildings are near the intersection of Eastern and Burton and are currently vacant except for Classy Nails nail salon, which will stay in business following the rehabilitation.
The developer plans to recruit small service businesses, such as restaurants, coffee shops and retail establishments, to fill the remaining four storefronts, according to city commission documents. Those new tenants haven’t yet been identified.
The developer estimates the four new storefronts created by the $277,000 rehabilitation will create 10 new full-time jobs, with average wages estimated around $10.33 an hour, according to city officials. The number of jobs and wages may differ from what is currently estimated depending on what businesses fill those storefronts.
The existing nail salon will retain four full-time jobs that currently have average wages of $10.15 per hour, city officials said. The project is expected to generate $4,310 in new property taxes each year, with $755 of that being new city property taxes.
The developer is applying for a 10-year tax break as part of the project which would abate about $33,070 in taxes over that period, with $7,550 of that being city taxes.
Prior to consideration of that tax break by the Grand Rapids City Commission, a public hearing will be held about it at the body’s 2 p.m. Feb. 6 meeting.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on December 22, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Renovation of downtown Toledo’s historic, but decrepit, Nicholas Building got a $10 million boost Thursday from the Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program.
The credit awarded to the building on the southwest corner of Huron Street and Madison Avenue — an anchor of downtown Toledo’s Four Corners — is “one of the largest single historic tax credit awards for any project in Ohio history,” the Lucas County Land Bank said in response.
The state also announced reissuance of a credit for the former Burt’s Theater a few blocks away on Jefferson Avenue and a new credit for the former Hoppe & Straub Bottling Co. building at Superior and Lafayette streets. The latter is now home to the Toledo branch of The Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant chain, while the former most recently housed Caesar’s Showbar.
The $67.5 million in total tax credits applicable to 46 projects statewide will involve renovating 54 buildings and induce about $732 million in private investment, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office said. The three in Toledo were the only ones in northwest Ohio in this round of credits.
The Nicholas and its cross-street neighbor, the Spitzer Building, are slated for renovation by the Lucas County Land Bank. The $10 million tax credit for the Nicholas applies to that building’s estimated $103,289,695 renovation cost.
“We have known from Day One that redevelopment of the Spitzer and Nicholas buildings would be hard, but our community has never shied away from hard work,” Lindsay Webb, the Land Bank’s chairman as well as the Lucas County treasurer, said in a prepared statement. “Today’s announcement is an incredible first step toward funding this project and continuing downtown’s transformation.”
A companion application for the Spitzer Building’s renovation also was submitted in September. The two buildings’ renovation is expected to cost a combined $190 million, with a total of 350 dwellings and over 25,000 square feet of retail and commercial space.
“While the Spitzer Building was not funded in this round, the project team believes it remains very competitive, and its application is expected to be re-submitted in March, 2024,” the Land Bank said.
The agency also has an application for an Ohio Transformational Mixed-Use Development tax credit for the Four Corners project pending with the state. If approved, the project would be the first of its kind in northwest Ohio to receive such a credit.
The Four Corners is so named because it is the only downtown Toledo intersection at which original tall buildings occupy all four corners. But three of the four have been empty for years.
Built in 1906, the Nicholas was occupied by bank headquarters and offices until it lost the last of its occupants in 2006. Its upper floors are to be converted into 193 residential units ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments.
The same round of credits includes $1,983,670 for Burt’s Theater at 725 Jefferson, where property owner IBC, Inc. expects to spend $10,118,703 to create 15 apartments on upper floors plus a ground-floor restaurant.
It had been selected a year ago for a $908,360 tax credit applicable toward a project cost then estimated at $8.3 million.
It’s the “same exact project as before, but two things changed in the interim: material costs skyrocketed and interest rates doubled,” Joe Marck, IBC’s director of development, said Thursday.
Contractors toured the project in the spring of 2022 to prepare bids, and IBC filed its tax-credit application that summer, he said. But contractors’ revised quotes after the award a year ago were higher by more than the tax-credit award, and that was before rising lending costs were factored in.
“There’s just so much ‘sit and wait’ time in the process, that inflation started going crazy and there was nothing we could do about it,” Mr. Marck said.
IBC is wrapping up work on the former Barber Farris Produce Warehouse at Huron and Market streets, he said. Finalizing plans with architects and engineers and getting city permits for the former Caesar’s should allow work to start there by summer.
The $250,000 tax credit for the former bottling plant at 42 S. Superior St. will allow upper floors at The Spaghetti Warehouse to be renovated into an event center for weddings, parties, and the like and feature a commercial kitchen, bridal suites, ballrooms, and a bar area, the state’s announcement said.
The total project cost there is estimated at $4,435,403.
Posted By: WTOL11 on January 3, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
WTOL 11 has learned that 2024 could be a significant year for development in Toledo. City leaders said there is currently more than $1 billion of investment property primed for projects this year.
Wanting to highlight these various projects, WTOL 11 met with Toledo’s commissioner of economic development, Brandon Selhorst, Wednesday morning outside of the former Commerce Paper building, one of the first major pieces of city development that will be finished this year.
Expected to be complete by March or April, the Overmyer Lofts will offer 75 more apartments in the growing downtown area.
“It’s one of our newest residential conversion projects in downtown,” Selhorst said. “It’s about a $40 million project.”
Selhorst said the more housing that can be added to the downtown region, the more business the city can entice. That’s why another project scheduled for a 2024 start is so critical, which includes the renovation of two of Toledo’s abandoned skyscrapers, the Nicholas and Spitzer buildings.
“It’s about a $200 million renovation of both the Nicholas and Spitzer buildings, taking them from office spaces to new units,” Selhorst said. “But this should create some 367 units for downtown.”
Add in renovations to the Jefferson Center and other projects and, in total, downtown development will make up the lion’s share of the city’s investments this year.
“Over a billion, $1 billion of the $1.5 billion total is going to downtown projects,” Selhorst said.
The other half billion will be going to projects like the former Elder-Beerman site at the Westgate Shopping Center in west Toledo, which is also about to break ground on a $50 million facelift in the coming months.
“There’s a lot of moving pieces with the Westgate project, but the developer has been very clear about wanting to create a lifestyle center,” Selhorst said.
That plan means turning the patch of dirt that is currently there into a space for up-and-coming retail and modern apartments, much like Levis Commons in Perrysburg.
Up the road in north Toledo, the city’s next industrial park is set to break ground this year at the former NorthTowne Square mall site.
This $100 million project, soon to be called the Toledo Trade Center, will host a new electric vehicle battery manufacturer, Mobis International. Selhorst called the future industrial park the city’s new economic engine.
“Just a major opportunity to attract new jobs, new technologies, new opportunities to our city,” said Selhorst.
He said the upcoming year of development indicates something all Toledoans can celebrate: momentum.
“This isn’t just a one-and-done kind of thing like we’ve seen in other years,” said Selhorst. “There are constantly things being built all over our city.”
Selhorst called this year the start of a revitalization for the city and said if you don’t notice any major changes this year, just wait until next year when many of these projects will be complete and start opening their doors.
Posted By: mlive on January 7, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Construction has begun on an apartment building in the heart of Whitehall designed for those who work in Whitehall but can’t find housing there.
The 32-unit Harwood Flats is being constructed on Lake Street at the end of Colby Street. In addition to market rate apartments, every one of which will have a balcony with a water view, the building has commercial space.
The $7.9 million project is being constructed at the site of the former Pinheads Bowling Alley and adjacent to Goodrich Park on White Lake.
After years of planning, ground was broken in December 2023, Chris Veneklasen, CEO of Veneklasen Construction, told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle.
“We’re excited to be moving forward and excited for what this can do for the community,” Veneklasen said. “It provides a need for people who are working in the community but living outside of it.”
The project received its final needed boost with the Nov. 14, 2023, approval of a Commercial Rehabilitation Act tax abatement by the Michigan Tax Commission.
The abatement freezes the property’s taxable value to the amount established prior to construction. That 10-year abatement is expected to be worth about $733,000, according to a previously released city estimate. Local and state education taxes are not part of the abatement.
The project also received a $1.5 million grant from the Michigan Strategic Fund. The grant restricts rents for three years.
Anticipated rents will range from $1,325 to $1,375 for one-bedroom units, $1,700 to $1,725 for two-bedroom units and $1,850 to $1,900 for three-bedroom units.
Construction is expected to be completed this fall, Veneklasen said.
Edward Jones financial advisers will take up some of the commercial space, Veneklasen said.
The project will include lower-level covered parking as well as electric vehicle charging ports for residents and the public, he said.
The developer originally hoped to include a restaurant, but attempts to find one to locate there proved unsuccessful, Veneklasen said. The triangle-shaped Brownfield site at 115 Lake Street is next to the White Lake Pathway paved trail and is on a hill overlooking the lake, the park and the city’s marina.
A planned “West Colby Promenade” park connecting the lake to downtown will traverse the front of the property. That park, which will include property on which Big John’s Pizza currently sits, is expected to be developed in 2025.
The building is named after the Harwood family, the original owners of the property who operated a hotel at the site.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on January 5, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Ottawa County, which includes portions of Grand Rapids and is Michigan’s seventh largest county by population, and 123Net, a fiber internet, colocation and voice services provider in Southfield, have entered into an agreement to construct 380 miles of additional fiber in the county to bring high-performance internet access to approximately 4,000 underserved residents.
Funding for the roughly $25 million project is slated to come from a variety of sources including $14 million in ROBIN Grant Funding, $7.5 million from Ottawa County’s American Rescue Plan Act funds and $3.5 million from 123NET.
“We’re at an interesting time in broadband deployment as there are a number of unique funding programs that counties and municipalities can access,” says Chuck Irvin, executive vice president of 123Net. “Ottawa County leadership understands that fast, reliable internet is essential for all of its businesses and residents and has done a great job accessing these available funds for a county-wide rollout to bring high-speed fiber internet to all underserved and unserved residents.”
123Net’s Ottawa County fiber installation will further connect to its existing Michigan network that spans 4,000 miles and connects to multiple data centers and peering exchanges like the Detroit Internet Exchange and Grand Rapids Internet Exchange.
As a result, Ottawa residents can expect internet speeds of up to 6 gigabits per second, which is 100 times faster than conventional systems. Additionally, the network will be both open access and carrier-neutral, allowing other network providers to access the fiber, giving residents the ability to choose their preferred internet provider.
“Broadband infrastructure is important for supporting agriculture, business, and education across Ottawa County. This open access expansion increases competition countywide and connects rural areas. This deal leverages ARPA funds into a long-term solution to make Ottawa County a great place to work and raise a family,” says Joe Moss, chair of the Board of Commissioners.
123Net has started a similar project in neighboring Allegan County.
“Working with two adjacent counties will bring project and construction efficiencies for both parties and make this particular region of West Michigan one of the best connected in the state,” Irvin says. “We are honored to serve as stewards for a portion of the ROBIN Grant Program’s funds, aimed at improving broadband access in Ottawa and Allegan Counties.
“We are also actively exploring public-private partnerships with additional counties in preparation for the release of the upcoming BEAD grant program next year. If your local community is interested in partnering, please reach out to 123Net.”
Ottawa County fiber installation will be completed in sections over the next few years. 123Net plans to use both internal and local resources for the project — including West Michigan contractors and 123Net’s ten in-house construction crews.
123Net is a Michigan business, privately owned and managed by highly successful network engineers focused on the telecom industry. The company operates four data center facilities, one in Grand Rapids and three in Southfield, offering more than 100,000 square feet of colocation space.
The company has been providing network, voice, and data center services to enterprises, carriers, ISPs, and technology companies for more than 25 years. With over 4,500 route miles of fiber, 55-plus Fixed Wireless Points of Presence, and 92 nodes across the state, 123Net is building network to make Michigan communities and businesses the best connected on the planet.
Posted By: The Detroit News/Detroit Region Aerotropolis on December 18, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The City of Romulus, Michigan is thrilled to announce a significant advancement in aviation technology with the expansion of drone-accessible airspace near the Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW). This development, made possible through changes implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), marks a significant step forward for Romulus in embracing innovation, economic growth and community life.
While the FAA facilitated the necessary adjustments to the airspace, the City of Romulus – with funding from its Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA) and in partnership with drone integration leader Airspace Link – played a pivotal role in advocating for these changes. The combined efforts ensured these airspace enhancements aligned with the safety needs of the local community and the airport. This initiative propels Romulus businesses and its community to the forefront of the rapidly growing drone industry.
Romulus’s active participation in the Detroit Region Aerotropolis, a collaborative effort to transform the region into a manufacturing, logistics and aviation hub, was crucial in this process. The city’s involvement in Aerotropolis’ initiative to integrate drone technology into regional infrastructure significantly contributed to the success of these airspace changes.
Following extensive research and analysis conducted with Airspace Link, Romulus identified optimal areas for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operations. The FAA’s implementation of the proposed changes to the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) grid ceilings near DTW has considerably improved airspace accessibility.
The new LAANC grid ceilings enable drone operators to receive immediate flight authorizations, enhancing community access to this airspace. This update has modified 22% of the flight grids from zero to a minimum of 50-foot ceilings, improving accessibility across 13.92 square miles of the city. This change affects over 32% of Romulus, primarily in commercial and residential areas, positively impacting more than 5,500 Romulus residents.
This expanded airspace access is expected to unlock a wealth of economic opportunities, enabling local businesses and individuals to explore various UAS technologies. The applications are diverse, encompassing everything from medical and package delivery to infrastructure inspection and public safety use cases. This change is anticipated to fuel economic expansion, stimulate job growth, forge new educational avenues in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and is likely to bring improvements in public health and safety while introducing unique recreational activities, such as drone parks.
The City of Romulus serves over 23,000 residents and 700 businesses, with a daytime population of more than 51,500 due to large-scale operations of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Promoting the vision of “Home of Opportunity,” Romulus sits at the crossroads of two of southeast Michigan’s most well-traveled expressways, I-275 and I-94; offering easy access to Detroit, Ann Arbor and Canada. With diversity in culture, land and opportunity, Romulus is keenly focused on quality education, low taxes and a strong track record of safety. For more information about the City of Romulus, visit www.romulusgov.com
About Detroit Region Aerotropolis
The Detroit Region Aerotropolis is a four-community, two-county public-private economic development partnership with the Wayne County Airport Authority, dedicated to transforming the region into a global hub for manufacturing, logistics and aviation. Learn more at www.detroitaero.org.
About Airspace Link
Airspace Link’s vision is to create a world where the safe integration of drones fuels human progress, advancing social equity, the environment, and the economy. Founded in Detroit in 2018, Airspace Link is one of the few FAA-approved UAS Service Suppliers of the Low Altitude Authorization & Notification Capability (LAANC). Airspace Link’s cloud-based platform, AirHub® Portal, provides the digital infrastructure required to support the safe use of recreational and commercial drone use in communities at scale, supporting the growth of drone operations, drone service providers, drone manufacturers, package delivery, and air taxi deployment in the future. Learn more at www.airspacelink.com.
Posted By: REJournals on January 3, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
While demand for office space has been sluggish since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is one office sector that is still seeing lower vacancy rates: high-rise buildings.
New research from JLL suggests that vacancy rates will remain low in the country’s high-rise office spaces, largely because the development of new office space in general, and high-rise buildings in particular, will slow during the next several years.
According to JLL, while office space nationally had a vacancy rate of more than 20% as of December of 2023, office suites on floors 20 and above in high-rise buildings had a vacancy rate of just 12.4%, when excluding figures in New York City.
Signature high-rise buildings across the country also boast low office vacancy rates. JLL reported that the Empire State Building in New York City was 90.2% occupied as of December of last year while the Willis Tower in Chicago was 87% occupied. That Willis Tower figure is especially impressive considering that the overall office vacancy rate in the Chicago market was higher than 20% in December.
Jacob Rowden, JLL research manager, says that one of the reasons for the lower vacancy rates is that many high-rise buildings are built in what he calls “ultra-core” locations.
He pointed to One Vanderbilt in New York City as an example. This 93-story skyscraper is located right across from Grand Central Terminal, making the building a desirable location for companies hoping to make it easier for commuters to reach their offices.
Taller buildings, because they rise so much higher than their neighbors, also offer better natural light on their upper floors, something that companies increasingly strive to offer to their employees, Rowden said.
“These are rare assets,” Rowden said. “Only about 1% of our office space sits on the 40th floor or above. When you talk about those top-level penthouse suites in the highest buildings, those are even rarer. A lot of tenants are interested in that. There is very limited space of that kind available.”
Larger buildings also taper as they rise higher. This means that there isn’t as much room for office space available on these buildings’ upper floors. That also limits the amount of top-floor office space available, helping to increase the demand for it.
At the same time, tenants have been more interested in smaller floor plates since the start of the pandemic. That, too, has boosted demand for the smaller office spaces typically offered on the higher floors of office buildings.
Don’t expect demand for high-rise office space to lessen in the future, either. JLL says that there simply aren’t enough new high-rise spaces on the way. Of the 253 office buildings that remain under construction nationally, just 12 are planned to rise 30 stories or higher. At least six of those buildings have fully pre-leased their high-rise floors, according to JLL.
“The pipeline for super-tall buildings is very thin in most markets,” Rowden said. “Outside of Miami or Austin, we don’t expect to see the construction of any tallest buildings in any markets for a while.”
As Rowden says, since the pandemic, the demand for new office construction has fallen, and tall buildings represent the largest and most challenging office projects of all.
“These buildings are costly, difficult to propose, difficult to find financing for and challenging to build in this environment,” he said.
Don’t underestimate the power of brand names, either. Many high-rise office buildings rank among the most prominent and well-known office spaces in their cities. Rowden said that many tenants seek out that name recognition, often using it as a way to entice and retain top employees.
“We definitely see tenants that are interested in the architectural significance of these buildings,” Rowden said. “Being in an iconic building carries a level of prominence that can elevate their brand from a recruiting standpoint and overall branding of their company.”
Posted By: The Detroit News/Bloomberg on January 11, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Soaring borrowing costs and plunging prices walloped the global commercial-property market last year. Now, more clarity around values and an urgent need to address looming debt maturities are expected to spark more deals.
Sellers and buyers are finally seeing more opportunities to transact after uncertainty nearly froze the market for much of last year. The average number of bids per deal climbed 16% in November 2023 from the end of 2022, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.
And the opportunity may be vast: The brokerage estimates that property owners with loans maturing through the end of 2025 will need as much as $570 billion in new equity given how sharply values have fallen.
With some central banks starting to signal that the rapid rate-hiking cycle is winding down, investors have gained more insight into borrowing costs. And several real estate deals – including the sale of roughly $33 billion in commercial-property debt from the failed Signature Bank – have also provided more transparency on values. The clarity is starting to spur some optimism in the beleaguered market.
“We’re seeing more bids, and we’re seeing more tours,” Michael Gigliotti, a senior managing director at JLL, said in a phone interview. “You have maturing loans, you have dry capital, you have parties interested in investing in real estate.”
The market still needs to see a longer period of stability with interest rates to fully unlock the capital that’s on the sidelines, according to JLL. And many owners may wait to transact until values stabilize even more or potentially start rising.
But with more than $3 trillion of property around the world that has debt set to mature through 2025, many owners need to figure out what to do with certain properties and debt in the coming months, according to JLL.
“The debt markets are stabilizing so there’s less yield to be made in debt, so there’s more people now looking at equity,” said Adam Spies, co-head of U.S. capital markets at Newmark Group Inc. “People feel that they’re not at the top anymore looking over a cliff, but perhaps at the bottom, looking up. Investors feel like it’s a good time to start making investments.”
Other firms are seeing early signs that the commercial real estate market is starting to settle more. Real estate analytics company Green Street said its index of commercial property prices was flat in December from a month earlier.
“The correction in real estate pricing that began two years ago appears to have run its course,” Peter Rothemund, co-head of strategic research at Green Street, said in a statement on Jan. 5. “Commercial real estate is now fairly priced versus yields on corporate bonds, and market pricing of listed” real estate investment trusts suggests something similar.
More demand
There’s evidence that buyer interest is perking up for some Manhattan towers. An office building in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood at 101 Franklin St., which is being marketed by Newmark as a potential residential conversion, has attracted dozens of tours and received more than a dozen bids, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named citing private details.
The seller, Columbia Property Trust, is asking around $115 million for the property – more than 40% off the price it paid in 2019 – and is also offering potential financing for the deal, the people said. A representative for Columbia Property Trust declined to comment.
DWS Group’s office tower in the Financial District, at 222 Broadway, is also being pitched as a conversion opportunity and has attracted many potential investors seeking to tour the building, one of the people said. A DWS representative declined to comment.
Josh Rahmani, a co-founder of Empire Capital Holdings, has been actively bidding on and buying up New York offices over the past two years as he seeks to invest in commercial property on behalf of wealthy families. But now, more bidders are joining the fray, he said.
“There was a vacant building I was bidding on, but the price went up beyond where we were willing to take it a month ago, so there’s more activity,” Rahmani said. “If you have a motivated seller and they have to sell now, the price is what the market can bear, which is still at great discounts.”
Growing pressure
The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark rate steady at its meeting in December while also signaling the end to the most aggressive tightening cycle in a generation. Property owners who don’t have to urgently sell may be inclined to hold onto assets if rates come down.
But the refinancing shortfall – which ranges between $270 billion and $570 billion according to JLL – could spur some owners to put assets or loans up for sale, including distressed transactions in some cases.
On the other side, potential buyers and investors are flush with funds. JLL said that there’s $402 billion of dry powder for commercial real estate, according to data as of October.
“This reset in values will both challenge capital and catalyze liquidity,” Richard Bloxam, chief executive officer of capital markets at JLL, said in a statement. “There is absolutely uniform understanding that pricing has changed. Given the quantum of dry powder, there will be a considerable first-mover advantage for capital that can deploy quickly and mobilize around opportunities as market fundamentals improve.”
Some buyers have deployed capital into major deals recently. In December, the luxury retailer Prada SpA and an entity tied to the Prada family purchased two buildings on New York’s Fifth Avenue for a total of $835 million, one of the largest property deals in the city last year.
Well-known properties in California also found buyers. The University of California agreed to pay $700 million for a former Los Angeles shopping mall that had been redeveloped as offices for Alphabet Inc.’s Google. The university plans to convert it to a medical and engineering research park.
The Aon Center in downtown LA sold for $147.8 million, about 45% less than its previous purchase price in 2014.
The investment arm of property firm Kassin Sabbagh Realty purchased a 49% stake in a 34-story Manhattan office building at 1410 Broadway in Manhattan. The building, owned by L.H. Charney Associates, was previously leased to WeWork, but the coworking firm’s lease was terminated prior to its bankruptcy filing. Since then, more space has been leased, bringing the tower’s occupancy up to more than 90%.
“Now that rates appear that they aren’t going to go up anymore, it’s giving buyers assurances that they won’t be in a worse situation six months from now in trying to close or get a loan,” said Albert Sultan, a broker at KSR. “There’s a handful of players that have returned to the market – not a ton – but that gives me optimism that things will return overall.”
U.S. concentration
The U.S. could be a particularly interesting spot, according to JLL. Of the $3.1 trillion property assets with maturing debt through the end of 2025, more than three quarters of that are concentrated in the U.S., specifically in the residential and office sectors, the brokerage said.
The U.S. is furthest along in its cycle, which could draw more attention from buyers hoping to catch the bottom of the price decline. That includes major players such as Morgan Stanley’s real estate investing platform, which is seeking out opportunities that arise from the turmoil in the industry.
“Certainly a lot of investors are interested in investing in real estate when they think they’re picking the bottom,” JLL’s Gigliotti said.
Posted By: Detroit Free Press on January 3, 2024. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The vacancy rate is up, leasing prices are down and employers still aren’t demanding everyone be back in the office like it is 2019.
Yet this current state of the downtown Detroit office market did not stop a local real estate firm last month from buying two of the seven Renaissance Center towers, with plans to keep the glassy pair as office space.
Farmington Hills-based Friedman Real Estate said last week that on Dec. 21 it bought the RenCen’s 500 and 600 towers from a New Jersey utility company that had owned them for years.
One of the towers is full, the other is mostly empty. The sale price wasn’t disclosed.
“We are big believers in the Detroit office market,” said Jared Friedman, executive managing director of Friedman Real Estate and son of company co-founder David Friedman. “These buildings specifically are very nice buildings — they are beautiful — (and) they have been corporate-occupied and owned since they were built in the ’80s. They really have some unique characteristics and they have the best riverfront views in the city.”
Both towers, at 21 stories, are smaller than the other five RenCen towers and came several years later as a Phase II, opening in 1981.
The RenCen had its 1977 grand opening with four 39-story office towers surrounding a central 73-story hotel, now a Marriott. All five original towers are owned by General Motors, which remains headquartered in the center.
Friedman’s newly purchased Tower 500 is occupied by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Until recently, The Blues also occupied some of Tower 600. Now Tower 600 is mostly vacant and ready to lease to office tenants, Jared Friedman said.
He considers both towers as “Class A-” office space, meaning a slight step below the very best. They each contain over 300,000 square feet and were last renovated in 2011.
Real estate experts describe “Class A” office space in Detroit as typically newer or more recently renovated than Class B or C, with higher quality construction and amenities and fancier lobbies.
While Friedman Real Estate owns commercial properties across metro Detroit and assists Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock firm with leasing its downtown office buildings, the RenCen towers are the only downtown buildings that the company owns.
Friedman Real Estate is relatively upbeat about the future of office space — “we think the pendulum swung way too far in one direction” — but surely has work ahead in filling up that second tower in a post-pandemic world.
Vacancies in Detroit office space, like that in cities nationwide, have been on the rise since COVID-19 and employers’ embrace of remote and hybrid work policies.
The downtown vacancy rate was 19% in the third quarter, up from about 14% a year earlier, according to a report by commercial real estate services firm CBRE. The average asking lease price during that period slipped 4% to $23.28 per square foot gross.
A few of the bigger recent moves were the departures of Meridian Health and BMC Compuware from downtown’s One Campus Martius building (formerly the Compuware Building), which left 130,000 square feet of office space to fill, according to the CBRE report.
Steve Morris, managing principal at Axis Advisors, a commercial tenant advisory firm, said tenants in downtown have generally been downsizing space when renewing leases, often taking half or even just a third of the space that they previously used.
Other tenants who are still locked in to longer-term leases have been subleasing their unneeded space, sometimes at a 50% discount off the main leasing rate, Morris said.
And there are fewer people downtown during the workday — even though nights and weekends are bustling.
As of October, the number of average daily workers in downtown was 45% of what it was before the pandemic, according to data captured by location analytics firm Placer.ai and compiled by the Downtown Detroit Partnership.
An office renter’s market
Real estate insiders say these dynamics have given office space tenants more options and price leverage with landlords.
“You are seeing tenants save money,” said Morris of Axis Advisors. Landlords “are not only competing against space on the market, (they) are competing against massive sublease space.”
Jared Friedman said they have not determined what asking rents will be in Tower 600, “but it will be a very good value proposition for tenants.” He noted how the tower also offers one of downtown’s the largest contiguous blocks of available office space, should a large organization wish to move in.
Looking further ahead in 2024, the options for office tenants will expand further.
The large 12-story office building at Dan Gilbert’s Hudson’s site could be done later this year, bringing an additional 400,000 square feet of new “Class A” office space to the market.
Bedrock has yet to announce an official opening date. However, the CBRE report estimates the office building as being ready to lease by the third quarter. The other Hudson’s site building, a 49-story skyscraper with a luxury hotel and condos, also is still under construction.
As for the other RenCen towers, GM has said it is committed to staying in Detroit, even though its daily in-office workforce in Detroit has gone down since the pandemic.
For those who love Caribou Coffee, a stand-alone spot of the brand will be back in metro Detroit starting Monday in Ferndale.
The Caribou Coffee in Ferndale, which the company is calling a “cabin,” is at 22134 Woodward Ave. and has a drive-through.
Most Caribou Coffee locations, known for their handcrafted coffee beverages and its brand, left Michigan a decade ago. The brand resurfaced about five years later inside Einstein Bagel Bros. locations.
A ribbon cutting for the new Ferndale coffeehouse between 8 and 9 Mile roads is set to take place at 10 a.m. Monday.
At Monday’s Ferndale grand opening, the first 100 guests receive a free Caribou coffee mug. Guests will also be entered for a chance to win free coffee for a year. You can enter by becoming a Caribou Perks member or by making a purchase Monday through Dec. 24. One winner receives one free beverage per week loaded onto their Caribou Perks account.
This Caribou Coffee “cabin” location is nearly 600 square feet and will have a drive-thru and pick-up window, but no indoor seating.
Breakfast sandwiches, baked goods and snacks will also be available.
This is the first metro Detroit Caribou Coffee, a brand under the Panera Brands company. The company also includes Panera Bread and Einstein Bros. Bagels. Manna Development Group, based in Encinitas, California, is a Panera Brands franchisee, owns and operates this location and is behind bringing the brand back to metro Detroit.
An Allen Park location is slated to open in January and more are planned throughout Michigan, according to a news release.
Caribou Coffee was founded in 1992 and is known for its handcrafted coffee beverages including signature mochas, espresso, Caribou coolers, teas and specialty coffees. Its coffee is also sold in bags and K-Cup’s at grocers and retailers. Globally there are more than 750 Caribou Coffee locations that are a mix of company-owned, franchise and nontraditional locations. Ferndale hours are 5:30 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. For details of the giveaway visit cariboucoffee.com where you can also sign up for its loyalty program.
Posted By: The Detroit News on December 15, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
U.S. factory production rebounded in November, reflecting a pickup in activity at carmakers and parts suppliers following the end of the United Auto Workers’ strike against the Detroit Three automakers.
Output increased a less-than-expected 0.3% last month, driven by a 7.1% surge in motor-vehicle production, Federal Reserve data showed. The figures followed a 0.8% decline in factory production in October.
Excluding autos, however, manufacturing fell 0.2% — the second monthly decline in a row. Total industrial production, which includes mining and utilities, rose 0.2%.
The resolution of the United Auto Workers’ strike against the Big Three Detroit automakers was a boon to November factory activity, retracing a slump in production at the companies and their suppliers in October. That said, the manufacturing sector as a whole continues to struggle under the weight of high borrowing costs.
Compared to November 2022, manufacturing output was down 0.8%.
Capacity utilization at factories, a measure of potential output being used, edged higher from the prior month but remained subdued. The annualized rate of car assemblies rebounded to 10.25 million, but remains below pre-strike levels.
Outside of autos, the report showed weakness. Factories producing apparel, paper and textiles all saw output declines. Some categories, like machinery as well as computers and electronic products, increased.
Recent factory surveys have also underscored headwinds for the sector. The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing gauge indicated contraction for a 13th straight month in November. New orders have now shrank for 15 months, the longest such stretch since the early 1980s.
Separate data out Friday showed a measure of manufacturing activity in New York state slid nearly 24 points to minus 14.5 in December, the lowest reading since August. Shipments declined and new orders shrank for a third-straight month. The figures are quite volatile from month-to-month.
The New York Fed’s survey showed factories expect some modest pickup in new orders and employment in the months ahead. The capital spending index remained subdued.
Posted By: The Detroit News on December 13, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A new electric-vehicle battery systems plant is planned for the city’s Milwaukee Junction neighborhood.
The Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority board approved Wednesday the transfer of a previously approved brownfield plan to USA Fortescue Piquette LLC, an American affiliate of Australia-based iron ore producer Fortescue Metals Group Ltd.
USA Fortescue Piquette LLC plans to invest at least $22.3 million in the project at 601 Piquette St. that will rehabilitate and perform extensive repairs to the building and parking on the property, according to documents submitted to the DBRA.
Developer Christos Moisides recently sold the 515,000-square-foot property on Piquette to USA Fortescue Piquette LLC. Moisides told the DBRA board that he sold the property because with the large amount of money Fortescue plans to invest in the site, it was more financially feasible for the company to purchase the property than for him to seek the financing needed to prepare the building to be leased.
“I will be staying on for the entirety of the project as construction manager,” Moisides said. “Very involved with the project bringing on and going through multiple bids for multiple contractors for the project that needs to gets done, for everything from abatement to revitalizing the project.”
Plans for the site will lead to high-tech manufacturing, allow for the expansion of existing businesses in the city and create a viable industrial property, according to briefing documents. Detroit City Council approved a brownfield plan for the site in October.
Pre-development activities are expected to begin in early 2024, according to documents. The developer requested $11.8 million in tax increment financing reimbursement.
“Our intent for this facility is to create zero-emissions power systems and becoming a tier one supplier to multiple industries,” said Melanie Melendez, head of global manufacturing for Fortescue. “So we are looking to evolve that and create close to 600 jobs by 2030 with an investment in the facility.”
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on December 12, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Local companies involved in two of the area’s biggest industries — glass and logistics — have expansion plans under way.
Defiance-based Keller Logistics Group Inc. and affiliated companies expect to create 194 jobs through the $5 million purchase and expansion of a two-year-old office building in Defiance that formerly housed Mammoth Tech Inc.
Keller CEO Bryan Keller said about 125 employees spread between offices at three locations in Defiance would be consolidated at the new headquarters early next year when the space is finished being reconfigured.
In Rossford, NSG Group is putting in a specialty production line at its Pilkington North America float glass plant to support the growth of solar panel production at customer First Solar Inc.
Pilkington is converting a float glass line to produce transparent conductive oxide glass that is shipped to First Solar as a specially prepped glass panel to be further coated to conduct sunlight for conversion to electricity.
Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar is the largest solar-panel maker in the United States. It has three plants in northwest Ohio with a fourth scheduled to open next year. NSG’s Pilkington North America is the key supplier of the glass panels used in First Solar’s finished products.
Todd Huffman, NSG Global Director of Solar Glass, said the plant will take the traditional architectural float glass line down in September, 2024, and retool it, with a new furnace and coating equipment, in time for production in March, 2025.
The plant, which was built in 1898, today employs 370 people. In addition to retaining all jobs, the production-line conversion will require another 20 employees, he said. The plant has two float glass lines.
Mr. Keller’s transportation and logistics business in Defiance has been growing rapidly and now has 750 employees in 12 states, he said. Along with logistics, the group includes warehousing, trucking, freight brokerage and Mr. Keller operates industrial properties.
Combined revenue has grown at a 20 percent annual rate to $165 million last year from $37 million in 2012, Mr. Keller said.
He said he was considering building a new headquarters for business and support staff just before the pandemic hit. He put that idea on hold, then the trucking industry recently went into recession with falling volumes at Keller as well as nationally, he said.
The opportunity to buy a fairly new building for the headquarters met the business’ needs so Mr. Keller said he went ahead with the purchase. It is 31,000 square feet vs. about 20,000 that is now spread between three locations in Defiance.
Mr. Keller said the 194 new jobs would be across the group’s many operations.
The Ohio Tax Credit Authority has approved a 2.074 percent, nine-year Job Creation Tax Credit for the project.
JobsOhio and the Regional Growth Partnership provided support to the Keller headquarters project as well as NSG’s production line conversion.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on December 4, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Northwood’s $12 million investment in a new development, including property acquisition and the construction of a community center, is starting to pay off, according to city officials.
The Enclave, which will consist of homes, senior living, some small commercial businesses and a community center, is coming to life on the former site of the Woodville Mall.
The vision for the property, which has been owned by the city since 2018, is starting to come into focus, said Northwood Administrator Kevin Laughlin.
“We’re starting to realize it — you get so much momentum when you start to see things take shape,” he said. “It’s a good story: Former blight … we’ve made lemonade out of lemons.”
The mall was foreclosed on in 2011 and was demolished in 2014, said Bob Anderson, former city administrator and Enclave project coordinator.
“That’s because it was falling down,” he said. “The last straw was the movie theater was still open, the roof was leaking and they were heating it with portable heaters.”
Northwood acquired the JCPenney store and most of the mall property at a foreclosure sale for $225,000, Mr. Anderson said. The Sears and Elder Beerman properties were later acquired for around $500,000.
The cost of demolition, asbestos abatement, and miscellaneous costs to the city was approximately $3 million. Mayor Ed Schimmel said the Enclave is a response to a need for housing, which was created by First Solar and Amazon jobs in the area.
“With all this new industry coming to Wood County … it’s all by Northwood and there’s definitely a need for more residential housing,” he said. “The big thing that we’re doing is the recreation center, it’s the catalyst to help development on Main Street.”
The $9 million, 26,000-square-foot center will open this spring. It will feature pickleball, basketball, and volleyball courts, workout equipment, an elevated track, and an outside splash pad.
A multi-purpose room may be rented for wedding receptions, bridal showers, and high school reunions, Mr. Laughlin said.
The Enclave’s residential area is really rolling, he said.
“It will be mixed. Right now, what we have started is the middle — the townhomes. We have a 150-unit apartment complex, called the Falls, which has city approval. We’re hoping that starts in the spring,” Mr. Laughlin said. “The back portions of the property, 30-40 acres, is planned for single-family residential.”
Mr. Anderson said there’s an incentive attached to building at the Enclave.
“The land is in a community reinvestment area, where the real estate taxes are forgiven for 15 years at 100 percent. The only taxes you’re paying is on the bare land,” he said.
The 114 townhomes, called the Bridges of Northwood, are under construction on 24 acres. Four of the townhomes, which have a price of around $310,000, have been sold, and there are contracts for the others that have been constructed.
“We’re hoping to start the next 16,” said Dwayne Seiter, director of construction and development for Summit Custom Builders.
The Enclave’s future will feature a senior living facility, a bank, professional offices, a walking trail — and possibly hockey, Mr. Laughlin said. Last month, the council approved applying for a $500,000 grant toward a $3.8 million ice rink, which would be near the splash pad at the community center.
Mr. Anderson said the city has 5,200 residents and is home to several businesses, including Norplas Industries Inc., Treu House Of Munch Inc., and Adient Interior, formerly known as Johnson Controls.
Those businesses were initially attracted to the area because of the mall, Mr. Anderson said. Less congestion than what is in Perrysburg or Sylvania, he said, is drawing people to Northwood today.
“There are still a lot of people around who want to be close to the lake, and the less clutter we have here … will attract more,” Mr. Anderson said. “We’ve also got I-75 that runs through the city and we have I-280.”
The Enclave concept came out of a community meeting several years ago, Mr. Anderson said. Northwood residents were asked what they wanted to use the mall property for; options included commercial, warehouse, or residential. Residents overwhelmingly wanted an “age in place” development.
“I think this is better in the long run. I think this is something that is more for the community,” Mr. Laughlin said.
Posted By: RGP Northwest Ohio. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
An industry leading Tier-1 automotive supplier announces plans to build a new electric vehicle battery assembly plant in Northwest Ohio.
Mobis North America will invest $13,800,000 to locate a new manufacturing plant in Toledo, Ohio that will assemble battery systems for electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Mobis expects that the plant will create 185 manufacturing jobs.
The Ohio Tax Credit Authority has approved a Job Creation Tax Credit for the company. Construction is already underway on the new plant, with production planned to start in August 2024. The investment in the new state-of-the-art facility expands Mobis’ electrification capabilities and bolsters the company’s sustainability and environmentalism efforts. With another plant in Toledo, Ohio, and two other facilities in Metro Detroit, Michigan, Mobis North America has around 1,000 employees. Through the company’s core values of the Customer, Synergy, Innovation, and Resilience, Mobis has created a service-oriented culture driven by the local workforce. The company recognizes the resilient and dedicated work culture of Northwest Ohio, which was a key consideration in locating the new battery systems plant in Toledo.
“We’ve been manufacturing in Toledo, Ohio for nearly 20 years, and we are excited to continue to invest in the community with this new battery plant. The state-of-the-art facility will bring 185 good-paying, upskilled jobs to the area, and be a driving force in automotive electrification here in the Midwest.” – Dong Hee (Danny) Son, General Manager
For Mobis, this facility helps solidify its position as an industry leader in automotive electrification and demonstrates the company’s commitment and investment in Northwest Ohio. Mobis recognizes and appreciates the significant contributions and support from the economic development organizations, including JobsOhio, the Regional Growth Partnership, the Department of Planning and Development of Lucas County and the City of Toledo.
“This project’s success depended in a large part on the huge support from JobsOhio, the RGP, Lucas County and the City of Toledo, and working together, we expect long-term positive impact for both the company and the local community.” – Josh Wingate, Plant Manager
Mobis will locate their operations in the newly constructed 285,000 square-foot spec building at the Toledo Trade Center Industrial Park, the former site of the North Towne Square Mall. NorthPoint Development serves as developer and property owner of the site. The site was the recipient of an Ohio Site Inventory Program grant through JobsOhio which was designed to support speculative site and building development. Rudolph Libbe Group is the construction services provider.
“Today marks a significant milestone in our city’s relentless pursuit to revitalize the long-abandoned North Towne Square Mall site, left desolate for more than 17 years, now transformed into a dynamic industrial park. It is with immense pride that we join NorthPoint Development and our other partners to extend a warm welcome to Mobis, the first company to set its roots in this transformed space.” – Wade Kapszukiewicz, Mayor, City of Toledo
The Lucas County Department of Planning and Development offers services to help employers and job seekers. The agency works with different organizations like government, non-profits, and businesses to coordinate and keep track of the one-stop system. This system aims to support workforce and economic development. The Lucas County agency collaborates with service providers to assist job seekers in finding good jobs, help employed workers find better opportunities, and aid businesses in finding skilled employees. Serving everyone, from people looking for their first job to those in executive positions, the agency also caters to both small businesses and large corporations.
“Mobis choosing Ohio to establish its new metal base plate production for EV parts brings the company’s second manufacturing facility to the region while diversifying its operations in Lucas County. The attraction of this plant from a global leader in smart mobility demonstrates the value proposition Ohio brings as the market for electric hybrid vehicles continues to grow.” – J.P. Nauseef, JobsOhio President & CEO
The Lucas County Department of Planning and Development offers services to help employers and job seekers. The agency works with different organizations like government, non-profits, and businesses to coordinate and keep track of the one-stop system. This system aims to support workforce and economic development. The Lucas County agency collaborates with service providers to assist job seekers in finding good jobs, help employed workers find better opportunities, and aid businesses in finding skilled employees. Serving everyone, from people looking for their first job to those in executive positions, the agency also caters to both small businesses and large corporations.
Signature Associates is pleased to announce that Jared Jensen has joined our Toledo office as a Associate.
Jared joined the Signature Team in 2023 with a passion for commercial real estate. Being part of the Signature Team provides an excellent platform for Jared to further develop his skills and knowledge in the field. With the mentorship of the most successful brokers in the Toledo area, Jared is able to gain valuable insights and industry-specific expertise that will help excel his career.
Born and raised in Maumee, Ohio, Jared attended Maumee High School and studied professional sales and business management at the University of Toledo. Jared learned about commercial real estate during his internship with Signature Associates. From then forward he has had a passion and drive for assisting clients to locate the right solution. Jared’s outgoing personality and genuine care for each situation makes him a great asset to the Signature Team and his clients.
About Signature Associates:
Signature Associates, with eight offices across the Midwest, is the region’s leading commercial real estate firm. Signature provides a diverse selection of services, including brokerage, tenant representation, investment sales, property/asset management, advisory services, consulting, and market research. Signature Associates consistently maintains 42% of the market share, completes thousands of transactions and over a billion dollars’ worth of business annually in local, national, and international transactions. For more information about Signature Associates, visit: www.signatureassociates.com.
Signature Associates is pleased to announce that Drake Filippis has joined our Southfield office as an Associate Broker.
Drake specializes in industrial real estate with a focus on the Plymouth/Ann Arbor market. He joined the Signature Team in October 2023 and is being mentored by some of the most successful brokers in the industry. Drake has over 14 years of experience in residential finance, leasing, and property management. Previously, he has closed over $300 Million in mortgage volume directly assisting over 10,000 clients.
Drake’s new role with Signature Associates will allow him to focus on his passion for client-focused value extraction, joining our senior principals to grow our market presence along the I-275/M-14/US-23 corridors.
About Signature Associates:
Signature Associates, with eight offices across the Midwest, is the region’s leading commercial real estate firm. Signature provides a diverse selection of services, including brokerage, tenant representation, investment sales, property/asset management, advisory services, consulting, and market research. Signature Associates consistently maintains 42% of the market share, completes thousands of transactions and over a billion dollars’ worth of business annually in local, national, and international transactions. For more information about Signature Associates, visit: www.signatureassociates.com.
Posted By: Hometown Life on November 16, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Two developers are proposing new shopping facilities with attached restaurants in different parts of the community.
The first proposal, at the northwest corner of Canton Center and Warren roads, would see a developer demolish the vacant former PNC Bank and replace it with a 7,400-square-foot, multi-tenant commercial building for retail and restaurant use.
On the southwest side of Canton Township, Dabaja Properties is proposing a multi-tenant commercial shopping center with a fast-food drive-through restaurant at the northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Beck Road.
The Canton Township Planning Commission reviewed plans and recommended both proposals for approval at its Nov. 6 meeting. Both projects must go before the Canton Township Board of Trustees for final consideration.
Replacing an unused bank with professional, restaurant space
Developer Malik Hider said specifics for the PNC site have not yet been determined.
“Professional services is a consideration,” Hider said. “I am a dentist. A second office is a potential (use)…on part of the site…and a restaurant on the other side.”
The planning commission discussed several issues with the site, including the parking lot, which, as currently constructed, does not allow access to an adjacent shopping center where CVS and several other businesses are located.
Commissioners agreed vehicles should be able to move throughout the site, but township planner Patrick Sloan said talks with the shopping center’s owner were not fruitful.
“Our discussions with the shopping center owner to the north and west haven’t produced any willingness to do a cross connection,” Sloan said, adding that zoning ordinances prevent the township from forcing the issue.
Several commissioners noted they hope the shopping center owner will reconsider.
“I would strongly encourage you guys to try and play nice with each other,” Commissioner Doug Weber said. “I would really like to see that corner get redeveloped instead of a vacant building sitting there.”
Retail spaces, restaurant would join shopping plaza
Dabaja Properties’ project would fill out the remaining vacant property in the Crossroads Village shopping plaza, currently occupied by Target and Kohl’s, and other retail businesses.
The proposed north building would be about 7,100 square feet while the south building will be about 6,800 square feet include a drive-thru restaurant.
The developer said tenants have not yet been identified for the retail spaces, but noted he is currently in discussions with Dairy Queen. The plans also include 55 parking spaces and an outdoor dining area between the two buildings.
Posted By: Lansing State Journal on November 26, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Redevelopment of the former Sears property off East Michigan Avenue, which closed its doors more than three years ago, is turning into an exercise in patience for Gillespie Group, its owner.
It’s been more than a year since the local company announced plans to redevelop it as “a regional mixed-use entertainment destination” and started working with a commercial real estate agency to market the site to national retailers and restaurants.
This month, Gillespie Group’s plans for the property, which include spending millions redeveloping the nearly 200,000-square-foot building, received a boost with $1 million in state grant money through the second round of the Revitalization and Placemaking Program.
The funds are crucial to the project, said Pat Gillespie, CEO and founder of Gillespie Group, but won’t help the process happen any faster.
An effort to remap the area’s flood plain could stall the property’s redevelopment for up to three years, said William Engelter, Lansing’s emergency management chief; that’s longer than was initially expected by up to a year because of the project’s scope, he said this week.
Floodplain remapping stalls construction plans
It’s been more than a decade since the area’s flood plain, which includes Lansing, East Lansing and Meridian Township, was remapped.
The $380,000 U.S. Geological Survey and Federal Emergency Management Agency effort, funded in part by several municipalities, could impact which properties remain in the flood plain and change the height requirements for building redevelopment within the zone, Gillespie said. Construction can’t start until after the area is remapped, he said.
Initially expected to take up to two years to complete, Engelter said the remapping now could take until October 2026.
“They actually weren’t going to look at starting it until Oct. 1 of this year,” he said. “They have 36 months to complete it after the project start date. It’s all in FEMA’s hands at this point and completely out of the city’s hands.”
Gillespie said his staff are doing what they can to speed up the process, but it’s unclear when construction will start at the former department store.
National retailers, restaurants are still interested, Gillespie said
Sears occupied the space for more than six decades after moving from a spot in downtown Lansing in the fall of 1954. The store was a fixture in Greater Lansing for 66 years before it closed in 2020.
Gillespie Group bought the property more than a decade ago. The company has completed architectural plans and environmental reviews for the property’s proposed redevelopment, Gillespie said. The project is expected to cost between $60 million to $100 million, he said.
“We’ve done most of what we can do,” he said. “We’ve talked to a lot of tenants, users and they want to be there.”
Gillespie doesn’t believe his company will have trouble leasing the building, at 3131 E. Michigan Ave., but said potential tenants aren’t likely to sign a letter of intent until they know when the lease can begin.
“So we’re kind of like in a limbo land right now,” he said. “We’re following up with all the tenants making sure that they still have interest and know about us, but they just can’t commit to anything without having a date certain.”
And while national retailers and restaurants could lose interest in the former department store, Gillespie thinks it’s unlikely.
“I don’t see it,” he said. “The only thing that I get worried about is if the economy changes dramatically.”
Posted By: DBUSINESS on November 17, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Economists at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor are predicting the U.S. economy should avoid a recession over the next two years, though economic growth is expected to be modest as consumers deal with high interest rates and, for many, dwindling saving account balances.
The economists see an increasing likelihood of an economic soft landing, noting a resilient labor market despite sharply higher interest rates in their annual U.S Economic Outlook report, released Nov. 16 at the university’s 71st annual Economic Outlook Conference.
The report does state that it’s a challenging economy to interpret, much less predict, with an unexpected third third-quarter rocket ride in the form of nearly 5 percent economic growth — the strongest in nearly two years — fueled by a consumer spending spree despite falling slow disposable income growth.
“The economic news has surprised to the upside recently,” says Gabriel Erlich, director of the U-M’s forecasting unit, the Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics. “We place more stock in the rapid decline in core inflation than in the third quarter growth bonanza. If the recent disinflation persists as we expect, it will allow the Federal Reserve to switch gears to a less restrictive monetary policy.”
Still, economic uncertainty remains high.
“Neither additional disinflation nor continued resilience of real economic activity is guaranteed,” says Yinuo Zhang, a senior economist at RSQE.
Another puzzle for the economists has been to what extent the Fed’s monetary tightening has contributed to disinflation, considering the persistence of growth and the labor market’s strength.
If supply chain normalization and an increase in labor supply have been the major driving forces of disinflation, they say, more monetary policy action may be required to go the last mile on inflation. Economists said this policy uncertainty could be what’s been driving long-term interest rates higher recently, economists said.
“We believe the Fed has reached the terminal rate for this tightening cycle and envision the first rate cut late in 2024. We expect most medium- and long-term interest rates to stabilize in the near term and to start declining gradually beginning in mid-2024,” says Daniil Manaenkov, U.S. forecasting lead at RSQE.
The economists expect real gross domestic product—the inflation-adjusted value of everything produced in a country — will expand by 2.4 percent this year, 1.7 percent next year, and 2 percent in 2025. The jobless rate also is expected to inch up during the period and inflation continues to moderate, allowing the Fed to start relaxing monetary policy in the form of rate cuts in late 2024.
Several recent “soft” economic data series based on surveys of consumers and businesses offer insights that seem at odds with the positive signs in the overall economy. U-M’s Consumer Sentiment Index saw encouraging signs this summer only to slide again this fall.
The National Association of Home Builders’ Housing Market Index had improved over the summer but slid back into signaling a contraction in recent months; and the Institute for Supply Management’s Purchasing Manager Indices have had recent readings consistent with slowing business activity — possibly a reflection of the United Auto Workers’ strikes against the Detroit automakers.
On the plus side, the six-month outlook surveys conducted by some regional Federal Reserve Banks suggest a gradually improving manufacturing outlook. Additionally, most “hard” economic data continue to show resilience in the face of punishing interest rates.
Of particular interest to manufacturing-heavy Michigan, the pace of light-vehicle sales is expected to slowly recover from October’s 15.5-million-unit pace to 16.2 million in the second half of 2024.
The predicted slow pace will be driven in part by high vehicle loan interest rates. With falling interest rates expected later next year, the forecast calls for vehicle sales to reach 16.5 million in 2025.
On a related front, the broader economic fallout from the recent UAW strikes could have been far more severe were it not for a generally strong economy, the limited number of targeted plants, and the strikes’ relatively short duration, according to the Michigan Economic Outlook. If the tentative agreements are ratified as expected, the signing bonuses and higher wages should more than offset the lost income of the state’s affected workers.
The U-M economists expect the fallout from the strikes and a cooling economy will increase the state’s jobless rate from 3.9 percent in September to 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter. They expect the unemployment rate to tick up further to 4.2 percent in early 2024 and stay there for about a year, then drop slightly to 4.1 percent later in 2025, when they foresee stronger national growth.
Michigan’s real disposable income per capita, which surged by 8.2 percent in 2020 because of low inflation and federal financial aid, declined by 9 percent last year. The forecast calls for real disposable income to tread water until the last half of 2024 before returning to growth of 1% in 2025.
As part of an effort to make its forecasts more accessible to the public, U-M’s economic forecasting team has been making their forecast reports available to the public for free online since 2022. It’s also working with university librarians to assess the feasibility of digitizing and opening access to its archives going back to the 1950s.
Posted By: Macomb Daily on November 28, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The long vacant Kroger grocery store in the Parkway Plaza in Clinton Township has a new tenant, the plaza’s owner said Monday.
Mountain Grove, Mo.-based Fun City will take over the 50,000-square-foot former grocer space on Groesbeck Highway at Metro Parkway (16 Mile Road), according to Dante Bacall, CEO of Bacall Companies in Birmingham.
Bacall said the family-oriented Fun City will contain gymnastics, an arcade, laser tag, basketball courts, along with other activities and a restaurant.
“We are hoping to start construction in the next 30 days and be open by around June,” Bacall said. “We took a shopping center that was 90% vacant and plan to fill it up. We’re hoping to have everything in place by next year.”
According to township assessing and state corporate records, Bacall created a corporation named Parkway Mall, LLC. It purchased the 12.7-acre, 151,000-square-foot plaza from developer Jim George for $3.1 million. The sale took place in phases over the years, and was completed last month, records show.
George had plans to revive the dilapidated shopping center into a facility with a new fitness center, retail outlets and a cannabis dispensary.
However, Clinton Township officials opted out of the medical and recreational marijuana markets, which left his project on hold. So he decided to sell Parkway Plaza and took his cannabis plan to neighboring Mount Clemens.
That stretch of Groesbeck is a hodgepodge of industrial shops, fast-food eateries, gas stations, and other businesses along the gritty, poorly-lit highway.
When Kroger moved out after three decades, the plaza was left with tenants that included a variety of retailers including T.J. Maxx, ACO Hardware, women’s clothing stores, a pizzeria, a toy store, a Hallmark cards and gift shop and a drug store.
But those have either moved out or let their leases expire.
Bacall, whose company specializes in the hotel industry, said it also has managed 2 million square feet of retail operations.
He has spent the past few months cleaning debris from the property, lining up tenants, and creating three new monument signs to identify and advertise the shopping center. Other tenants at Parkway include American Freight Furniture & Mattress, a sewing store, and a combines Dollar Tree and Family Dollar. The two parent companies merged in 2015
Bacall said Fun City conducted a demographics study of the area and found it was surprisingly resilient.
“I think it will create a fun environment where people can go to an indoor arcade or play some basketball and have a nice fun place to spend the day,” he said.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on November 27, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Silbond Corp., a maker of chemicals for the fabrication of semiconductors, announced it is expanding its operations in Fairfield Township in Lenawee County. Silbond is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Germany-based specialty chemicals company Evonik.
The expansion will allow the company to manufacture new products, including high-purity abrasives and market them to manufacturers of liquid abrasive slurries which are in the production of microchips.
The project is expected to generate a total capital spending of $7.9 million in 2023 and 2024, and create three jobs. It further build on the state’s work to position itself as a global leader in the semiconductor supply chain.
“The new plant makes an important contribution to the strategic development of our portfolio,” says Peter Friesenhahn, head of Evonik’s Silanes business line. “We are strengthening our offering for attractive, technology-driven growth markets and positioning ourselves as an innovation partner for our customers.”
Silbond produces chemicals that are used in the semiconductor industry as well as other chemicals that act as binders and are used in corrosion-resistant coatings, aerogel insulation and investment castings. Silbond currently employs 36 Michigan residents at its Fairfield facility.
In addition, the expansion of Silbond’s plant in Weston is supported by a $900,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant. Michigan was chosen for the project over competing sites in other states due to experience in producing high purity chemicals, the talented workforce, and proximity to the company’s existing and potential customers.
The project will bring immediate, high-wage jobs within a large and expanding manufacturing company and is expected to be a catalyst for the semiconductor industry’s continued growth in the state. Lenawee Now has offered support in the form of staff, financial, and economic support.
The project builds on existing assets and companies such as Mersen USA, KLA, Hemlock Semiconductor, Calumet Electronics, SK Siltron, and more.
Michigan is leading key initiatives to develop the talent needed to support semiconductor growth in the Midwest including the Semiconductor Michigan Talent Action Team, aimed at making Michigan a top state for semiconductor talent solutions and growth.
In October, MEDC leaders announced the largest investment in state history to expand semiconductor education and training programs in partnership with Michigan State University in East Lansing and Lansing Community College.
As the global epicenter of the automotive industry and home to one-fifth of U.S. auto production, Michigan officials state they are equipped to support the increasing global demand for semiconductor technology.
Posted By: REjournals on November 17, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
How well is the West Michigan office market holding up today even as it faces the challenges of the work-from-home movement and higher interest rates? According to the latest research from NAI Wisinski, it depends on what part of the West Michigan region you are looking at.
Consider downtown Grand Rapids. The total office vacancy rate here is 10%. In the Northeast submarket, though, the total office vacancy rate is a lower 7.7%, while it is an even lower 5.2% in the Northwest submarket.
The office vacancy rates in the Southeast and Southwest submarkets are in the middle, with vacancy rates of 8.5% and 6.5%, respectively. The overall office vacancy for the entire West Michigan office market stood at 8.3% as of the end of the third quarter. That’s not great, but it’s not as high as some other markets in the Midwest and across the country.
What about total net absorption? That’s down across the board … mostly. Downtown Grand Rapids, for instance, saw negative net absorption of 61,664 square feet of office space in the third quarter. However, two submarkets did see positive net absorption in the third quarter: the Southeast submarket, which recorded 32,515 square feet of positive net office absorption during the quarter, and the Southwest submarket, which recorded 24,928 square feet of absorption.
Overall, though, the entire West Michigan office market saw negative net absorption of 35,173 square feet during the third quarter.
These numbers aren’t surprising. Office markets across the country are struggling as companies decide how much office space they’ll need now that most are operating on hybrid work schedules, letting their employees work at least part of the time from home.
Despite the challenges faced by the local office market, the West Michigan region did see some notable office activity during the third quarter.
NAI Wisinski reported that insurance provider Acrisure is leasing around 40,000 square feet of additional office space a block from its headquarters building in the Studio Park area of Grand Rapids.
Construction on Corewell Health’s Center for Transformation is currently underway and will consolidate the health system’s administrative operations in Grand Rapids to one central campus. This development includes a renovation of the Brassworks building a 648 Monroe in Grand Rapids, a new eight-story office building and two adjacent parking structures.
NAI Wisinski also reports that Gentex plans to expand its office space in Grand Rapids for the second time with a downtown technology hub to help attract and retain engineering and software talent who prefer working in the city’s center.
Posted By: WoodTV on November 16, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The city of Grand Rapids is moving forward with a plan to install solar panels at the old Butterworth Landfill site.
The landfill closed in the early 1970s, and the contamination makes it unsuitable for most structures to be built on the property. The city says the project could provide up to 16.5 megawatts of electricity. That amount would be enough to power more than 3,700 homes each year, according to Alison Waske Sutter, the sustainability and strategy officer for the city of Grand Rapids.
“There’s a 4-foot cap that has been installed, and then there are some monitoring wells around the perimeter. And so one of the main obstacles to having any development there is you cannot in any way penetrate that cap,” Waske Sutter said.
The city’s office of sustainability says only a portion of the 190 acres is suitable for solar, and a telecommunications company owns about 40 acres that run through the middle of the property, which would not be used.
An estimated 60 acres would be used for a solar farm.
“Solar has been the highest priority for the city, feeling that that is the greatest beneficial reuse of this site. However, with the solar, we do intend to preserve the existing walking trails that are there,” Waske Sutter said.
A portion of the property could be used to power the city-owned electric distribution system, which provides power to 18,000 streetlights and 120 facilities.
“We anticipate that could be about 1 to 2 megawatts out of that total 15 to 16 megawatts,” Waske Sutter said.
The city announced Thursday it will work to gather more information from potential providers and will later open the project up for formal bids.
“We are kind of looking for more 20,000-foot level information for people to help us understand what might you be thinking, what are some opportunities, some creative opportunities to use solar. How might we incorporate battery storage or parking with car port solar on top,” Waske Sutter said.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on November 28, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Maumee City Council has instituted a two-year moratorium on discount stores in the city, halting the approval of any permits, plans, and applications for new construction.
Council approved a resolution for the moratorium unanimously and without discussion during a special meeting Tuesday. There were no members of the public present.
Citing public health, safety, and welfare concerns, the resolution to pass the temporary moratorium says the action is to allow the city administration and council to review state and municipal building codes and zoning laws before taking a permanent action.
“There has been a proliferation of discount stores, not just in our community but throughout the entire region and without control what happens is they become empty buildings,” Maumee Mayor Richard Carr, who presided over the meeting and introduced the measure, said in an interview after the 10-minute meeting was adjourned. “And once you have empty buildings, that creates blight, and we’re trying to do everything we can in Maumee to prevent the blight.
“So what we want to do is regulate how many of them there can be, how close they can be to one another so we do not end up in the future with a lot of empty box stores,” he explained. “We want to review what other communities have done, what the courts have ruled, and make sure that we’re doing it right to protect what our interest is.”
The moratorium can be extended for no more than six months for the administration to complete its study and recommend what action should be taken if any, according to the resolution.
“Studies in other cities have shown that the saturation of cities or villages with discount stores and liquidation stores have an ultimately damaging effect on economic well being of a community and reduced property values and reduced access to healthy food options,” the resolution says.
Jim MacDonald, council president, said the measure is part of the city’s effort “to make a definitive plan as to what we want to do with our development areas, especially our business district.”
“We want to be very intentional with that and just make sure that we have a good mix of businesses that come in, and we don’t want to get overloaded with one particular type of business,” Mr. MacDonald, who was elected to replace Mr. Carr as mayor this month, said of the moratorium. “… All it does is give the city a little bit of time so we can … look at how we want the city to look in our business district.”
Because the meeting was a special meeting and did not involve passing any new legislation or changing any law, no public comments needed to be taken, according to the city administration.
The moratorium does not include stores that primarily sell gasoline or diesel fuel or have development agreements with the city, according to the resolution.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on November 24, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A company called Liames LLC continued to buy up hundreds of acres of Wood County farmland this month ahead of an expected $750 million data center project on the site.
Property records show Liames has now purchased about 750 acres total in Middleton Township, between Perrysburg and Bowling Green. The Blade reported on an initial purchase of about 279 acres in September. The sale of the remaining parcels closed earlier this month.
In all, the property transactions involved 12 parcels owned by five landowners, and totaled more than $28 million, records show.
The properties are west of I-75, both north and south of State Rt. 582, and east of State Rt. 25. Brian McMahon, owner of commercial real estate firm Danberry National Ltd., who was involved in the sales, did not respond to a request for comment.
Liames was registered in Delaware in 2021, business records show, though little additional public information is available on the company. Wood County Economic Development Commission Executive Director Wade Gottschalk has said the data center will be operated by a Fortune 200 tech company, but has not said which one. Some executives and officials with knowledge of the project have signed nondisclosure agreements.
Liames has been lining up a number of tax-break deals for the project with the county, as well as the Eastwood Local School District Board of Education, and Otsego Local School District, in recent weeks. The Middleton Township trustees adopted a resolution supporting the project.
The project, to employ 50 people, is expected to include several large data center buildings spaced out around the property, with landscaping and water features in between. A site plan has not been made public. The project may not be finished until the early 2030s, officials have said.
“The company hasn’t formally announced, hasn’t decided that they’re going to undertake the project,” a lawyer representing Liames, Chris Knezevic, said in late September. “So there’s some process of doing due diligence, acquiring land — a lot of steps to take — before they can get to the point where they can announce it formally.”
Posted By: CoStar on November 10, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Automotive supplier Thai Summit America Corp. recently finalized a lease agreement to secure 297,100 square feet at the Eastland Commerce Center in Harper Woods, Michigan.
Thai Summit is expanding in Michigan with its newest lease as it already has a facility in Howell.
The property, located in the heart of Harper Woods at 18000 Vernier Road, is currently undergoing construction and is expected to be completed next month. Situated near Interstate 94, the Class A property is a major industrial hub that sits on 26.5 acres. It is located 10 miles from General Motors Factory Zero, according to CoStar data.
Primary leasing is handled through Signature Associates while NorthPoint Development is listed as the developer, per CoStar data.
Joe Hamway and Greg Hudas of Signature Associates represented the landlord and Joe Hamway and Jim Montgomery, also of Signature Associates, represented the tenant in this transaction.
Posted By: The Detroit News on November 7, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Nearly a year after closing its space in Midtown, WeWork has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with documents showing that owes its former landlord the Platform $5.1 million in lease termination fees.
The Detroit-based developer is among the list of unsecured creditors in WeWork’s Chapter 11 reorganization filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Jersey.
WeWork previously leased space from the Platform at 6001 Cass Ave. in Midtown. It closed that space in November 2022.
The coworking company has two remaining WeWork locations in Bedrock buildings downtown, 1001 Woodward and 19 Clifford St. Bedrock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Detroit remains a key market for WeWork and we are fully committed to providing our members here with world-class, flexible workspace solutions for the long term,” WeWork said in a statement Tuesday. “Our commitment to the city is unwavering as we continue to work collaboratively with our landlord partners, aiming to craft solutions that set all parties up for sustainable success.”
Officials with the Platform declined to comment on the filing.
In a press release Tuesday, WeWork said it has entered into a restructuring agreement “with strong support from key financial stakeholders to drastically reduce its existing funded debt.”
Douglas C. Bernstein, a Bloomfield Hills-based bankruptcy attorney, said the bankruptcy allows WeWork to shed bad leases and restructure its debt. It remains to be seen how much The Platform will recover in the plan, he said.
“Whether or not the landlords will get anything out of it — too early to tell,” he said.
When the plan is filed, one will be able to determine just how much The Platform would be entitled to recover, Bernstein said.
“Unsecured creditors rarely get full repayment,” he said. “That happens, but rarely. So normally it’s pennies on the dollar and sometimes it’s paid over a period of time.”
Posted By: The Detroit News on November 1, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Our Next Energy, a Novi-based battery startup, said Wednesday that it’s launched pilot production of lithium iron phosphate batteries at its new plant in Van Buren Township.
The startup plans to supply battery cells for customers in the commercial truck, automotive and utility grid sectors. ONE has sought to position itself as a leader in the development of LFP cell technology and set out to drastically improve the range of electric vehicle batteries.
“The start of cell production at ONE Circle is a major step toward establishing an LFP battery vehicle industry in the U.S. supported by a North American supply chain,” Mujeeb Ijaz, ONE’s CEO and founder, said in a statement. “With Michigan-made LFP cells, ONE is eliminating dependence on nickel and cobalt while addressing the major needs of automakers — range, safety and domestic supply chain.”
ONE said that it will manufacture the cells on a pilot line, which will involve a validation process and sharing samples with customers. Deliveries to customers are slated to start in the first half of next year. A larger LFP manufacturing line is scheduled to start production next year.
In a statement, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she was “thrilled that homegrown battery-maker Our Next Energy is starting production of their new cells right here in our state.”
Just over a year ago, ONE announced a $1.6 billion investment, supported by over $200 million in state incentives, to build ONE Circle. The plant is slated to employ over 2,000 people.
ONE expects the plant to be operating at full capacity, building enough cells to assemble the equivalent of 200,000 EV battery packs annually, by the end of 2027.
ONE, via contractor manufacturer Piston Automotive, already is manufacturing its Aries LFP battery packs.
In August, the startup announced that it had gotten its Aries II battery pack within 6% of the leading benchmark nickel cobalt manganese battery in terms of range and mass, a significant step toward achieving its goal of reaching energy density parity with the NCM batteries that are in most EVs today. NCM batteries are most commonly used because they have higher energy density; ONE is attempting to boost the energy density of LFP batteries, which are widely regarded in the industry as cheaper, safer and more durable.
Aries II is being developed for customers in the passenger EV market. ONE also is developing a battery it calls the Gemini, which will target more than 600 miles of range on a single charge and combine two cell chemistries in a single pack.
Posted By: DBusiness on October 30, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The aircraft engine forging market is likely to grow 7.2 percent and reach a level of $22 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Detroit-based global market research firm Stratview Research.
The report breaks down the aircraft engine forging market into segments based on aircraft type, process type, component size type, material type, engine type, application type, end-user type, and region.
It also drills down by aircraft type: commercial aircraft, regional aircraft, helicopters, military aircraft, and general aviation.
The commercial aircraft market is expected to be the dominant as well as the fastest-growing segment of the aircraft engine forging market during the forecast period.Commercial aircraft engines require relatively advanced technologies to meet performance, efficiency, and environmental standards.
There has been a great use of forging and investment casting in commercial aircraft engines, in almost all sections of engines. A handful of engine makers (LEAP, GEnx, P&W 1000, Trent XWB, etc.) secure most of the market demand. Despite short-term market fluctuations caused by macro factors, the long-term market demand seems quite favorable to the industry participants.
For process type, the market is broken down into open-die forging and closed-die forging. The close die is expected to remain the larger as well as the faster-growing process in the aircraft engine forging market during the forecast period.
Complex and exceptionally precise components with great strength can be produced using closed-die forging. Closed-die forging is well-suited for manufacturing components such as turbine disks, compressor blades, shafts, and connecting rods. Closed-die forging allows manufacturers to maximize the yield from raw materials, which eventually reduces the overall cost.
Based on component size type, the market is segmented into small components and large components. The large components category is expected to be the dominating one in the market in the years to come.
Engine performance and safety depend heavily on large components such as structural parts, compressor rotors, and turbine discs. During use, these parts are exposed to heavy rotational forces, high temperatures, and mechanical stresses.
For material type, the market is segmented into nickel, titanium, stainless steel, aluminum, and others. Nickel is expected to maintain its dominance, whereas titanium is expected to be the fastest-growing material type during the forecast period.
Nickel is well suited for the harsh operating conditions of aviation engines; they have outstanding high-temperature strength and creep resistance. Nickel can maintain its mechanical properties at elevated temperatures, which is crucial for components exposed to hot gases and extreme thermal environments.
Nickel alloys provide enhanced protection against corrosion, ensuring the longevity and reliability of aircraft engines, and have better electrical conductivity and magnetic properties.
Based on engine type, the market is segmented into turbofan, turboprop, turbojet, and turboshaft. The Turbofan engine is expected to be the dominant as well as the fastest-growing segment during the forecast period.
Turbofans are the preferred choice for commercial aviation. Commercial aircraft account for most of the market, which, in turn, increases the dominance of turbofan engines. Turbofans are ideal for commercial aircraft because they maintain a balance between fuel efficiency, thrust, and noise reduction.
Nickel-based superalloys are selected in turbofan engines because of their ability to withstand extreme conditions. CFM (Safran/GE JV) delivered 1,136 LEAP engines (certified for A320neo, B737Max, and C919) in 2022 and has set a target to deliver 1,300 engines in 2023, all these factors are going to boost the demand for various forged engine components soon.
The report suggests that North America is likely to remain the most dominant region for the aircraft engine forging market during the forecast period. This growth is majorly attributed to the fact that this region has a robust aerospace industry, with major engine manufacturers and OEMs. And companies, such as General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls-Royce, have significant operations and a strong presence in North America.
The report further states that the Asia-Pacific region is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the long term. Some of the key drivers are heavy research and development investments by manufacturers in enhancing the efficiency of combustion engines.
And companies in this region are exploring electric and hybrid propulsion systems and Increasing focus on green engines.
The report also states that the market is populated with the presence of some regional and global players. Most of the major players compete in some of the governing factors, including price, product offerings, regional presence, etc.
The following are the key players in the aircraft engine forging market. Companies are focusing on providing exceptional customer service, understanding their customers’ needs, and offering customized solutions.
Precision Castparts Corp.
Forgital Group
ATI Inc.
Doncasters Group
Voestalpine BÖHLER Aerospace GmbH & Co KG
Aubert & Duval SAS
Otto Fuchs KG
Howmet Aerospace
Posted By: DBusiness on November 10, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Florida-based PickleRage, an indoor pickleball company, is opening a facility in West Bloomfield Township sometime in early 2024.
Located in the Whole Foods-anchored shopping center at 7300 Orchard Lake Road (at 14 Mile Road), the club will seek to benefit from the township’s demographics, with more than 165,000 people living in a five-mile radius of the property (average household incomes of more than $150,000).
The facility will be 26,772 square feet and offer pickleball players year-round access to nine indoor courts that are designed to provide superior visibility and lighting, controlled temperature and humidity, and cushioned playing surfaces.
PickleRage has more than 500 locations planned over the next five years.
“We are thrilled to have secured our first location in the affluent Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield,” says Fred Battisti, head of real estate for PickleRage. “This is a key first-step in our business plan to take our indoor pickleball club nationwide. Pickleball is one of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S and our team is moving quickly to meet the demand of pickleball players across the country.”
The company offers pickleball players the chance to play pickleball 365 days a year at locations across the country. Each club will be equipped with smart courts that have the ability to video record and live stream matches and a range of amenities including a players lounge, beer and wine bar, free balls, paddle loans, and more.
“PickleRage is the perfect complement to an already stellar tenant roster at Gateway Center,” said Garrett Middlekauff, vice president of operations for CFM Properties. “Fitness concepts create perfect synergies with grocery-anchored centers, and this will no doubt be another perfect marriage.”
Posted By: mlive on November 13, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Amazon is entering the Michigan solar farming business. Amazon, the world-famous online retailer, has announced its first renewable energy project in Michigan: a new 85-megawatt solar farm to be built in Van Buren County’s Lawrence Township, the company said on Monday, Nov. 13.
The Southwest Michigan solar project will help power Amazon’s local operations, including Amazon fulfilment centers, sorting centers and delivery stations, while also providing new sources of clean power to local communities where the projects are located, the Seattle-based company said in a news release.
“At Amazon, we’re constantly seeking innovative ways to bring more solar and wind projects online, both to power our operations and to bring new sources of clean energy to the communities where our customers live and work,” said Nat Sahlstrom, head of energy, water and sustainability for Amazon Web Services, in a news release.
“These projects are also helping create jobs, support local businesses and boost the local tax base, which are all part of Amazon’s broader commitment to become a more sustainable company,” Sahlstrom said.
The company did not immediately provide the cost of the farm or the number of jobs expected, when asked by MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette. The footprint of the farm was not immediately disclosed by the global retailer. The company shared a photograph of a solar farm project it developed in the Maple Hill area in Pennsylvania with 100 megawatts of capacity, which is similar to the power production planned for the 85-megawatt Michigan project, Amazon said.
Amazon has 479 wind and solar projects across the world, the company said. Once operational, those projects are expected to generate more than 71,900 gigawatt-hours of clean energy each year, or enough to power 6.7 million U.S. homes, Amazon said.
Amazon set a new corporate record for the most renewable energy purchased by a company in a single year, and has remained the world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable energy since 2020, the company said, citing Bloomberg New Energy Finance as its source.
Amazon has expanded its renewables portfolio into 26 countries and 21 U.S. states, including new U.S. projects in Arkansas, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Virginia so far this year, the company said Monday. Amazon expands renewables portfolio into 26 countries and 21 U.S. states, including new Michigan solar farm. The company said, as of the end of 2022, 90% of the electricity Amazon used to power its operations was from renewable energy resources.
For comparison on the amount of energy that will be produced at the new 85-wegawatt station, the currently-closed Palisades nuclear plant was an 800-megawatt power plant, according to reports. A timeline for the Van Buren County project was not available to be disclosed, the company said Monday.
Amazon’s operations in Michigan include 11 fulfillment and sortation centers, 14 delivery stations, and eight Whole Foods Market locations.
Posted By: mlive on November 13, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Coffee and espresso were flowing Monday morning inside the historic Veterans Memorial Park building as the nonprofit veterans group HAS HEART celebrated the opening of its new coffee shop. The coffee shop, a public-private partnership between the city of Grand Rapids, Has Heart and others, offers a selection of drinks and baked goods, and displays and sells art created by veterans. It’s designed to be a place where veterans can gather, share stories with one another and feel welcome.
“Many veterans come around down the street — they don’t want to be recognized, they don’t want to be heard, and sometimes It’s because they feel ashamed,” said Michael Hyacinthe, the co-founder and chairmen of HAS HEART. “Many deal with PTSD, traumatic brain injury. So we’re hoping that this space can be a place that’s welcoming, can be a place where they feel as if they can talk to someone.”
HAS HEART, which is based in Grand Rapids, was founded in 2010 and uses art, design and fashion to uplift and help veterans. The group has also hosted veteran-focused exhibits at Veterans Memorial Park during ArtPrize. Hyacinthe, who served in the Navy from 1997 to 2006, operates HAS HEART with his partner Tyler Way, 37, of Cascade Township.
The coffee shop, 22 Sheldon Ave. NE, has been years in the making. It’s been on the city’s radar since at least 2013, when a parks master plan called for updating the Veterans Memorial Park building to allow for a year-round cafe.
With HAS HEART’s involvement, the city and partners invested $916,000 in improvements to the building, which has been vacant for years except during ArtPrize, said David Marquardt, director of the city’s parks and recreation department. Now, with the improvements complete, the city hopes similar partnerships could take root at other city parks, he said.
“Part of our community parks and recreation master plan is to reimagine places and spaces like this in our parks system,” Marquardt said. “To have this one done as our first, housing a new business, we believe this is a really important step for us, a good example for us, for more to come within different park spaces across the city.”
Of the project’s $916,000 price tag, $500,000 came from the city of Grand Rapids, according to a news release. In addition, HAS HEART raised $250,000 for the project and the Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority provided $166,000. In addition to the coffee shop, the building houses a public restroom that is open to customers and non-customers.
HAS HEART has signed a three-year lease agreement with the city for the building. Terms of the lease indicate HAS HEART will pay 12% of its gross monthly revenue or a minimum of $1,000 a month for the first year. Monthly payments would increase to $1,200 in year two and $1,350 in year three.
“This is just a beautiful building with so much historical significance, and seeing it come back to life has been such a joy,” Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss said.
With the improvements, the interior walls of the historic building were demolished, and replaced with a bright, well-lit space hosting a coffee bar and two small seating areas. The restroom was also moved and brought into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Hyacinthe’s Navy uniform is displayed on a wall, as are other photographs and veteran art.
Standing inside the cafe, Hyacinthe said opening the space has been a journey.
“We thought this through 10 years ago, and then COVID happened,” he said. “Then, the building is a historic building. so we’ve had to pivot and innovate and figure out things to make the building fit our goals and also maintain the integrity of the building.”
He likened the process to the challenges veterans face when transitioning to civilian life.
“There are challenges, there are barriers,” Hyacinthe said.” “But ultimately, if you surround yourself with the right people, the right community, you can overcome those challenges.”
In addition to coffee, the space will have resources and information available to help veterans connect with mental health and job placement services, he said. The coffee shop is open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on November 12 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A new food market slated to open on North Summit Street is the capstone to recent development in the Vistula District.
Amid a soft opening of Golden Hind Wine Bar and Pastries, and a third mural completed in Ostrich Towne, the resurrected Westminster Church has garnered two design awards — events that are raising hopes for a new renaissance in the Vistula neighborhood in Toledo.
Toledo entrepreneur Will Lucas, owner of Lucille’s Lounge at 1447 N. Summit St., confirmed recently that he intends to open MILK market. He added that Toledo is just two years away from seeing the Vistula District along the Summit Street corridor really pop.
“The market is in the works,” said Mr. Lucas, advertising it as a deli market offering groceries, coffee, sandwiches, and spirits to be at 1015-1017 N. Summit St. “We are building it. The plan is to open the beginning of 2024, sometime in the second quarter.”
Downtown Toledo has long been designated a “food desert” because of its lack of grocery options. Mr. Lucas’ market, occupying 6,000 square feet along Summit Street, near to the Summit Street Diner, will not be akin to a big-box grocery store.
“This will be a smaller footprint with boutique items. It is a market focused on quality items at affordable prices,” said Mr. Lucas, emphasizing that health and well-being will be underscored.
The entrepreneur, who has put in more than two years of planning on the market project, says he is creating a regional model that can be replicated in other nascent communities that are overlooked by big-brand names. The market will offer sandwiches that can be eaten onsite with indoor and outdoor seating.
Meanwhile, further down North Summit Street, Mr. Lucas’ TolHouse is opening a new haven for professionals and creatives with an open house for members and invited guests on Thursday.
Panda Workspace, 1447 N. Summit St., will offer collaborative workstations, phone booths, and a podcast studio. The co-working retreat aims to meet the needs of entrepreneurs, artists, and remote workers with conference rooms and work lounges. Wireless internet plus advanced remote meeting and AV equipment is available. A coffeehouse and cafe are onsite.
Timing askew?
The $17 million Ostrich Towne development, spearheaded by Northaven Development Group, is moving forward, albeit with at least one setback that may delay the project’s grand opening, which was originally slated for December.
The development offers about 70,000 square feet of building space with the creation of outdoor sculptures and ostrich murals as a hallmark for the business enterprise. Lighting of Ostrich Lane will be changed to complement holidays and seasons.
Ostrich Towne, in Toledo’s Vistula neighborhood, comprises eight buildings with flexible space that can be customized into loft-style interiors, retail and restaurant space, warehouse, and banquet options. It’s named after the alleyway, Ostrich Lane, that runs through the center of the property. This space caters to those seeking an eclectic mix of history, charm, and modernization with a small-town feel.
“We are making progress …. The transformer has been installed,” said Joe Nachtrab, managing member of the business enterprise. “We hope now to have all electrical in our project moved below ground and can finish the alley before end of year. Much later than we planned, but getting there. The alley just won’t look the way I want to have everyone see it until the ugly electric poles and wires are gone.”
“We have also finished a number of art pieces and expect to complete this aspect by end of year as well. All roofs replacement and all exterior work should also be done by end of year,” he said.
Lauren Siburkis, a media representative for FirstEnergy, confirmed the electrical aspects of the project are moving forward.
“Work is ongoing to convert the Ostrich Towne development from overhead lines to underground lines, as requested by the developer to provide outdoor space,” Ms. Siburkis said.
“We’re working with the developer to help coordinate the transfer of telecommunication companies’ wires so that all overhead equipment can be removed,” she said. “The timeline will depend on when all of the telecommunication companies can relocate their equipment.”
Mr. Lucas also intends to extend the Ostrich Towne outdoor theme down Ostrich Lane running along the back of his proposed market.
“The idea is to continue the alley concept. It is going to be really fun back there,” Mr. Lucas said.
The Vistula District developers have pointed to the success of Metroparks in creating spaces where people want to be.
“What is important to me is the ability to emphasize walkability. My dream is to see people outside with their dogs and riding their bikes,” Mr. Lucas said. “We are starting to think of value in this town and that is encouraging. We need decisions that help Toledo realize our potential.”
An Ostrich Lane resident
Mickey Finn, a longtime proponent of the Vistula neighborhood, is in the middle of it all. His name still anchors a block on 602 Lagrange St. with a sign proclaiming Mickey Finn’s Pub, closed now for a decade.
Mr. Finn continues to live in the only private residence on Ostrich Lane — a renovated carriage house from 1867.
“I am the first human being to live here other than a stable boy possibly,” he said of the 968 square feet that wraps itself around an iron-wrought spiral staircase that enticingly reveals its three stories, including brick arches and high ceilings.
Mr. Finn, 78, looks down the lane — don’t call it an alley, he says — and is happy for the latest efforts to boost a community in which he has always believed and invested.
“I put my money where my mouth was,” he said.
In 2020, longtime Toledo preservationist and retired professor Ted Ligibel said he was excited about the possibilities in Toledo’s oldest neighborhood.
“It was a really thriving and energetic place [in the late 1800s] with people on the streets, horses and carriages, industry, and very prominent residences. It’s a textbook of American architecture and Toledo history,” he said at the time.
Vistula neighborhood is just northeast of downtown. It includes an area between Locust and Lagrange streets running north and south, and Summit and Superior streets east and west.
Mr. Finn’s faith remains unshakeable, though he is wistful about how the Mud Hens’ ballfield and the construction of the ProMedica building have pulled much of the city’s energy into the downtown area. He complains that the smell of baking bread no longer wafts through the neighborhood from the now-closed Wonder Bread facility. He misses that aroma.
That also may change as the Golden Hind Wine Bar and Pastries, in Ostrich Towne, hosted its grand opening on Thursday.
Sister owners, Beth and Cassie Drake, were tweaking their recipes last week. With food permit in hand, they are serving during breakfast and lunch hours. Once their liquor permit is approved, the hours will be expanded into the evening.
“Ostrich Towne is coming alive,” said Amy Butler, the front-of-house manager. “This is a new, unique concept that does not exist elsewhere in Toledo. We are ready.”
Ongoing recognition
Earlier renovation efforts in the Vistula neighborhood are also receiving attention.
The American Institute of Architects Toledo Chapter announced its 2023 Design Award recipients and the $9 million renovation of the former Westminster Presbyterian Church, 902 N. Superior St., completed in 2022, won the Special Jury Award for Adaptive Reuse.
The building is the headquarters of Nemsys, a technology solutions company for businesses, owned by Toledo natives Matt Nachtrab and Drew McCallum. The project also earned an honorable mention from Heritage Ohio for Best Commercial Rehabilitation in a large community.
Mr. Finn said he appreciates the attention that is returning to Vistula District in so many ways. He remembers when school children would line up outside the front of his pub with report cards in hand. He would give young students a $1 for each “A,” 50 cents for a “B,” and a quarter for a “C.” He says, to this day, grown men will stop him on the sidewalk and thank him for those memories.
“It was a nice run,” he said of the days when the pub would be packed and live music created a lively beat in the neighborhood.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on November 12, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Northwood City Council is exploring the idea of building a partially enclosed ice rink near its new community center and new housing subdivision.
Council approved applying for a $500,000 grant toward the $3.8 million project at its opening meeting of the month.
Councilman Louis Fahrbach, who is chairman of the finance committee, said that teams could practice at the facility and there would be public skating.
“Just ask how busy Tam-O-Shanter is, and the other facilities that are around here. There’s a definite need for that,” Mr. Fahrbach said.
Sylvania Tam-O-Shanter offers public skating, youth and adult hockey, skating lessons, and figure skating.
There is limited ice available in the area, Mr. Fahrbach said.
“There are people who travel from here, who go up to Michigan, go out to Indiana,” he said. “I think it would provide a pretty good practice area, and also an area where games could be played as well — a pretty cool concept.”
Thursday’s action was to apply to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for a $500,000 grant through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.
“In April, we’ll see if we get it and what the path forward looks like,” Mr. Fahrbach said.
Rink rental and ice time would go toward paying for the project, he said.
“But that’s definitely a question that would be further explored in an April-May time period,” Mr. Fahrbach said.
The earliest the rink would be completed would be in 2025.
The rink would be near the Enclave, a mixed-use development on 120 acres formerly occupied by the Woodville Mall. Plans call for office space, smaller commercial buildings and retail, and housing for families and seniors. The location is also close to the new community center, which is opening this summer.
“We’re trying to get enough venues and houses there where they can become a good venue that can be enjoyable to hang out at,” Mr. Fahrbach said. “After you get done with the hockey game, hopefully you go over and have wings somewhere. We’re in talks with a couple different restaurants … just have a nice community area.”
Glenn Grisdale, principal of Bowling Green-based Reveille, a planning and economic development agency, gave a detailed presentation to the finance committee before the council meeting.
“There’s a huge need for hockey … a huge need, everyone knows about it,” Mr. Grisdale said Thursday.
The city could also pursue $500,000 to $1 million from the state capital budget to put toward the project, he said. Memberships and leagues will also help with the cost, Mr. Grisdale said.
The rink would be ice from mid-October to mid-April, he said. In the warmer months, it could be a roller rink and also used for lacrosse, soccer, and pickleball.
“This facility would be used year-round,” he said.
Councilman Mark Stoner said he thought the project should be put on hold for a year. There are many other projects to do in the city, including road repairs. Also, the community center is poised to open next summer, and they should see what the response is, he said.
The community center will feature a green space for outdoor gatherings, along with a splash pad and a 24,000-square-foot facility for recreation, fitness, wellness, and social opportunities.
“I’m not saying it’s not a worthwhile project,” Mr. Stoner said of the hockey rink. “Let’s wait to see if we’ve got some money coming in, so we can help fund it that way.”
He did agree to apply for the grant.
Adapted from: DBusiness November/December 2023 edition. To read about all the winners, please click here.
Introducing the inaugural DBusiness Commercial Real Estate Awards, honoring 21 people, companies, and projects that are transforming metro Detroit. From dozens of nominations submitted by our readers, we chose three finalists for each category, with a focus on developers, brokers, architects, and real estate professionals. From there, we selected a final winner for work that was approved, commenced, or completed last year.
For decades, metro Detroit’s industrial property sector languished, a victim of manufacturing activity moving overseas, aging facilities, and crumbling roads and bridges. Mix in years of fiscal mismanagement in Detroit that led to the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country in 2013, and the prospects for an industrial turnaround were circumspect, if not grim.
Even as large factories, manufacturing facilities, and projects like the Pontiac Silverdome sat empty for want of demand – metro Detroit’s industrial vacancy rate was at 13 percent in 2008 – Paul Hoge, Senior Vice President and Principal of Signature Associates, kept driving forward.
As a top salesperson at the brokerage firm, Hoge has overseen scores of transactions ranging from leasing and sales to helping to assemble large tracts of land for industrial parks. In one instance, in the late 1980s, he cold-called Tire Wholesalers, which at the time was located along Eight Mile Road in Southfield. In short order, he sold the company a larger warehouse in Troy. Last year, Hoge and his team helped Tire Wholesalers establish a 270,000-square-foot headquarters and warehouse operation in Oak Park.
At the same time, Hoge has assisted hundreds of clients in buying and leasing industrial land and facilities, including new and refurbished properties from Brose NA, Dürr, First Industrial REIT, Kirco, MSX International, US Farathane, and Webasto. The projects have generated myriad investments in related industries such as design, construction, machinery, and furnishings.
Today, Hoge, a member of the Midwest Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame, has never been busier. The region’s industrial vacancy rate was 3.7 percent in the second quarter, the lowest available space in decades.
Posted By: REjournals on October 20, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
More of the same struggles. That’s what the Detroit market is facing in its office sector.
According to the third quarter office report released by Newmark, the Detroit metropolitan area office vacancy rate climbed 50 basis points during the quarter to 22%. A total of 446,816 square feet in net vacancies were added to the local office market.
And the news isn’t better when it comes to 2023 as a whole. According to Newmark, more than 2.05 million square feet in net vacancies have been added to the Detroit-area office market so far in 2023.
It’s not surprising, then, that available office sublease space in the market increased by 4% during the third quarter, rising to a 20-year total of just more than 2.2 million square feet. Direct available office space reached a 10-year high of 19 million square feet during the third quarter, according to Newmark.
These weak numbers don’t mean that the Detroit office market didn’t see some activity during the quarter. Newmark pointed to CURE Auto Insurance leasing 15,000 square feet in the Icon Building at 200 Walker St. in Detroit and Majorel leasing 35,000 square feet at 211 W. Fort St., also in Detroit.
And Samsung Semiconductor leased 10,000 square feet at 1000 Town Center in Souhfield, Michigan.
The outlook for the local office sector? Newmark is predicting more challenges. According to Newmark, office vacancies are expected to increase in the coming quarters as users occupying large blocks of space seek to shed excess square footage.
Newmark is also predicting that landlords will begin offering more competitive rental rates to attract tenants.
And for those looking to rent office space? Newmark predicts that the office market will become even more favorable for tenants looking for new space as sales price will fall.
Posted By: The Detroit News on October 27, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
New car washes are popping up throughout Metro Detroit, with operators attracted by the outlets’ reoccurring revenue and customers drawn to their convenience and flexibility.
For example, Jax Kar Wash recently opened a new location in Oak Park, marking nearly 30 Michigan sites for the longstanding business. The company also plans a location in Madison Heights. A new business, Cosmo’s Car Wash, has construction underway in Roseville.
“The car wash industry is booming,” said Eric Wulf, CEO of the International Car Wash Association. “The last four or five years have been the greatest amount of new store construction the industry has ever seen. We’re probably averaging well over 500 new stores per year the last four or five years. And that would be up from a couple hundred stores, maybe 10 years ago, per year.”
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated in 2019, there were 16,976 car washes with paid employees, up 7% from a previous count in 2015. According to the International Car Wash Association, a third-party study in 2020 estimated there were 17,500 conveyor car washes, 29,000 in-bay automatic car washes and 16,250 self-service car washes in the United States.
“We’re adding car washes at a rapid clip, and we’re also seeing a lot of interest, not just constructing new ones, but the merger and acquisition side of the strategy in the business,” Wulf said.
The industry has grown in part due to private equity’s increased interest in car washes, experts say: “There’s fresh capital coming in,” said Jeff Stoltman, associate professor of marketing at Wayne State University. “The state of Michigan’s got a really great sort of late entry into what would be regarded as a mature market.”
The industry has long existed in Metro Detroit. In fact, the first automated car wash, known as Paul’s Auto Wash, began on Fort Street in Detroit in 1946, according to the Detroit Historical Society.
Stoltman said self-serve car washes were popular in the 1950s and ’60s, and in the following two decades, automated services came to the forefront. Those automated services include a bay model, where the car remains stationary, and the conveyor model, where cars move through a tunnel. Both have evolved over time as motorists seek out convenience.
“People started to get time-pressured,” he said. “So this is a shift from over 50 years from ‘I will wash my car in my driveway because it’s part of my routine and I have the time to do that’ to ‘I just drive into the car wash and take care of it.’ So it was a time and convenience thing.”
Among customers looking for convenience is Rell Noland, 34. The Detroit resident recently stopped at the new Jax Kar Wash on Greenfield in Oak Park to clean his Jeep Wagoneer. The system scans his license plate as he pulls into the building.
“I liked the whole setup,” he said. “The inside was pretty nice.”
Noland likes to clean his car once a week, so he pays $30 for a monthly membership: “I know more times in the summer I get more car washes with the rain and stuff like that. Once a week, I try to keep it clean. I got kids and stuff, so I try to clean up after their messes.”
Operators scale up
Justin Landau and Geoff Karas, co-CEOs of El Car Wash, plan to open three outlets next year in Brighton Township, Madison Heights and Ferndale.
The pair started by purchasing four car washes in Florida, which retained the name El Car Wash. Landau said El Car Wash will have 40 locations in Florida by the end of 2023.
About a year ago, Landau and Karas recapitalized the business and brought in a private equity firm, Warburg Pincus. After some discussion with commercial real estate agency Alrig USA, based in Bingham Farms, they homed in on Michigan as a new place to grow.
“We started talking about the next opportunity,” he said. “They and us kind of agreed that the southeast portion of Michigan was, I’d say, underserved from our perspective for the type of product that we’re putting out there.”
As new companies move into the state, longstanding car wash businesses in Michigan, such as the 70-year-old Jax Kar Wash, are expanding. In addition to acquiring new sites in recent years in Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin, the company has new builds, such as the car wash in Oak Park and the upcoming location in Madison Heights.
“That’s a big part of our success is how many locations we have and the fact that anywhere you go, you can find a Jax’s Kar Wash,” said Todd Gesund, vice president of Jax Kar Wash.
In 2022, Jax Kar Wash purchased Gesund’s family business, Super Car Wash, which had 11 locations in Michigan. The locations received a rebranding and improvements to bring them to the same level of service.
“We call it a value in density,” said Jon Zimmerman, CEO of Jax Kar Wash. “We recognize, and our customers recognize, that they move around and that they want options. We have three washes within one four-mile radius on Woodward, and they feed off of each other… We’re trying to be located where our customers are. Customers want to wash normally within a radius of their daily activities.”
Detroit resident Christian Rupert, 33, recently stopped at the Jax’s Kar Wash in Oak Park to wash a rental car before returning it. He said he usually visits the location on Telegraph and 12 Mile to wash rental cars or his personal vehicle. He said a friend lives in the area, so he noticed the site while it was under construction.
“I saw that it had the vacuums that I like, so I kept in mind that the next time I need to go, I’ll go there. …” he said. “It was really quick. It has a couple more lanes than the other one that I usually go to. There were some cars there, but I was able to get in and out pretty quick.”
A growing market
Jack Berdan and Alex Sturwold, co-founders of Chicago-based Clearwave Car Wash, entered the Michigan market with a location in Taylor in 2017 and added outlets in Lincoln Park and Roseville in 2022. The two purchased their first car wash in 2015 in the Chicago area and then set their sights on Michigan.
“We kind of looked around,” Berdan said. “Chicago was pretty competitive. I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, so we kind of decided to do a location there. We saw an opportunity in Taylor, Michigan.”
Berdan and Sturwold said they have two locations where they have an interest in expanding; however, they declined to reveal them.
“Our kind of growth mentality and philosophy is we’re going to open as many stores as we can responsibly and prudently when we have the people ready to operate them,” Sturwold said. “That’s kind of how we look at growth.”
Sturwold said they believe there is more room for growth in Metro Detroit.
Steve Gunn, owner of Wash Pointe Car Wash, said the influx of business comes from the interest in monthly membership revenue. He said his company, which has five Metro Detroit locations, has had success with it.
Data showed that customers who pay per wash would only visit three to four times a year, he added. By converting a customer into a monthly member, the revenue increases from $40 a year to about $300 annually.
Gunn, a fourth-generation car wash operator, says the market in Metro Detroit is not yet saturated with the express car washes.
“This model is really, really popular down South with all these new builds,” he said. “A lot of these big groups are having … difficulty finding good areas to build these brand new greenfield car washes down South because the market down there has kind of been saturated.
“So now they’ve turned to Detroit, essentially saying well, now we can implement our new model of the car washing industry up here and essentially push out all the older, you know, the car washes that were built back in the ’50s, in the ’60s.”
Gunn’s business plans to pursue growth to compete with larger chains: “To compete with those, you have to have size, and so that’s our business model. We’re going to keep on our path and keep expanding and keep building and or possibly a merger in the future so that we can offer our customers that flexibility of being able to go to so many locations.”
Posted By: The Detroit News on October 24, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The Michigan Strategic Fund Board agreed Tuesday to increase brownfield tax incentives for the redevelopment of the former General Motors Transmission Plant site in Warren.
The governing body of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. increased the authorized capture for the project from $7.2 million to $9.1 million. The initial amount was approved in April 2022.
The increase will cover new costs related to Missouri-based NorthPoint Development’s construction of three new buildings on the site of the former General Motors Warren Transmission Plant, according to an MEDC briefing memo.
“Shortly after construction began in Fall of 2022, additional demolition and site improvement eligible activities were identified that were necessary to complete the project,” MEDC staff wrote.
This spring, the development welcomed its first tenants: Marlo, a distributor of hair, nail and spa supplies, and Akasol, which produces lithium-ion battery systems.
The board also approved changes to a brownfield plan that would allow for the sale of the historic Strand Theater in downtown Pontiac to a local church. The move would also remove managing members Kyle and Brent Westberg of obligations associated with the agreement, according to a briefing memo.
In October 2015, the board approved a $4.5 million loan with $1.5 million of that being forgivable after the renovation of the theater into a performing arts and community center as well as a restaurant. The development team opened the theater in December 2016.
“Since completion the project has experienced some operational challenges due to lagging performance offerings and the impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic,” MEDC staff wrote.
The development team plans to sell its ownership interest of the property to Pontiac Church, according to the briefing memo.
The board also approved a $1.5 million performance-based grant for the rehabilitation of a vacant building in the Boston Edison neighborhood, which will include affordable housing.
The Claire, a $8.4 million project by Clairmount Apartments LLC, will be a 42-unit mixed income residential complex on Clairmount near 2nd Avenue.
Sixty percent of units will rent between 50% and 80% of area median income and 40% of units will rent at 120% of the area median income, according to the MEDC. Rents are projected to range from $875 for studio units, $1,075 for one-bedroom units, $1,492 for two-bedroom units and $1,900 for three-bedroom units.
MEDC staff said the project needs the Michigan Community Revitalization Program grant to help the developers preserve affordability while developing the long vacant building.
Kaci Jackson, senior real estate manager for the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, said the project “is going to add some much needed affordable housing to the area and then it also will build upon the momentum that’s happening in the area with the ongoing revitalization efforts around the Woodward Corridor.”
Posted By: DBUSINESS on October 24, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A new mixed-use apartment building will break ground shortly at Second Avenue and Brainard Street in Midtown Detroit that will offer 57 apartments and 3,500 square feet of commercial space. The total cost of the project was not disclosed.
Built on three vacant lots, the developer, Greatwater Opportunity Capital, recently completed the renovation of an adjacent 45-unit apartment building. Both projects are located just north of Cass Technical High School.
Twenty percent of the units are earmarked at below-market rents for eligible applicants earning less than 80 percent of the area’s median income (AMI). Rental rates will be provided in the coming months. This project will add in-demand attainable housing plus retail jobs to the neighborhood.
“For the new building’s design, we created a contemporary version of the existing architectural language in the neighborhood and adjacent Willis-Selden Historic District,” says Michael Poris, principal of McIntosh Poris Architects in Birmingham. “We included ground-floor retail space in the building to maximize the corner-lot location, which fronts both Second Avenue and Brainard Street.”
McIntosh Poris Architects’ primary design challenge was maximizing the combined lots, which are deep and narrow. This limits the developable area after the required on-site parking is allocated. The architects’ solution: a four-story, 38,916-square-foot building.
The building’s façade positions wood panels between windows, alternating on each floor. The resulting effect is a tessellated pattern where the windows align vertically. Exterior materials include brick and Exterior Insulation Finishing Systems (EIFS), energy-efficient uPVC windows, and wood composite rainscreen.
For the interior, the developer’s design directive emphasized efficient layouts that prioritize living space. The architects optimized the space to create 57 units — 33 studio apartments at 370 square feet each, and 24 one-bedroom units comprising 550 square feet.
Project manager Reid Mauti joins Poris on the McIntosh Poris design team. The project team includes general contractor The Monahan Company, civil engineer and landscape architect Giffels Webster, MEP engineer CTR, structural engineer IMEG, and property manager/development consultant Modern City Management.
Posted By: REjournals on October 17, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Halloween spending is on track to reach $12.2 billion, exceeding last year’s $10.6 billion record, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey conducted by Proper Insights & Analytics. Seventy-three percent of folks will participate in Halloween-related activities this year, up from 69% in 2022.
Like in previous years, the most popular ways consumers plan to enjoy the evening are handing out candy (68%), decorating their homes or yards (53%), or dressing in costume (50%). And in a return to pre-pandemic norms, more people plan to throw or attend a party (32%) or take their children trick-or-treating (28%).
Individual spending is also on the rise, with consumers planning to spend an average of $108.24 each, up from the previous high of $102.74 in 2021. The most significantincrease in spending is on costumes, which are more popular than ever.
Sixty-nine percent of those participating in festivities plan to purchase costumes, up from 67% last year and marking the highest percentage in the survey’s history. Furthermore, costume spending is expected to reach a record $4.1 billion, up from $3.6 billion in 2022.
Spending on decorations is projected to reach $3.9 billion. Among those celebrating Halloween, over 77% plan to buy decorations, on par with last year, but up from 72% in 2019, based on the survey.
Candy spending is estimated to reach $3.6 billion, up from $3.1 billion the previous year. Spending on Halloween greeting cards is anticipated to be $500 million, a slight decrease from the $600 million in 2022 but still higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Similar to other major holidays and shopping events, such as back-to-school and the winter holidays, the NRF found that consumers are looking to start their Halloween shopping early. Nearly half (45%) of those celebrating planned to begin shopping before October.
The primary sources of costume inspiration remain online searches (37%), retail stores or costume shops (28%), and recommendations from friends and family (20%).
And to bring their costume inspo to life? Discount stores (40%) continue to be the go-to, followed by specialty costume shops (39%) and online retailers (32%). Notably, more consumers intend to shop at specialty stores this year than in the past.
Spending on adult costumes is expected to increase by 18% over the previous year, reaching $2 billion, while spending on children’s costumes is projected to rise 20% to $1.4 billion. Pet costumes are expected to reach $700 million, in line with last year’s figures.
Posted By: The Detroit News on October 25, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A Detroit-based retail shop known for its watchmaking is expanding to Grand Rapids next month.
Shinola will open its 22nd U.S. retail location on Monroe Center Street NW in downtown Grand Rapids in November after a decade of manufacturing watches.
The new store, which will be in the historic Peck Building, was made possible by a lease agreement between Shinola and Rockford Construction, a real estate development company in the region.
Rockford Construction is overseeing the building’s renovation and buildout with guidance from Shinola’s in-house merchandizing and branding experts. Shinola is also working with the City of Grand Rapids and Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. to install a clock at the corner of Monroe Center Street and S Division Avenue.
“We’re interested in creating timeless experiences with Grand Rapids community partners and establishing a strong brand presence that connects Shinola to the Grand Rapids market,” said Awenate Cobbina, Shinola’s CEO. “After exploring the space at 40 Monroe Center and observing the walkability and vibrancy downtown, we knew it made good business sense to make this home for Shinola in downtown Grand Rapids.
“Our team is pulling together a new store and grand opening plan in under five weeks — this is typically a six-month process,” Cobbina said. “We are confident the effort and investment will deliver considerable returns.”
In a news release, Shinola said the store is joining an “already thriving business district, bringing timeless American design to the West Michigan community.”
“Rockford has been investing in downtown Grand Rapids for more than 25 years and to welcome a nationally recognized brand like Shinola further solidifies Rockford’s commitment to downtown,” said Mike Mraz, president of real estate development at Rockford Construction.“We have been building a healthy, active lifestyle city. Adding a well-known and respected brand like Shinola to our growing city will add to its culture and quality product offerings,” said Richard App, retail retention and attraction specialist for the Grand Rapids Chamber.
Posted By: The Blade on October 14, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Decades after the city of Toledo tried to attract investment for a new Jeep plant by buying parcels of land south of the Ohio Turnpike to Fallen Timbers, the property has been developed, rezoned, and sold to invested businesses.
Officials talked about the development during driving a tour of the area around U.S. 24 and I-475 this month. The land deal dated back to 1986.
“The city has no property left there. It’s kind of a milestone,” said Andy Ferrara, a real estate manager at Miller Diversified Inc. From 1995 to 2015, he served as an economic development specialist for Toledo and helped sell its property in Monclova Township.
Property bought by the city of Toledo boxed in Maumee, and fired off extensive litigation going all the way up to the Ohio Supreme Court with Toledo eventually dropping its annexation plans.
The three government entities, Toledo, Monclova, and Maumee, resolved their conflict by forming a joint economic development zone where all communities benefited from the tax money.
“But I have to say, it was without a doubt one of the most controversial and challenging real estate transactions that I’ve ever participated in,” said Brian McMahon, owner/broker of Danberry National Ltd.
Land was collected in secret under a title name to keep costs low, as the city of Toledo tried to attract the then-Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca to a new location. Toledo’s mayor at that time, Donna Owens, worked with Mr. McMahon to purchase 1,200 acres, and Ms. Owens presented the plan to Mr. Iacocca who would pass on that spot for the Jeep plant.
“When the city finally found another site for the Jeep plant, the decision was ‘OK, let’s find people who can create economic development on this land,’” Mr. McMahon said.
Earlier this month, Mr. McMahon, Ms. Owens, and Zac Isaac, the president of the Isaac Property Co., gave an hour-long tour of the businesses and neighborhoods that have expanded into these once undeveloped areas.
“When I was elected to city council, Toledo looked like a bombed-out city,” Ms. Owens said. “I mean there was nothing.”
Directed by her vision, Ms. Owens said, “I need more to help the community,” and was not willing to take anything less than being mayor after her city council position. “My vision was economic development.”
Since then, Arrowhead Park has blossomed with 37 companies involved in its grouping, and The Andersons, Dana Corp., and Spartan Chemical have put down their roots more formally, staking their companies in more permanent locations instead of rented areas.
“Had not the city controlled all this land, it probably would have gone separately to a number of developers, none of which would have necessarily worked together in a cohesive way, which is what’s happening out here,” Mr. McMahon said.
“You’ve got some pretty substantial companies that have just basically endorsed Donna’s vision, even though it wasn’t Jeep,” he said.
Ms. Owens served as Toledo mayor from 1983-1989. She first was elected to city council in 1979.
Looking out across the expansive flatness along the highways, it may not seem like development is happening, but in Monclova Township the change has already been formalized.
Investors such as Rolled Alloys, a metal supplier from Monroe, is coming to the area, as well as Yarder Manufacturing, a Toledo sheet metal manufacturer. Yarder Manufacturing has bought up the last large parcel, 80 acres of land, that was part of the initial 1,200 acres in Monclova, at 6232 Monclova Rd.
“Right now, there’s a lot of dominoes that still have to happen for us to figure out exactly what we’re gonna do with the land,” Matt Yarder, the executive vice president of Yarder Manufacturing, said, calling it a “land acquisition investment opportunity.”
But Mr. Yarder did mention the company his great-grandfather started back in 1927 had no intentions of leaving Toledo, but has wanted to expand to create more jobs for hard-working individuals.
“Basically, we’re at 50,000 square feet now,” and Mr. Yarder, noting this will accommodate for up to five times the space they currently occupy.
What the company will actually do with the land is still in development, and Mr. Yarder said the company would have a better idea of its use come springtime.
The location next to the highways, the availability of the infrastructure, and the development of neighborhoods such as Monclova Waterside have made the once controversial land deal a formidable area of growth and investment. The governments are working together in the joint economic development zone.
“It was without a doubt one of the most exciting things I’ve worked on in my career,” Mr. McMahon said.
Posted By: The Blade on October 24, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Location, location, location — Rossford has it, and businesses want it, the city’s mayor says.
At Monday’s meeting, Rossford City Council voted to approve the rezoning of 5.4 acres from planned commercial to planned industrial.
The properties, which are 2.1 and 2.3 acres, had been owned by ProMedica, Mayor Neil MacKinnon III said. They are now owned by Choice Crossroads Development LLC, which owns everything around the parcels, he said.
“That is turning into an industrial business park,” Mr. MacKinnon said of the Bass Pro Shops area.
Whiteford Kenworth Trucking will soon be there, along with an as-of-yet unnamed company, Mr. MacKinnon said.
Murphy Tractor and Equipment Company is also in the vicinity, along with Perrysburg Animal Hospital, he said.
Rossford is attractive because of its location, Mr. MacKinnon said.
“I-75 is the longest north-south highway in the country; 80-90 is the longest east-west highway in the country, and they interchange in Rossford, Ohio,” he said.
“On top of that, we’re within a day’s drive of almost 70 percent of the population of North America, and we’re less than 50 miles away from the new Gordie Howe Bridge to Canada,” Mr. MacKinnon said. “I just know that we have some assets and a great location.”
In the next year, there are over a dozen development projects in the works, he said.
“We have right now … 12 new industrial-light manufacturing projects that are in the que,” Mr. MacKinnon said. “I think 2024 to the first quarter of 2025 will eclipse all other years.”
He said he expects the total development that is coming will be even bigger than the Amazon Fulfillment Center Warehouse project, also in the Crossroads Parkway. It opened in late 2020.
“That was a once-in-a-lifetime development,” he said.
Allyson Murray, city administrator, said the new zoning approved on Monday will match the rest of the area.
“Everything else in that area is planned industrial,” she said, adding that the city planning commission also approved the rezoning.
Also at the meeting, council was told that Glenwood Road has reopened. In addition, members were told that leaf pickup had started Monday, and continues until the first snowfall.
Signature Associates is proud to announce that Catherine Coutts has earned her Certified Property Manager® (CPM) designation from the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM).
Catherine has been a valued Signature team member for a decade, first joining the team as an Assistant Property Manager. She is responsible for managing industrial, retail, warehouse, hi-tech, and residential properties in the southeastern Michigan market. Currently her portfolio consists of managing approximately 200,000 square feet of industrial/commercial property, 60,000 square feet of retail property, 600,000 square feet of office/mixed use and two condominium associations. Prior to joining Signature, she spent seven years working in commercial real estate and held positions in both property management and marketing. She is also a Michigan Licensed Real Estate Salesperson and a member of the National Association of Realtors®.
IREM’s CPM is the premier property management certification world-wide. This certification is for those who manage any asset class and want to learn how to maximize the value of their properties—including commercial, residential, and anything in between. Owners, investors, and employers know that if you hold an IREM CPM designation, you have the knowledge to maximize the value of any property, in any asset class. CPMs know more, do more, and earn more, anywhere they manage.
Posted By: The Detroit News on October 15, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The type of transaction the maker of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram might pursue for its North American headquarters could open up development opportunities for the Auburn Hills site and infuse the corporation with additional cash, according to sale-leaseback brokers.
The United Auto Workers has objected amid a strike against the Detroit Three automakers to Stellantis NV seeking the ability to sell or close 18 U.S. facilities as part of contract negotiations. Most are Mopar vehicle parts distribution centers that the company is looking to consolidate and modernize without eliminating jobs, but the proposal also includes the company’s roughly 500-acre North American headquarters and technical center in Auburn Hills, The Detroit News previously reported.
Stellantis says it’s not abandoning the former Chrysler Corp. global headquarters, which is one of the largest buildings in the world by floor space and whose glass Pentastar top can be seen from Interstate 75. But it could give it the flexibility to sell the property and lease it back now that many of the workers based out of the facility are mostly working from home, leaving offices and parking lots empty most of the time.
Stellantis would join a chorus of companies, including Troy’s staffing company Kelly Services Inc., Chicago’s Motorola Solutions Inc. and Cleveland’s Sherwin-Williams Co., that are selling off their headquarters and instead leasing space. It provides them a source of liquidity with employees working remote or partially so. In Stellantis’ move to electric vehicles, additional capital could help to support the $35.5 billion the automaker has committed to invest in electrification and software by 2025.
“They’re probably looking to increase their cash position,” said Sam Abuelsamid, principal e-mobility analyst at market research firm Guidehouse Inc. “It would generate cash to cover their (capital expenditures) on battery plants and retooling over the next couple of years.”
Stellantis announced last week it will build a second, $3.2 billion battery plant in Kokomo, Indiana, with Samsung SDI. It doesn’t sell any all-electric vehicles now in the United States, but says it will have 25 models by 2030. The battery-electric Ram ProMaster commercial van launches in Mexico for Amazon.com Inc. before the end of the year, and the electric Ram 1500 REV, Dodge Charger muscle car, Jeep Recon SUV and Wagoneer “S” SUV all enter production next year.
Luke Timmis— partner and director of the sale-leaseback team at Southfield’s Signature Associates, a commercial real estate firm — estimates a site like it could fall in the range of large transactions between $250 million and $500 million.
The possibility of a selloff, though, leaves some workers at the site anxious. Although the complex is home to mostly white-collar employees not organized by the UAW, in addition to the offices, there are labs, engineering facilities and design studios. UAW-represented employees in skilled trades, engineering, maintenance and more work there, requiring the company to bargain for the ability to sell the site if it wishes.
“We definitely don’t want it to happen,” said Chris Young, 31, of Imlay City, a four-year UAW member who works in skilled trades at the technical center and hopes to get in his 30 years at the company. “It’s about the longevity for the jobs that are there right now. We don’t want to see them outsourced, jobs canceled or for people to lose their jobs.”
The automaker in 2021 officially instituted its “new era of agility” in response to workplace conditions changing from the COVID-19 pandemic. It estimated that employees who could would spend 70% of their time working remotely and 30% of their time in the office as a part of an evaluation “to enable our teams to be their most innovative, creative and efficient,” according to a previous statement. That evaluation included potential adjustments to its real estate portfolio.
“Specifically here in Auburn Hills, this is our North America headquarters,” Mark Stewart, chief operating officer in North America, told WWJ-AM (950) last month. “It will be our North America headquarters, but like everyone in the hybrid working environment, and looking at our overall footprint across the region, and specifically in the U.S., we have a lot of the building here in Auburn Hills that we’re not utilizing today. So, we’re looking at other use cases for that, certainly not leaving this footprint in any shape, form or fashion. But the areas we’re not using, we’re looking at some different repurposing for those.”
A spokesperson for Oakland County declined comment on reports that Stellantis could pursue a sale. In an email, Auburn Hills Mayor Kevin McDaniel said any possible changes would be speculative.
“We have not been made aware of any possible change in ownership methods for the Stellantis building in Auburn Hills,” he wrote. “Mark Stewart, COO for the company, has made very public statements that Stellantis has no plans to vacate its prominent Auburn Hills facility.”
Where the value is
In contrast to a straight sale of a property, a sale-leaseback provides some certainty for a community, said JC Asensio, managing director with commercial real estate advisory firm Newmark Group Inc.’s corporate capital markets group in Chicago. Long-term leases of 10 or even 20 years aren’t uncommon in such transactions and afford more worth to the sale.
“It certainly is an opportunity that’s going to attract a lot of interest,” said Briggs Goldberg, associate director with Newmark’s corporate capital markets group, about the possibility of a sale of Stellantis’ site. “Companies like Stellantis, in turn, can take the proceeds from the sale-leaseback transaction, and it can be used in a variety of ways to position the business for long-term success. It can be reinvested in the operations; it can be used to pay down debt; it can also be an opportunity to invest into the property over a period of time when you don’t have a game plan in place immediately.”
There also are tax benefits, experts said. These transactions are on the rise after the COVID-19 pandemic sent employees who could work remotely to their homes, revealing properties as a physical asset of which companies could take advantage financially.
The sale-leaseback market is difficult to measure because transactions can be done privately between the buyer and seller and are more difficult to track in smaller markets, Asensio said.
“A lot of the reason these aren’t public is the company that is pursuing a sale-leaseback, they don’t want to send the wrong message to to the community,” he said. “People hear the word ‘sale,’ and people think they’re leaving, when the sale-leaseback can mean that they’re staying for the very long term into perpetuity to have a long-term vision for the campus.”
The decline in need for office space, though, could present challenges for a sale of the building. Industrial sites, Timmis said, top the list of interest, because of the essential functions they perform, and since they are centers of profit. Bidders on these properties have doubled to between 16 and 21 after rent payments remained stable amid the pandemic. Research and development and lab space are difficult to replicate, making those assets valuable, as well.
Stellantis’ complex has about 5.4 million square feet. Its technical center was dedicated in 1991, and Chrysler Corp. announced the site would become its headquarters in 1992. Before then, Highland Park, a city surrounded by Detroit that by then had declined economically, had been its home.
“We’d been on the property for 65-70 years,” Brandt Rosenbusch, the automaker’s archivist, told The Detroit News about the Highland Park campus in an interview last year. “The buildings were dated. There was going to be a whole bunch of investment needed to upgrade them.”
There also was a push to move to what was known at the time as “platform engineering,” he said. “That’s what we called it within our company where, as opposed to having engineering over here, and purchasing over there, and design over here, it was integrating all of those groups into something where everybody worked directly together, and you really couldn’t do that in all these segmented, segregated buildings that you had to walk outside.”
By the time the company went looking for a new site in the mid-1980s, Detroit’s suburbs had been built out. The Auburn Hills property afforded enough space for the complex while having easy access to I-75 and M-59, Rosenbusch said.
Those physical attributes benefit pricing in a potential sale, but sale-leasebacks typically obtain between 25% and 50% above their appraised value, said Timmis.
“It’s not just brick-and-mortar, but an investment vehicle,” he said. “A long-term lease to a good company typically creates that arbitrage above appraised value.”
The contributions to that value are the length of the term of the lease and the tenant’s credit. Stellantis is the fourth-largest automaker in the world by volume, with ubiquitous brands and a long legacy. Its credit rating with Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s is investment-worthy, though lower-medium grade.
“They’ve been around for a long time,” Timmis said. “It has gone through the mud before. In life and business, the companies that have gone through the test of time and gone through the test of adversity tend to live long lives.”
Good credit and a long lease can help offset some other challenges like residual value: “Assuming the tenant went vacant, is it a scary thing to think about really relying and banking on Stellantis’ current and future health and stability to make payments over the course of the lease?” Timmis said. “What could you sell this for if it were vacant? It’d be a massive undertaking. A massive company of equal size would have to take something like this.”
Opportunities
Over the past two years, there’ve been many new buyer entrants into the sale-leaseback markets, the Newmark brokers said.
“As sale-leaseback become more and more popular, a more commonplace tool for companies to unlock capital, it’s sort of a ‘build it, and they will come,'” Asensio said. “As sale-leasebacks become more evolved from the corporate perspective and an opportunity to unlock capital-controlled, mission-critical factifies, the capital follows.”
Amid the Great Recession, sale-leasebacks were viewed as a “defensive” measure to prevent troubled companies from going belly up. In 2008, General Motors Co. explored the possibility of a sale leaseback for its Renaissance Center global headquarters in downtown Detroit, but it didn’t have any takers.
That picture changed starting around 2013 as the economy was humming along. With property values rising 2% to 3% per year, these transactions became dynamic moves.
“Instead of leaving property stagnant, doing nothing, you could put it to use to go on the offensive and a buy a competitor or expand to another region or have another product line,” Timmis said. “Your money is going to go a lot longer that way. Once that idea became more widely known, companies started to take advantage of it.”
In 2018, GM had conversations with Rocket Mortgage founder Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock LLC real-estate arm about a sale-leaseback, according to Crain’s Business Detroit. Investment for upgrades of the complex, built in the 1970s and early 1980s by Henry Ford II, though, halted conversations.
Real estate investment trusts tend to be highly prolific purchasers of sale-leasebacks, Timmis said. The largest ones are mostly out of state. Publicly traded examples in New York City include Blackstone Inc., Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Inc. and W.P. Carey Inc. A local REIT is the Taubman Co. in Bloomfield Hills, which is focused on malls.
REITs, though, tend to prefer single tenants, or subleasing that is less than 20% of the property. These are less risky and a sign of a strong business performance, Timmis said.
Added Goldberg about the Stellantis site: “Given the opportunistic nature of the campus with a potential redevelopment, given its size, and the fact that office is changing across the world, it’s likely that a private investor, a developer, someone who’s looking to be creative with the campus and roll up their sleeves with the tenant to find a different use for the property to reimagine the campus.”
He pointed to the sale in 2016 of Motorola’s former Schaumburg, Illinois, headquarters, now owned by real estate firm Urban Street Group. With the tech company signing a 10-year lease for 25% of the suburban Chicago campus, now known as the Veridian, redevelopment has added a Topgolf, a hotel and multi-family housing to the site.
“We’re seeing a lot of companies now only take a portion of the space and leasing it back for a long period of time,” Goldberg said, “and the future owners marketing that space or leasing to another user or downsizing the building footprint and redeveloping the campus into mixed-use with retail or hotel.”
Kelly Services entered a sale-leaseback in 2019. Sherwin-Williams last year announced a sale-leaseback under its under-constructed headquarters. Gannett Co. Inc., the newspaper publisher that owns the Detroit Free Press and prints The Detroit News, in March sold its Sterling Heights plant to an affiliate of Industrial Commercial Properties LLC, a developer based in Cleveland, and is leasing it back.
There also are mechanisms for the seller not to lose too much control over the property. This is through renewal options, right of first refusal and right of first option to buy the property back from the buyer or an ongoing or one-time right to buy the property back at a predetermined price in the future.
“That’s one of the beauties of a sale-leaseback,” Goldberg said. “It’s a blank canvas, and the seller, in most cases, gets to dictate the terms in which they are willing to continue occupying the building.”
Signature Associates is pleased to announce that Joe Plaskey has joined our Southfield office as a Sales Associate.
Joe specializes in industrial real estate with a focus on the I-275 and I-75 Corridors. He began his real estate career with Signature Associates in 2023 and is teamed up with some of the most successful brokers in the industry. Joe is passionate about commercial real estate and is excited to partner with clients to help them achieve their goals.
Prior to joining the Signature team, Joe worked at the Birmingham Country Club for 10 years as the Logistics and Facilities Manager. He has used his love of golf to also give back to his community, as he assists in the organizing and implementation of a golf outing to benefit the Cullen Haffey Endowed fund at Brother Rice. The money raised goes toward providing tuition assistance and financing mental health initiatives at the school. In 2018, Joe graduated from Mercyhurst University, where he majored in hospitality management, and played on the school’s varsity lacrosse team.
About Signature Associates:
Signature Associates, with eight offices across the Midwest, is the region’s leading commercial real estate firm. Signature provides a diverse selection of services, including brokerage, tenant representation, investment sales, property/asset management, advisory services, consulting, and market research. Signature Associates consistently maintains 42% of the market share, completes thousands of transactions and over a billion dollars’ worth of business annually in local, national, and international transactions. For more information about Signature Associates, visit: www.signatureassociates.com.
Signature Associates is pleased to announce that Peter Cachey has joined our Grand Rapids office as a Sales Associate.
Peter specializes in landlord and tenant representation as well as sale and investment property transactions. Peter is diligent, well-versed and an effective negotiator. He prides himself on being able to consistently close transactions in a timely and efficient manner. Peter strives to make sure all clients find exactly what they are looking for here in West Michigan.
Prior to joining Signature Associates, Peter worked in development and residential real estate where he gained knowledge in strip malls, industrial, build-to-suit deals as well as investment home purchases. Peter moved to Grand Rapids after graduating college in 2010, he is also recently married and enjoys spending time with family.
About Signature Associates:
Signature Associates, with eight offices across the Midwest, is the region’s leading commercial real estate firm. Signature provides a diverse selection of services, including brokerage, tenant representation, investment sales, property/asset management, advisory services, consulting, and market research. Signature Associates consistently maintains 42% of the market share, completes thousands of transactions and over a billion dollars’ worth of business annually in local, national, and international transactions. For more information about Signature Associates, visit: www.signatureassociates.com.
Signature Associates is pleased to announce that Hunter Rudolph has joined our Toledo office as a Sales Associate.
Hunter joined the Signature team in 2022 with a passion for commercial real estate and is being mentored by some of the most successful brokers in the Toledo area. Hunter grew up in the commercial industrial construction industry with his father’s role in sales at Rudolph Libbe Group.
Born and raised in Perrysburg, Hunter attended St. Johns Jesuit High School where he was involved in wrestling and shot put. Hunter learned about commercial real estate by doing an internship with Rudolph Libbe Properties. From then forward he has had a passion and drive for commercial real estate and assisting customers in locating the right solution. Hunter’s outgoing personality and genuine care for each situation makes him a great asset for our team and his clients.
About Signature Associates:
Signature Associates, with eight offices across the Midwest, is the region’s leading commercial real estate firm. Signature provides a diverse selection of services, including brokerage, tenant representation, investment sales, property/asset management, advisory services, consulting, and market research. Signature Associates consistently maintains 42% of the market share, completes thousands of transactions and over a billion dollars’ worth of business annually in local, national, and international transactions. For more information about Signature Associates, visit: www.signatureassociates.com.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on October 12, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Atlas Wholesale Food in Detroit, a third-generation, family-owned and operated broad-line food distributor, has acquired a new warehouse located at 35500 Central City Parkway in Westland. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
This 65,000-square-foot facility, previously owned by U.S. Ice and Home City Ice, is a milestone in Atlas’ 74-year history, marking the company’s first physical expansion.
The addition of the warehouse will allow Atlas to meet the growing demands of its existing clientele, who are experiencing growth, and to serve new customers throughout the region.
For more than seven decades, Atlas has been a partner for restaurants, institutions, schools, universities, government agencies, catering companies, nursing homes, casinos, and food service establishments throughout southeast Michigan and northeast Ohio.
“We have grown 146 percent over the past seven years and needed to expand our capacity to enhance support for our valued long-time customers, as well as grow our market share,” says John Kohl, CEO of Atlas Wholesale Food. “The new warehouse, with state-of-the-art cold chain technology, enables us to serve the evolving needs of food service businesses in the region, particularly some of our key accounts who are experiencing exponential success as they expand across multiple states.”
Atlas’ growth recently earned a “50 Companies to Watch” award by Michigan Celebrates Small Businesses and “Distributor of the Year” award by Golbon, North America’s Premier Foodservice Marketing Group.
Posted By: The Detroit News on October 10, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
As housing costs and demand continue to rise, developers are undertaking apartment projects in Metro Detroit, even in the face of high interest rates and growing construction costs.
Among them are Marquette Companies, which recently renovated and reopened The Maxwell apartments in Romulus, and Lockwood Development, which recently broke ground on a new multifamily apartment development in Pittsfield Township near Ann Arbor.
In Detroit, American Community Developers recently celebrated the grand opening of Brush Watson, which consists of 99 affordable housing units and 25 units of market-rate housing in Brush Park. And Greatwater Opportunity Capital recently began construction on a new mixed-use development that includes housing in the city’s Midtown neighborhood.
Developers say the projects reflect strong demand for multi-family housing.
Rents are continuing to grow in Metro Detroit, up 6.2% from last year, to an average of around $1,657 a month, according to Rent.com. By comparison, the national average is about $2,000.
Vacancy rates have fluctuated in recent years. They averaged 8.5% in the first two quarters of the year, up from an average of 6.4% during the same period in 2019.
Detroit and Michigan have been steadily growing in popularity as places to live, said Jon Leckie, a researcher for Rent.com. That’s a broader trend they’re seeing among Midwest states.
“A lot of that has to do with price,” Leckie said. “The Midwest also had the largest rent growth year-over-year from last month compared to South, Northeast and the West, but the average rents among those states across the region was only $1,306. That’s $700 less than the national median. So I think another reason these areas continue to grow is they have more room to grow than other places.”
Rent appreciation is steady, said Trevor Ryan, chief financial officer for Marquette Companies, which recently renovated an apartment complex in Romulus.
“It’s not like some of the sunbelt in Florida where your rents went up 30% in a year or something,” he said. “And then there’s been steady job formation. … There’s not an overbuilding that’s happening that’s all of a sudden going to put downward pressure on rents.”
There were 55 new multifamily rental permits issued in August for Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair and Wayne counties, said Forrest M. Wall, CEO of the Apartment Association of Michigan. This brings the year-to-date total to 1,116 permits, down 36% year from 1,747 permits issued year-to-date through August 2022.
The building of new apartment units may slow further due to high interest rates and high construction costs, said Todd Sachse, CEO of Detroit-based Sachse Construction. The Federal Reserve Board left its benchmark rate last month at 5.4%, the highest level in 22 years.
“You have almost a perfect storm with construction costs going up,” Sachse said. “Interest rates have gone up significantly and certainly not any appreciable rent appreciation.”
According to a quarterly survey released in September from the National Multifamily Housing Council, respondents reported that prices for insulation, exterior finishes and roofing increased an average of 4% from the previous quarter, electrical components increased an average of 11% and appliances increased an average of 7%. The price of lumber fell by an average of 3%.
Sachse said his company is working with developers to find ways to manage costs.
“No one’s given up yet, but it’s definitely difficult, harder,” he said.
New buildings draw tenants
Brush Watson, a $49.2 million mixed-income development with 124 units, recently celebrated its grand opening. The project received financing through the state’s Low Income Housing Tax Credits and tax credit investors, including Comerica Bank, Flagstar Bank, Huntington Bank and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
The project by Harper Woods-based American Community Developers also received $4.6 million in funding from the City of Detroit’s Housing and Revitalization Department and an additional $450,000 in community development block grant funds for DTE Energy improvements in the area. Of the 124 units, 99 units are affordable to households earning 30% to 80% of the area median income. Rents range from about $500 to $2,000 a month, according to the developer.
Gail Bigham is among the newest tenants at Brush Watson. She said she previously rented in another apartment building in downtown Detroit but wanted to move to somewhere new. The 67-year-old retiree qualified for an affordable housing unit.
“The place is beautiful,” said Bigham, who lives in a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment. “I’m running into so many young people that are very respectful, very nice. And everybody just gets along. It’s very peaceful. It’s very quiet.”
The amenities include a community space, rooftop terrace and underground parking with EV chargers.
Bigham said she likes using the community space when her daughters and grandchildren visit. They have plans for game nights and birthday celebrations.
“Whenever we get together, this makes it easier for me,” she said.
Mike Essian, vice president of American Community Developers, said occupancy is nearly full for the first of two buildings in the development. Within a week of gaining a certificate of occupancy for the second building, they had 20% of the units leased.
“That’s just shows you there’s demand for housing at that level,” Essian said.
Detroit-based Greatwater Opportunity Capital recently started construction on a mixed-use development that will bring 57 studio and one-bedroom apartment units to Midtown.
The $14 million project at 3740 Second Ave. is the first new construction project for the firm. Twenty percent of the units will be set aside at rent levels affordable for residents earning 80% of the area median income.
Jed Howbert, Greatwater’s co-founder, said they wanted to provide something new in the heart of Midtown.
“There’s a lot of really beautifully renovated apartments, which we own several, but there’s almost no new product,” he said. “Some people just prefer a new building partially for the amenities like having a washer-dryer in the units or having central air. Also, just because they like the clean finish of a new building and they prefer the architecture that way. There’s not a lot of alternatives, and so we think this is an important part of giving more renters more choices in Midtown.”
Howbert said among Greatwater’s portfolio of more than 2,000 apartment units in the city of Detroit, the average occupancy rate is 94%. Most are naturally affordable and done without government support or tax abatements, Howbert said.
Last month, Farmington Hills-based Hunter Pasteur, developers of Perennial Corktown, gave a hardhat tour of the residential development with 195 rental units that will include 188 apartment units and seven neighboring townhomes.
Considered a luxury development, Perennial Corktown has units ranging from 491 square feet for a studio to 2,777 square feet for a three-bedroom townhouse, with rents ranging from $855 to $8,330 per month. Ten percent of the rental units were set aside as affordable units for those earning at or below 60% of the area median income.
Randy Wertheimer, CEO of Hunter Pasteur, said he expects healthy demand for the units in Corktown. He cited the nearby Michigan Central Depot, which Ford Motor Co. is renovating into a mobility center opening next year, as a draw.
“I do believe that if you look at the amount of units delivered per year in Detroit, it’s a lot less than other cities of similar size,” he said. “So I do believe that people absolutely have a desire to live in a high-quality unit. And this neighborhood, we think there’s something from a food and beverage standpoint. Where people work, proximity to the central business district, proximity to Ford is a place where people want to live.”
Booming in the ‘burbs
The suburbs continue to see development. In Pittsfield Township, near Ann Arbor, Southfield-based Lockwood Companies recently broke ground on Haverhill on Clark, an affordable 295-unit complex on a previously vacant lot at Clark and Golfside roads. The development is expected to cost $76 million to complete.
There was a need for lower-cost housing in the expensive Ann Arbor area as other nearby apartment complexes converted from affordable to market rate, said Mark Lockwood, CEO of Lockwood Companies.
“There was just a big need on that basis from having apartment homes exiting rent and income restriction,” he said.
Lockwood said they were also drawn to the site because it sits along the bus line for the Ann Arbor Transit Authority and across the street from Washtenaw Community College and Trinity Health Ann Arbor, formerly St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor.
“So it’s a mix of those four or five factors with the Ann Arbor area or Washtenaw County being a very expensive market for rental housing, with loss of affordable housing units in the area, and then those three location criteria being near employment, education and transit,” he said. “We’re very confident there will be a lot of interest when it opens.”
When it opens in summer 2025, rents are projected to range from $809 to $1,137 for a one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit; $968 to $1,333 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit; and $1,114 to $1,558 for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom unit.
In Royal Oak, Troy-based Stonegate Property Group hopes to erect a four-story apartment building at 600 E. 11 Mile. If approved, the $5 million project is expected to be complete by early 2025.
John Abro, managing partner of Stonegate, said he expects there to be a demand for multi-family housing in the area, which sits near shops and the city’s downtown. The building will be about 27 units, mostly one-bedroom units.
In Romulus, Illinois-based Marquette Companies, recently celebrated with a grand reopening of a $8 million revitalization project that repaired, updated and renamed the former Morgan Manor as The Maxwell.
Marquette Companies’ Trevor Ryan said the company purchased the property on Wayne Road in April 2022 and made upgrades, including new hardscaping, a restored pool and deck, upgraded building exteriors and the addition of a dog park. They upgraded the community clubhouse with a renovated fitness center and installed a catering kitchen. They’ve also improved the rental units with new cabinetry, countertops and appliances.
Since Marquette improved the property, the occupancy rate rose from the low to upper 80% and continues to grow, Ryan said.
“I think that the community took notice that we were taking this project on,” he said. “And started to attract some of the residents that we were hopeful would take notice and that we were targeting as we turned the property around. It’s still on its way up.”
The company has an average 92% occupancy among its five Michigan properties, which include complexes in Dearborn, Southfield, Harper Woods and Ann Arbor, Ryan said.
On the site of the former Northland Center in Southfield, plans are taking shape for apartments for the mixed-use development Northland City Center.
Bloomfield Hills-based Contours Companies is working on the interior of the first apartment building on the site, said Southfield Mayor Ken Siver, who visits the development regularly. The development will include 1,500 units across 14 six-story buildings as well as retail and dining.
“The thing I hear all the time from people is ‘I want to move into a new apartment.’” Siver said. “This is going to be a very walkable development. … In real estate, urban planning, there’s something called 15-minute neighborhoods. … That’s really what we’re planning here.”
Posted By: The Detroit News on September 26, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The Michigan Strategic Fund board on Tuesday approved a $5 million grant for Samsung SDI America Inc.’s plans to expand two facilities in Auburn Hills, creating up to 368 jobs.
According to an MEDC briefing memo, the $41 million project would increase the company’s production capacity for lithium-ion batteries to meet demand in the automotive sector. The memo said the grant was needed to “address the cost disadvantage of locating the project in Michigan when compared to the competing sites outside of Michigan,” including Kokomo, Indiana, where Samsung is building an electric vehicle battery plant with General Motors Co.
The two sites would increase space by 218,000 square feet and be used for production line expansions, employee amenities and IT upgrades. According to the briefing memo, the jobs to be created would pay an average of $37.50 per hour.
The MEDC board also approved a $6.4 million loan for an Olympia Development project expected to redevelop 170 residential units across multiple buildings in Midtown Detroit and a $10 million grant in support of Nel Hydrogen to build a gigafactory in Plymouth Township.
Olympia Development entity Henry Street Renaissance, LLC, requested the performance-based Michigan Community Revitalization Program loan to support 86 market rate units as part of its mixed-use, mixed-income $40 million Henry Street Redevelopment project near Little Caesars Arena.
Eighty-four units spread over three buildings will be reserved for households at 60% of the area median income using low-income housing tax credits. The 86 market rate units will occupy four buildings.
The project is a partnership between Cinnaire Solutions and Olympia Development of Michigan.
“We have such a unique opportunity with the Henry Street project to revitalize a historically significant block into a mixed income residential project,” Tyler Hardy, director of development for Olympia Development, said during the meeting. “And it’s really our goal here to establish a sense of connectivity and community with this large what we’re calling campus-style residential project.”
Hardy also noted that the project would include a community center, a 9,000-square-foot community hub that will offer a lounge space and fitness center.
“So we really see this community hub as really the anchor to the project as it provides a centralized place for people to come together organically,” she said. “So in addition to those restored buildings, we’ll have outdoor green space throughout the campus, new and enhanced site lighting … throughout the campus, and on-site parking available to tenants.”
Tenants for the affordable units will have free parking, Hardy said.
The $10 million performance-based grant will support Nel Hydrogen US’s plans for a 507,000-square-foot automated gigawatt electrolyzer manufacturing facility in Plymouth Township.
In addition to the Michigan Business Development Program grant, the board approved for the project a 15-year 100% State Essential Services Assessment Exemption valued up to $6.2 million for its $299.2 million in eligible investment.
According to an MEDC memo, the firm’s Norway-based parent company, Nel ASA, is a global, dedicated hydrogen company that delivers “optimal solutions to produce and distribute hydrogen from renewable energy.”
The project in Plymouth Township is expected to create 517 jobs and a bring capital investment of up to $413.7 million.
“We ran a nationwide selection process where we considered close to 150 potential sites all over the U.S. and concluded that Michigan offers now the best option,” said Hakon Volldal, CEO of Nel ASA. “Michigan will become our hub for large-scale production of super competitive electrolyzers. And these will be exported to other U.S. states and to other countries internationally.”
Following the board’s vote Tuesday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement: “We are thrilled to welcome Nel Hydrogen’s up to $400 million gigafactory creating more than 500 good-paying jobs to Southeast Michigan. Earlier this year, I was honored to represent Team Michigan on my economic mission to Norway, which helped us close the deal and bring home this cutting-edge facility.”
Posted By: DBUSINESS on September 11, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article. Written by Peter D. Cronk & Jeanna M. Weaver, Partners at Plunkett & Cooney
Predicting the future of the U.S. commercial property market is never easy. Fortunately, research conducted by industry thought leaders provides key insights that should help lenders better position themselves for the murky future ahead.
The last Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey conducted in 2018 by the U.S. Energy Information Administration found that 97 billion square feet of commercial real estate space existed in the U.S., approximately 16% of which is commercial office.
According to a recent article by J.P. Morgan Chase, $1.5 trillion of commercial real estate debt will mature before the end of 2025. In the CMBS market alone there is approximately $185 billion in commercial office debt, 20% of which is predicted to default.
It is hard to predict where the biggest trouble will lie, but since the pandemic, suburban office space has recovered at a faster pace than urban markets. In the third quarter of 2022, vacancy in suburban offices was 11% compared to 18% for Central Business District offices. In addition, Class A properties, which are often newer and may include energy efficiency enhancements, access to outdoor space, fitness facilities and state of the art technology are doing better compared to their Class B (or C) counterparts. According to the same J.P. Morgan Chase article, nationwide, Class A vacancy was 18% and Class B vacancy was 20.2% at the beginning of 2023.
Overall, the U.S. commercial office market is experiencing a 20% vacancy rate. Detroit is faring slightly better (19.3%) than cities like Chicago (23.5%), Indianapolis (22.4%) and Columbus (21.7%), but it’s likely vacancy rates will continue to increase due to several factors, including sublease expirations and “shadow space.” According to Michigan commercial brokers, available subleases have experienced a dramatic rise with available sublease square footage in 2023, which is anticipated to double the available square footage of 2022.
A statistic that hasn’t received much attention previously, but is important now, involves “shadow space,” space that is currently under lease, but not available for sublease, and is not being utilized by the tenant. According to research conducted by global real estate services provider Cushman & Wakefield, shadow space makes up approximately 20% of commercial office space. With a 20% vacancy rate, shadow space of 20% and fast-growing sublease availability, the commercial office market is at a significant turning point.
With higher capital costs, declining occupancy and a tight or nearly non-existence lending market for commercial office, many owners are reluctant to put more money into their properties.
Lenders are cautious to take assets back, preferring to work with borrowers and return the loans to performing status. But few borrowers have sufficient capital to contribute to obtain lender approval for an extension, loan modification or forbearance arrangement. While some lenders may return to the “extend and pretend” strategy from 2008, others are focused on declining office space values. These lenders, for example, may be willing to take a property back now and incur a $5 million loss rather than give the borrower a two-year extension and take the property back at a $15 million loss.
There’s also increased interest from investors considering loan or REO property purchases from lenders, but pricing expectations are not always aligned with investors seeking larger discounts than lenders are willing to offer. A recent study by Columbia University and New York University projected office values could decline over 40% of the pre-pandemic value by 2029.
What happens next is not going to be pretty for many property owners or lenders, but conditions might present an opportunity for those willing to invest at a discount or repurpose or improve their property.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on October 4, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
American Battery Solutions (ABS) in Lake Orion, which designs and manufactures modular battery solutions for the transportation, industrial, and commercial sectors, has signed a multi-year contract with Canadian bus manufacturer NFI Group Inc.
The contract call for supplying custom battery packs that will provide clean power for New Flyer’s newest 35-, 40-, and 60-foot battery-electric transit buses. The exact length and value of the contract with the Winnipeg-based bus maker was not disclosed.
The Li-Ion batteries were fully designed, tested, and validated by ABS at its Lake Orion engineering and development center. The production of the batteries will be done at ABS’ manufacturing plant in Springboro, Ohio. New Flyer expects battery delivery to begin in the first quarter of 2024.
“We are excited and proud to partner with NFI, a company at the forefront of electric- powered public transportation,” says Subhash Dhar, founder, chairman, and CEO of ABS. “This contract reflects NFI’s well-placed confidence in ABS’ ability to meet technical and performance requirements at a healthy volume with the competitive cost position. We have invested over $200 million in our state-of-the-art automated pack assembly line and facility, with the capacity to deliver the product NFI needs so that it can continue to lead the electrification of public transportation in North America.”
The market for electric buses in North America has now passed the “tipping point,” reaching more than 5,480 zero-emission transit buses on the road or on order as of the end of 2022, according to CALSTART’s annual “Zeroing in on ZEBs” report. NFI expects that 40 percent of its 2025 production will be zero-emission buses and is leading the evolution to zero-emission public transportation in North America.
“Demand for battery-electric buses is accelerating, and NFI is leading the evolution to zero-emission public transportation in North America,” says Paul Soubry, president and CEO of NFI. “Our partnership with ABS will provide NFI with the capacity, flexibility, and resiliency we need as we ramp up production at our facilities across North America.
“ABS has made significant investments in their pack assembly and battery technology, providing NFI with industry leading solutions. We look forward to working together with ABS to advance battery technology within the public transportation industry.”
This scalable custom designed pack solution is based on the ABS ProLiance Intelligent Battery Series architecture and fits inside NFI’s existing battery enclosure design, providing an alternate source of supply for NFI’s battery-electric bus contracts and creating opportunity for technology enhancements.
NFI’s battery and fuel cell-electric buses and coaches have collectively travelled more than 120 million electric service miles, with NFI Infrastructure Solutions’ turnkey smart charging services delivering more than 410 chargers delivered to date. NFI is a leader in zero-emission mobility, with electric vehicles operating (or on order) in more than 140 cities in six countries.
Posted By: mlive on February 1, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The Grand Rapids City Commission has approved a tax incentive, valued at $103 million over 27 years, to help transform a former industrial site on Godfrey Avenue SW into a mixed-use development with hundreds of apartments, commercial space and more.
The tax incentive, known as a Transformational Brownfield, has been awarded to three developers from metro Detroit — Dennis Griffin, Scott Magaluk and Ben Smith — leading the project, known as Factory Yards.
“It’s a part of our city whose potential has been overlooked for a long time, so I’m especially excited to see a big transformational project happening there,” said First Ward City Commissioner Drew Robbins, who represents the neighborhood, Roosevelt Park, where Factory Yards is located.
In addition to the Transformational Brownfield incentive, the project was also awarded an Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Exemption Certificate. The certificate is valued at $8.2 million over 12 years, and essentially limits the growth of new taxes associated with the development. That brings the incentive package for the project to about $111 million.
Factory Yards is planned for a 15.6-acre property, just south of the intersection of Market Avenue SW and Godfrey Avenue SW, that’s home to five, aging industrial buildings and warehouses.
Those buildings would be renovated, and one additional building would be constructed there as part of the project.
In all, it’s expected to include 467 apartments, ground floor commercial space, a food hall and event space, fitness and recreation area, and self-storage. Factory Yards is expected to be fully complete by June 2027, and carries an estimated price tag of $147 million, according to city documents.
As part of an agreement with the city, 94 of the project’s apartments would be reserved for residents earning less than Kent County’s area median income.
Specifically, 48 units would be reserved for residents whose income is up to 80% of Kent County’s Area Median Income. Another 46 units would be reserved for residents at 60% of the area median income. For a one-person household, 80% of the county’s area median income translates to $53,040.
The income restrictions will remain in place for 20 years. Third Ward City Commissioner Kelsey Perdue said she was “really excited to support the project and see it come alive.”
Speaking more broadly about affordable housing, she said it’s important that the city strives to preserve income-restricted housing units after subsidies or agreements paving the way for that housing expire.
“I really hope to see this body continue to have conversations in that area so that we’re not essentially moving around affordability with new project to new project but really preserving it in the long term,” Perdue said.
City leaders say Factory Yards is important because it would help meet demand for more housing in the city, and neighborhood leaders have said the project would breathe new life and energy into the area. It’s also the first project to be awarded a Transformational Brownfield incentive by the city of Grand Rapids.
The original Brownfield program was designed to help facilitate the redevelopment of contaminated, blighted, functionally obsolete, or historic properties. It uses property tax revenue generated by the development to reimburse developers for expenses such as demolition, lead and asbestos abatement, environmental assessments, site preparation and more.
The Transformational Brownfield program builds on the approach.
It vastly increases the amount of taxes that are captured to and used to reimburse developers. That includes state withholding taxes and state income taxes of people who live and work at a development subsidized by the Transformational Brownfield program.
It also includes taxes paid by a project’s construction workers and an exemption on sales taxes on construction materials.
“The fact that this is the first Transformational Brownfield in Grand Rapids I think speaks to the significance of the project,” said First Ward Commissioner Jon O’Connor, who represents the portion of the city where the project is located.
The breakdown of taxes captured to reimburse the developers over a 27-year period are as follows:
Sales and use tax: $4.1 million
Construction period income tax: $1.7 million
Income tax capture: $56 million
Withholding tax capture: $6.5 million
Local property tax capture: $16 million
State property tax capture: $18.6 million
Obsolete Property Rehab Exemption: $8.2 million
The way the Transformational Brownfield programs works is no money is provided to the developer up front. Rather, as development occurs on the site and taxes are captured, those dollars are provided to the developer. So, the developer doesn’t receive the incentive if the project doesn’t happen.
“There’s a reason it’s called the Transformational Brownfield program, because this project will have a transformational impact on the area,” said Jono Klooster, interim economic development director for the city of Grand Rapids.
He said Factory Yards has the most housing units, in a single project, that he’s ever worked on in his 13 years at the city. That housing comes at a “critical time,” he noted, referring to a study showing the city needs an estimated 14,106 housing units by2027 to meet demand.
Posted By: mlive on October 8, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
As construction continues on Corewell Health’s eight-story, $98 million administrative office complex on Monroe Avenue NW, the health system is now seeking approval to demolish five nearby buildings and replace them with four surface parking lots.
The health care provider’s request for a special land use permit to build the surface parking lots for its Center for Transformation complex at 648 Monroe Ave. NW is scheduled to go before the Grand Rapids Planning Commission for consideration Oct. 26.
The parking lots would be built in phases and would contain a total of 320 spaces.
The parking is needed to replace the same number of parking spaces that would be lost once Corewell develops three neighboring properties with market rate housing and housing for its graduate medical education program, according to planning documents submitted by Corewell to the city.
“We do understand that their vision for this area is not surface parking lots,” said Grand Rapids Planning Director Kristin Turkelson, when asked about the city’s perspective on Corewell’s plan. “But there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done, and they’re going through our processes.”
The five buildings being eyed for demolition are a mix of old industrial structures just east of Corewell’s new office complex in the Monroe North neighborhood. The properties are: 648 Bond Ave. NW, 647 Ottawa Ave. NW, 637 Ottawa Ave. NW, 700 Ottawa Ave. NW and 711 Ionia Ave. NW.
The properties being eyed for the student housing are 648 Ottawa Ave. NW and 649 Ionia Ave. NW. Market rate housing is being considered for a 706 Bond Ave. NW.
The construction of new surface parking lots in downtown Grand Rapids has come under scrutiny in recent years. With a shortage of vacant land downtown and a push to add more housing, officials say surface parking lots often aren’t the best way to use land. In 2017, the city considered changing its zoning code to ban new surface parking lots downtown but opted against doing so.
Corewell Health officials were not available for an interview.
But the health system said in a statement that it’s seeking approval to demolish unoccupied buildings it owns to replace parking that will be lost from the development of the student- and market-rate housing.
“These proposed plans allow us to develop residential housing for Corewell Health graduate medical residents and fellows in the near future,” the statement said. “The proposed housing will allow residents to live within a walkable distance to the medical center and will help Corewell Health attract top talent to West Michigan.”
Corewell Health’s Center for Transformation is being built to consolidate the health system’s administrative operations in the Grand Rapids region at one central campus.
It represents a big project in the city’s Monroe North neighborhood, and will bring hundreds of workers and activity to the area. The neighborhood has seen significant development in recent years with new apartments and a seven-story, 250-room Embassy Suites by Hilton hotel.
Corewell’s Center for Transformation includes a renovation of the Brassworks building at 648 Monroe Ave. NW, and the construction of an eight-story office building and two adjacent parking structures. Expected to open in summer 2024, the complex will replace 26 separate spaces Corewell leased in the Grand Rapids area for administrative operations.
Overall, the complex is expected to have capacity for roughly 1,800 employees.
Corewell says the construction of the housing for its medical education program is expected to start in 2024 or 2025 once funding has been secured. The documents did not specify the cost of the project. In addition, construction of the market rate housing is expected to begin in 2025 or 2026. Further details were not provided on the market rate housing in the planning documents.
Posted By: 13 Action News | WTVG on October 5, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Major progress is being made on a multi-million dollar investment in Toledo’s Vistula neighborhood.
The $17 million Ostrich Towne Project is helping change the landscape of the Vistula Historic District. The oldest neighborhood in the city has had some challenging times over the past few decades but a new investment in downtown is trickling into the area.
“They need a space that is ready to go, affordable and a location that has a lot of pedestrian traffic, and Vistula as its emerging with a lot of these new businesses like Tolhouse and Toledo Spirits and Heavy Brewing, we’re seeing a lot of that pedestrian traffic and businesses are starting to take note,” Brandon Sehlhorst, the director of economic development for the city of Toledo said.
Ostrich Towne has been years in the making. The developers are two IT entrepreneurs who were born and raised in the Toledo area.
It’s Toledo metropolitan development. Great families from Oregon and Sylvania. They are putting their money where their mouth is and really doing their best to make Vistula clean, safe and affordable to live, work, shop and flock,” Rob Keleghan with Signature Associates said.
The project includes 70,000 square feet of space.
“This is going to be like the Brakeman in Detroit. The alleyway will be closed down and blocked off. We have different restaurants, pubs, a brewery and a distillery,” Keleghan said.
It will not be just commercial spaces that will be transformed by this project.
“There are a lot of beautiful historic homes that are getting a lot of looks, they might not have otherwise. So the investment downtown is sprawling into the commercial district and also having an impact on the surrounding neighborhood which is exciting,” Sehlhorst said.
One of the first businesses on Ostrich Lane is a wine bar and bakery called the Golden Hind. It is expected to open later in October.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on October 2, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The Wood County Port Authority is being awarded a $681,000 Roadwork Development Grant in support of the First Solar Inc. project in Perrysburg Township.
The funds are part of $1 million released Monday by the Ohio Department of Development for infrastructure development.
The Roadwork Development Grant assists with eligible public road improvements and helps employers in creating and preserving employment opportunities.
“Investing in infrastructure and business is vital in supporting economic development,” said Lydia Mihalik, the director of the Department of Development. “Some of these projects will beautify their communities, and others will provide a lift to the businesses that make a difference in the lives of so many.”
On Monday, the Ohio Controlling Board approved more than $900,000 through its roadwork and cleanup grants, and $100,000 as part of the Regional 166 Direct Loan Program.
Another grant went to the community of Bidwell, Ohio, in Gallia County, which is receiving $250,000 for assessment and cleanup activities as part of its Station Cleanup.
In addition, $100,000 was approved for Farnsworth & Crance Holdings LLC to assist in financing the purchase of a 9,980-square-foot building in Youngstown that will enhance efficiencies and facilitate business growth and employment as part of the Regional 166 Direct Loan Program.
The Regional 166 Direct Loan Program provides low-interest loans to businesses with limited access to capital from private funding sources.
BRUCE TOWNSHIP, MI — October 10, 2023 — Signature Associates is pleased to represent SMTAutomation in the purchase of the 5.94 acre site on 33 Mile Road in Bruce Township, Michigan for their new 40,871 square foot plant.
Officially located at 14100 33 Mile Road, this new plant is expected to generate a capital investment of more than $7 million and create 60 jobs.
SMTAutomation is based in Roseville and currently has 57 full-time employees and 30 contract employees. Their clients include very well-known OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers, including GM, Ford, and Magna.
Kris Pawlowski of Signature Associates represented both the seller and the purchaser and is proud to have been a part of facilitating such an amazing deal and opportunity for growth.
Adapted from: ALM | Globest.com article posted on September 5, 2023. To read about all the influencers, please click here to read the source article.
The industrial asset class has not been as beleaguered as some other categories in commercial real estate but it still has posed challenges to the community. Fundamentals are softening and subleasing has gained currency in many locations as vacancies increase. This is not to say that the space is facing any long-term difficulties – next year many believe that the vacancies will drop once more as supply tightens. We have selected the following men, women, teams and companies as those best suited to help guide the industry through these times due to their skills and industry knowledge.
The industrial real estate landscape in southeast Michigan is dotted with buildings and firms that Paul Hoge has had a hand in during his 41-year career. As SVP of Signature Associates, Hoge’s primary responsibility is transaction brokerage, client retention and client attraction. In the past three years, he has been involved with 205 transactions comprising 7.4 million square feet and 303 acres valued at more than $486.5 million. Among these transactions were three facilities for Webasto Sun Roofs, including a 109,380-square-foot headquarters building in Auburn Hills, a 289,000-square-foot facility in Plymouth Township, and a 280,000 square foot facility in Lyon Township. Hoge also brokered the new 275,401-square-foot headquarters for Tire Wholesalers Co., a client for more than three decades, in Oak Park. Since 2003, Hoge has been designated as a Power Broker by CoStar 19 times. Having started in the business in an economic downturn in 1981 and experiencing the Great Recession, he is mindful that booming times don’t last forever, but neither do troubling times. Hoge graduated from the University of Michigan Business School and is a past chairman and current board member of the Oakland County Economic Development Corp. In addition, he is a current board member of the British American Business Council and the French American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest and an active member of the German American Business Council of Michigan. He is passionate about supporting the Detroit Country Day School, from which his two sons graduated. Hoge also enjoys international travel and has been to 39 countries. He is a black belt in Shorin-Ryu karate-do.
Posted By: REjournals on September 22, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Sure, Detroit’s industrial market has faced the pressure of high interest rates and increasing construction costs. And while industrial sales might have slowed, leasing activity remains robust in this sector, something that was evident during the Detroit Industrial Summit held Sept. 20 by Michigan Real Estate Journal and Midwest Real Estate News.
This meant there was plenty of optimism on display during the event, which attracted a full house of more than 180 Detroit-area industrial professionals to the Community House in Birmingham, Michigan, all eager to hear the thoughts of the industry’s top sector experts throughout the morning.
The summit focused on a wide range of topics, everything from predictions on how the industrial sector will perform next year to the impact of higher interest rates, the challenges of supply chain disruptions, economic development opportunities for investors and an overview of new industrial projects planned for the Detroit region.
Speakers said that while sales activity in the industrial sector is down — not surprising, as this has happened in nearly ever market thanks to higher interest rates — demand for warehouse and distribution space remains high throughout the Detroit market.
The region is benefitting, too, from a rising demand for electric vehicles, with many manufacturers opening new plants in the region dedicating to providing the parts needed for EVs.
On the whole? Despite the economy’s challenges, the mood during the summit was a positive one, with speakers looking for stability and a return to a more normalized market in 2024.
Speakers on the Industrial Real Estate Market Update panel focused on the strong demand that still exists for industrial properties in the Detroit market. Speakers included Brian Fineran, the panel’s moderator, with CoStar Group; Eugene Agnone, CBRE; Jared Friedman, Friedman Real Estate; Nathan Casey, NAI Farbman; Greg Hudas, Signature Associates; and Sean Cavanaugh, JLL.
Participants in the Capital Markets and Industrial Investment panel shared their hopes for a stronger 2024. Speaking on this panel were Joshua Bernard, Bernard Financial Group; Anne Galbraith Kohn, CBRE; Steven Sallen, the panel’s moderator, Maddin Hauser; Paul Kerber, Marcus & Millichap; Daniel Labes, Newmark; and Griffin Pitcher, Signature Associates.
The speakers on the Industrial Development, Design and Construction panel highlighted the challenges, and success stories, of the Detroit area’s industrial construction and development industries. Participants included Marc Werner, NorthPoint Development; Kyle Morton, Ashley Capital; Jeffrey Schostak, Schostak Development; Scott Stowitts, Oliver/Hatcher Construction; Stephen White, Albert Kahn Associates; Danny Samson, Sterling Group; and moderator Christopher Martella, Dawda Mann.
The partnership between economic development organizations and commercial developers has always been important. With today’s economic challenges, it might be even more crucial. Speaking on the event’s Regional Economic Development panel were Kurt Brauer, panel moderator, with Warner Norcross + Judd; Elizabeth Masserang, SME; Khalil Rahal, DTE Energy; Todd Drouillard, HED; Michael Abdallah, Oakland County; and Shannon Selby, Detroit Regional Partnership.
Posted By: The Detroit News on September 26, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The Michigan Strategic Fund board on Tuesday approved a $5 million grant for Samsung SDI America Inc.’s plans to expand two facilities in Auburn Hills, creating up to 368 jobs.
According to an MEDC briefing memo, the $41 million project would increase the company’s production capacity for lithium-ion batteries to meet demand in the automotive sector. The memo said the grant was needed to “address the cost disadvantage of locating the project in Michigan when compared to the competing sites outside of Michigan,” including Kokomo, Indiana, where Samsung is building an electric vehicle battery plant with General Motors Co.
The two sites would increase space by 218,000 square feet and be used for production line expansions, employee amenities and IT upgrades. According to the briefing memo, the jobs to be created would pay an average of $37.50 per hour.
The MEDC board also approved a $6.4 million loan for an Olympia Development project expected to redevelop 170 residential units across multiple buildings in Midtown Detroit and a $10 million grant in support of Nel Hydrogen to build a gigafactory in Plymouth Township.
Olympia Development entity Henry Street Renaissance, LLC, requested the performance-based Michigan Community Revitalization Program loan to support 86 market rate units as part of its mixed-use, mixed-income $40 million Henry Street Redevelopment project near Little Caesars Arena.
Eighty-four units spread over three buildings will be reserved for households at 60% of the area median income using low-income housing tax credits. The 86 market rate units will occupy four buildings.
The project is a partnership between Cinnaire Solutions and Olympia Development of Michigan.
“We have such a unique opportunity with the Henry Street project to revitalize a historically significant block into a mixed income residential project,” Tyler Hardy, director of development for Olympia Development, said during the meeting. “And it’s really our goal here to establish a sense of connectivity and community with this large what we’re calling campus-style residential project.”
Hardy also noted that the project would include a community center, a 9,000-square-foot community hub that will offer a lounge space and fitness center.
“So we really see this community hub as really the anchor to the project as it provides a centralized place for people to come together organically,” she said. “So in addition to those restored buildings, we’ll have outdoor green space throughout the campus, new and enhanced site lighting … throughout the campus, and on-site parking available to tenants.”
Tenants for the affordable units will have free parking, Hardy said.
The $10 million performance-based grant will support Nel Hydrogen US’s plans for a 507,000-square-foot automated gigawatt electrolyzer manufacturing facility in Plymouth Township.
In addition to the Michigan Business Development Program grant, the board approved for the project a 15-year 100% State Essential Services Assessment Exemption valued up to $6.2 million for its $299.2 million in eligible investment.
According to an MEDC memo, the firm’s Norway-based parent company, Nel ASA, is a global, dedicated hydrogen company that delivers “optimal solutions to produce and distribute hydrogen from renewable energy.”
The project in Plymouth Township is expected to create 517 jobs and a bring capital investment of up to $413.7 million.
“We ran a nationwide selection process where we considered close to 150 potential sites all over the U.S. and concluded that Michigan offers now the best option,” said Hakon Volldal, CEO of Nel ASA. “Michigan will become our hub for large-scale production of super competitive electrolyzers. And these will be exported to other U.S. states and to other countries internationally.”
Following the board’s vote Tuesday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement: “We are thrilled to welcome Nel Hydrogen’s up to $400 million gigafactory creating more than 500 good-paying jobs to Southeast Michigan. Earlier this year, I was honored to represent Team Michigan on my economic mission to Norway, which helped us close the deal and bring home this cutting-edge facility.”
Posted By: Hometown Life on September 26, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Nel Hydrogen, a Norwegian hydrogen company that makes renewable hydrogen for fuel, has chosen Plymouth Township as the location of its new manufacturing facility, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced in a press release Tuesday.
The venture reportedly will create 517 jobs and invest $400 million in the local community, the release said.
The company specializes in electrolyzer technology for production of renewable hydrogen and hydrogen fueling equipment for road-going vehicles.
Nel’s product offerings, the company says, are key enablers for a green hydrogen economy, making it possible to decarbonize industries such as transportation, refining, steel and ammonia.
Nel Hydrogen is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, and employs approximately 650 people globally. The Plymouth Township venture will be the company’s first investment in Michigan.
“Plymouth Township is honored to have been selected by Nel Hydrogen for this revolutionary facility that will help bring a new source of clean, sustainable energy to power the future of the auto industry and beyond,” said Plymouth Township Supervisor Kurt Heise, noting the business will be the “centerpiece” of the Michigan International Technology Center (MITC) Redevelopment Authority.
The new building, Heise said, will be located at 15000 Ridge Road, on part of a 100-acre site under development by Brookwood Capital Partners of North Carolina.
The 507,000-square-foot manufacturing facility manufacture proton exchange membrane and alkaline hydrogen electrolyzers and is expected to be a full greenfield build constructed specifically for Nel Hydrogen.
“Earlier this year, I was honored to represent Team Michigan on my economic mission to Norway, which helped us close the deal and bring home this cutting-edge facility,” Whitmer said in the statement. “Nel Hydrogen chose Michigan over several other states and nations because of our skilled workforce, strong network of universities, and world-leading mobility industry. Together, we will keep building on our leadership in cars, chips, and clean energy and share our story to bring even more jobs and investments home to Michigan. Let’s get it done.”
The project will be supported in part by a $10 million Michigan Business Development Program grant. The MSF board also approved a 15-year, 100-percent State Essential Services Assessment Exemption Request, valued at up to $6.25 million, in support of the project.
“Plymouth Township is an ideal location for Nel,” Nel CEO Håkon Volldal said. “Here, we have access to a highly educated workforce, universities and research institutions, and we are close to our collaborating partner, General Motors. In addition, the government and the authorities of Michigan have provided a very attractive financial support package for us.”
In the annual Clean Jobs America report from Environmental Entrepreneurs released in September 2023, Michigan was recognized as the top state in the Midwest for clean energy jobs. According to the report, clean energy businesses added more than 5,400 workers in 2022, bringing the total to nearly 124,000 Michiganders in clean energy and clean transportation careers.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on September 19, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
With construction set to begin on Oct. 10 for the Sakura Novi project, restaurants Chubby Cattle and Presotea have signed leases and are joining the project’s tenant roster.
Sakura Novi, a mixed-used development project, features a collection of Asian-themed restaurants, high-end lifestyle retail shops and services, and 117 townhome apartments. At the center, there will be a Japanese-themed garden path, a pond, and a public plaza for community events.
Chubby Cattle was founded by David Zhao and Haibin Yang. The restaurant specializes in traditional Chinese hot pot dishes. Their restaurant group, Chubby Cattle Holdings, owns 11 restaurants in cities across the United States.
Presotea is an original brand from Taiwan that uses experience from the tea industry to offer freshly brewed crafted tea drinks. Presotea’s process consists of using espresso modeled machines to extract the tea essence from loose leaf tea, one cup at a time.
The Novi location will offer hot/iced bubble tea, tea lattes, coffee, smoothies, as well as various food selections. The store at Sakura Novi will be the third store in Michigan for owners Jim Tran and Andy Nguyen.
“Both Andy and I feel so honored to have the opportunity to partner with the Sakura Novi team on this exciting project and to be a part of the Novi community,” Tran says.
Chubby Cattle and Presotea, along with Dancing Pine Korean Steakhouse, are the anchor tenants in the Sakura Novi restaurant collection.
“The goal is to bring together authentic complementary flavors and cuisines by quality operators,’ says developer Phil Kim. “The resulting collection will make Sakura Novi a superb choice for all foodies in the metro Detroit area.”
“These signed leases with concepts led by dynamic entrepreneurs provide confidence that the market believes in our vision,” adds developer Scott Aikens. “Beyond the executed leases, we are in negotiation with numerous other exciting establishments. We are especially interested in tenants focused on lifestyle and wellness, as well as unique retail goods and entertainment. These tenants might include spas, fitness studios, salons, beauty services, or high-end fashion.”
The luxury apartments are another central project anchor.
“These new townhome apartments will feature private entrances, one and two car attached garages, first floor offices and two- or three-bedroom layouts,” says Darian Nuebecker, COO of Robertson Homes. “Robertson Homes is very excited to be helping create this new mixed-use community in the heart of Novi.”
Posted By: Toledo Blade on September 15, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Wood, Lucas, and Ottawa counties are being asked to join forces with the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments to pursue federal grants for shared economic development projects.
At Thursday’s Wood County Commissioners meeting, TMACOG President Sandy Spang made a presentation on the progress and intent to apply to the U.S. Economic Development Administration for an economic development district designation. Wood, Lucas, and Ottawa counties would get the designation, with TMACOG taking the lead, Mrs. Spang said.
“Economic development districts are multijurisdictional entities that need public, private, and nonprofit partners to work together,” she said.
There are 400 such economic district developments in the country, Mrs. Spang said. However, there are significant gaps in the Chicago, Cleveland, and Columbus districts.
“What will it mean for us? It comes with some funding … that we’ll be needing to match,” Ms. Spang said. “There will be staffing. There will be someone who gets up every morning and is looking for ways to implement our economic development strategy plan.”
They would also be eligible to apply for grants that are currently unavailable to them, she said. A recent study by the Urban Institute shows how communities that have an economic development district designation benefit.
Mrs. Spang said that 52 percent of the U.S. population is in an economic development district, and they receive 77 percent of U.S. Economic Development Administration grant money and 79 percent of construction dollars.
“That is very compelling information, and I think that really helps make the case that we are going to benefit,” Ms. Spang said.
“This does not duplicate work that is taking place in the region right now,” she added. “This brings new tools to our region, new resources.”
Once the process is started, it can be a slow one. The Cleveland area has had its application in for a year, which is the average application time, Ms. Spang said. During that time, she said she would bring together stakeholders and start planning. She asked the commissioners for a letter of support before Sept. 29.
“Wood County has a track record of collaboration and working together. From our standpoint, it seems like it would work really well,” Commissioner Doris Herringshaw said.
Ms. Spang said that the commissioners should keep in mind that this is a time of “unprecedented funding” and it can be overwhelming for communities. TMACOG is poised to lead the collaboration, she said.
“That is my vision for TMACOG, that we be that convener for communities, bringing people together so that their applications are strong,” Ms. Spang said.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on September 6, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
One financial request to help expand a Perrysburg Township park has been rejected, but county officials are hopeful they can cobble together other support to buy 30 acres.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the Perrysburg Township trustees decided not to give the requested $100,000, or any amount, to the Wood County Park District. Chris Smalley, park district director, said there is an unprecedented opportunity to acquire 33 acres and expand JC Reuthinger Memorial Preserve off Oregon Road. The preserve is currently made up of 69 acres with a 30-acre wetland meadow and a 5.5-acre pond.
“It’s also home to our stewardship department and native seed nursery,” Mr. Smalley said.
“We have a rare opportunity to acquire some additional acreage,” he said.
The Reuthinger family is offering the park district the chance to purchase 30 acres south of the existing park for $1.2 million, and will donate three acres, Mr. Smalley said. The park district is putting up $200,000. The Wood County Port Authority is giving $80,000. The Friends of the Park is offering $17,000. The Wood County commissioners have been asked for $400,000.
They are trying to round up two-thirds of the $1.2 million, then apply for a $400,000 Clean Ohio Green Space Conservation Program grant, Mr. Smalley said.
“These are competitive grants,” Mr. Smalley said. “So we’re working with other agencies in an attempt to try to make our grant application competitive and increase our local match.
“This is one of those rare opportunities to expand that particular park. It’s kind of landlocked. It would create an island of park in an otherwise highly developed area.”
If the park district cannot purchase the land, it will be sold for development. Mr. Smalley asked the township for $100,000.
“We’re open to other suggestions as well,” he said.
Milton “Tony” Knight said that his family donated land that became the W.W. Knight Preserve in Perrysburg.
“We think, quite frankly, this park would be a tremendous addition to the process,” said Mr. Knight, who is also a port authority member.
“I think it’s a very worthwhile project,” trustee Gary Britten. However, he said that the trustees are already behind on a township park project. They were given seven acres on Simmons Road to develop into a park, Mr. Britten said.
“We have not even been able to find the money to do that,” he said, adding that the Simmons Road park would cost more than $250,000 to develop. Mr. Britten acknowledged that the township’s comprehensive plan showed a need for more parks and recreation.
“It’s a nice project,” trustee Joe Schaller said. “But I really think before we do that we need to take care of this park over here and get that done.”
“The funds just aren’t there,” Mr. Britten added.
Trustee Bob Mack (of Signature Associates) said that he could not participate in voting or discussion on the issue because he is involved in the sale and lease of commercial property in the area. Mr. Smalley said that the grant request is due at 4 p.m. on Friday.
“We’re rushing to try to make this all work,” he said. “I realize that it is an extraordinary ask. It’s just a rare spot and a rare opportunity — really the only — chance for growth for this park.”
Bob Warnimont, township recreation director, asked the trustees to contribute some funding toward the Reuthinger project.
“I just wish we could do something,” he said. After the meeting, Mr. Britten said they would not financially support the project.
“We’ll give them a letter of support, but money-wise, monetary-wise, no,” he said.
Posted By: mlive on September 21, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A prominent local developer has plans to purchase and redevelop the sprawling Windward Pointe former paper mill site on Muskegon Lake.
Jon Rooks entered a purchase agreement in July for the 122-acre “Windward Pointe” site on Lakeshore Drive that once was home to the Sappi paper mill, Rooks said in an email to MLive/The Muskegon Chronicle.
His plans are to develop a wide variety of housing on the site as well as a marina and multiple public access points. Residential units will range from studio apartments renting for less than $1,000 per month to sprawling homes worth $800,000.
The property that includes more than a mile of prime Muskegon Lake frontage was an industrial site for 120 years, operating as a paper mill from 1889 until Sappi Fine Paper shut it down in 2009. It currently is owned by a group of local investors called Pure Muskegon.
“The Sappi Paper Mill (Windward Pointe) redevelopment requires a purchaser with the ‘know how’ and experience performing similar types of projects,” Rooks wrote. “We felt an obligation to the community to pursue this acquisition and continue what Pure Muskegon started.”
Rooks’ Parkland Properties is taking on another ambitious Muskegon redevelopment project with the $220 million repurposing of the dilapidated former Shaw Walker furniture factory. There, he plans to construct 378 living units as well as retail space.
Rooks said his plans for the Windward Pointe property include:
Large waterfront sites for executive homes costing $600,000 to $800,000
Smaller waterfront lots for homes valued at about $150,000 to $250,000
Condominiums and townhomes
Apartments, including studios renting for as low as $1,000 per month
Public access and amenities, including a large public beach, bike trails, sidewalks and multiple fishing areas
Rooks wrote that he hopes to begin development in spring 2024, starting with development of roads and the sale of building sites.
“Our expectation is that we will start with the homesites adjacent to the water and work backward toward Lakeshore Drive,” Rooks wrote.
The site is currently undergoing cleanup of PFAS contaminants that is being funded by a $15 million state grant. The PFAS, known as “forever chemicals,” has been slowly leaching into Muskegon Lake, a member of the property ownership group said earlier.
The property is owned by the Pure Muskegon group of 13 local investors that purchased the Sappi property in 2016 and have been searching for a developer to take on the massive property. Pure Muskegon had developed potential plans for the property that included multiple housing units, boat basins, hotel and other commercial uses.
The lakefront site previously was owned by Melching, a Nunica demolition firm, that bought the property in 2011 and slowly dismantled the 1-million-square foot paper mill. Melching had planned to find an industrial reuse for it until Pure Muskegon stepped in.
The site is in a key location between Muskegon’s Lakeside Business District and its Pere Marquette beach. The redevelopment joins other major Muskegon Lake projects that are underway.
The Adelaide Pointe development, where a marina and large boat storage building are under construction, will include condominiums, a hotel, restaurant, event center and additional storage buildings.
Also underway is construction of the Viridian Shores neighborhood and Harbor Terrace Senior Living facility as part of the $130 million mixed-use Harbor 31 development that also includes a marina, hotel, apartments and boat sales. In addition, The Docks is a development on the west end of the lake that includes plans for about 250 homes and marina. So far, an access road has been developed at The Docks. The city of Muskegon spent $2 million to purchase 2 miles of unused railroad tracks, including some that run across the former paper mill property that were believed to be hindering its development. Those tracks are in the process of being removed.
Rooks has a proven track record in Muskegon, having developed the HighPoint Flats apartment and commercial high rise in downtown Muskegon and the Terrace Point Landing subdivision on Muskegon Lake.
His Parkland Properties also owns the Delta by Marriott Hotels in downtown Muskegon as well as Terrace Point Marina, Shoreline Inn and Conference Center, and Lake House Waterfront Grille on Muskegon Lake.
Parkland worked with the city to develop the VanDyk Mortgage Convention Center, which the company manages, and developed its offices in the old downtown fire station.
“At their peaks, both the Sappi Paper Mill (Windward Pointe) and Shaw Walker Furniture Company each employed thousands of people and were assets for Muskegon and the greater lakeshore area.,” Rooks wrote in his email. “We believe repurposing these important sites into much needed housing developments will have a transformational, generational impact on not only Muskegon, but the entire West Michigan region.”
Posted By: DBUSINESS on September 26, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Tecnoform USA Inc., a maker of furnishing and fixtures for the RV, marine, and residential industries, hosted a grand opening earlier this month to celebrate its new 172,000-square-foot production facility in Grand Rapids.
Tecnoform USA Inc. in North America is a new subsidiary of Italy’s Tecnoform S.p.A., and the plant opening marks a milestone in the company’s 58-year history.
It is expected to focus on producing high-quality, lightweight furnishings and fixtures for the North American RV industry, meeting the increasing demand for lightweight parts and European designs in the U.S., and being closer to its U.S.-based partnerships that include Jayco Inc., Thor Industries, Winnebago Industries, and Tiffin Motorhomes Inc.
The new facility represents a capital investment of $7.3 million. The company received approval of a $750,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant with support from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) through the Michigan Strategic Fund. The company also received assistance from business development agencies and the municipalities of Grand Rapids and Cascade Township.
Production at the new facility is expected to start in the fourth quarter of 2023 with a staff that will eventually reach up to 130 new employees.
“This is an event for us to express our deepest thanks and gratitude to all the representatives we worked with in Greater Grand Rapids, and who provided us with the opportunity to discover and expand our business operations in west Michigan,” says Renzo Kerkoc, president and CEO of Tecnoform S.p.A. and Tecnoform USA Inc. “Through their efforts, we realized this region is the right place for Tecnoform USA and where we can continue to grow and manufacture our innovative products.”
A total of 152,000 square feet is designated for production, which will allow the company to continue growing with its design and manufacturing offerings including case goods, storage flat doors, lower flat doors, tops and worksurfaces, shaped interior drawer fronts, passage doors, and vanity components for Class A, B, and C RV’s. The company also plans to move forward with its initiative to manufacture furnishings and fixtures for the towable market.
“We are continuing to provide our customers with consistent new approaches to elegance and high quality that we design in Italy,” says Kerkoc. “We can now replicate the same quality here in the U.S., which will allow us to create unique Made-in-the-USA products in a very efficient way for our customers.”
Posted By: BISNOW on August 29, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
With more businesses implementing return-to-office mandates and adding more teeth to those they have in place, some of the country’s best-known companies are doing something large enterprises don’t like to do: They’re reversing course.
It’s not the full-fledged return to the office that many landlords and brokers have in mind as they mark the fourth Labor Day weekend — annually pointed to as a date by which workers will come back to their desks — since the pandemic cleared out offices in early 2020. It is instead a trickle of companies that abandoned office space in the last few years changing their minds.
“At a macro level, we’ve seen office shrinkage over the last four quarters, but when you get to the micro level, companies may have shrunk their portfolio too quickly or specific offices too much, and they’re now rethinking how much space they need,” Cushman & Wakefield Global Head of Occupier Insights David Smith said.
AT&T came back to the exact same Atlanta business park it vacated as part of a cost-cutting effort that saw it give up 2.5M SF of offices. The telecom company signed a lease for 120K SF at 1277 Lenox Park Blvd. in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood just two months after CEO John Stankey announced the company would require 60,000 managers to return to their offices three days per week. AT&T didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Although the lease represented a U-turn for AT&T, it was also a consolidation, with the company announcing that it would reduce its footprint in places where its presence was smaller, like San Ramon, California, in favor of creating hubs in Dallas and Atlanta.
This, too, is a trend playing out for other companies as they seek the right balance of office space to meet the needs of a hybrid workforce.
“We also see companies consolidating and saying, ‘We had all these locations, let’s focus on a handful of markets, and in those markets, we’re going to need more space,’” Smith said. “Because they’re really going to have people start to come back in four days a week.”
Even in struggling San Francisco, examples have emerged of companies thinking twice about giving up their offices.
Snap is reportedly seeking 30K SF in downtown’s Levi’s Plaza just nine months after bailing out of a similarly sized office space in the area, citing cost restructuring and an increasing acceptance of remote work for employees.
In November 2022, the Snapchat parent company started requiring employees to return to the office at least four days per week.
Also in the Bay Area, data storage company Snowflake is reportedly looking for a space that could exceed 200K SF just two years after it moved out of its Silicon Valley headquarters.
“Some of the space-need projections from two-plus years ago were unfortunately off the mark, and those realizations are now coming to the forefront,” T. Dallas Smith & Co. principal Corey Ferguson told Bisnow in an email.
Some big companies require less space and a more rightsized footprint conducive to culture-building and collaboration, he said. But they are also taking the opportunity to offer what employees might want, which in some cases means more square feet per person.
“We have one larger user that … at one point had thought that they were going to be downsizing post-Covid,” Avison Young principal Dustin Devine, a tenant rep specialist in the company’s Houston office, told Bisnow.
The tenant in question was in a space in the 60K SF to 100K SF range, Devine said, declining to disclose further details.
“But through programming, they have determined that rather than having any sort of open layout within the office, they want every employee to have private offices so that everyone has a designated space,” Devine said.
Providing private offices for lots of employees takes more space than the pre-pandemic open floor plan trend. In the end, Devine’s client will maintain an office footprint roughly the same size as the one it had when due diligence began.
The main argument for returning to the office is the value in having employees together, being able to foster the culture they want, and being able to mentor and develop young talent, which is hard to do remotely, Devine said.
That cooperation, plus a strong sense of identity connected to the Boston area, is what drew mobile payment company Toast to a 102K SF space in the Fort Point neighborhood after exiting about 130K SF, including its headquarters near Fenway Park, earlier this year. Toast’s exit, which came five years ahead of schedule, cost it $16M in early termination fees.
“Finding a new headquarters in Boston with flexible spaces to support our growing business and our collaborative way of working was essential in our decision-making process,” Beth Choulas, vice president of global real estate and workplace experience at Toast, said in a statement.
Of course, after years of subleases flooding the market, climbing vacancy rates and leasing velocity slowing to a crawl in some of what were the country’s hottest markets in 2019, the office market still has plenty of recalibration to do.
Market fundamentals are hard to deny. The country’s office vacancy rate hit 19.2% in the second quarter, according to Cushman & Wakefield, which forecasts the rate will keep rising. Companies leased 289M SF nationwide in the four quarters ending June 30, down 24% compared with the same period a year earlier.
Then there is the effectiveness of return-to-office mandates, which now cover some 1.7 million people, according to a JLL study. Data tracked by Kastle and Placer.ai suggests that even with those mandates in place, office usage hasn’t increased much.
The few reversals of onetime office defectors haven’t yet appeared in the data, according to CBRE Research Global Head of Occupier Thought Leadership Julie Whelan, but she expects more companies will begin reconsidering.
“My gut tells me that we’re going too far and that many organizations that have really cut their footprint that are now pushing to get employees back on a more regular basis are going to find themselves without enough space to keep their employees happy,” Whelan said.
What drives tenant demand is whether people are coming back to the office, Whelan said, adding there is a lot of discussion as to whether demand has reached a “steady state,” or a stabilization of demand at relatively low levels.
“We wholeheartedly believe that it has not,” she said. “But what’s been happening is the tenants in the market have been hanging in there. They’re looking for space, but they’re not really pulling the trigger, and that has caused our leasing activity to go down. The reason for that is because we’re in an uncertain economic environment.”
That could change quickly should there be more clarity about the economic situation, Whelan said.
“When organizations feel they’re on more stable footing, I believe that there will be a rush of tenants who were not ready to pull the trigger before, and then all of a sudden they’ll be ready to do it,” she said.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on September 11, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The Mall at Partridge Creek in Clinton Township has signed five new tenants: Box Lunch, JD Sports, Kids Empire, Lovesac, and Windsor.
The Box Lunch location at Partridge Creek opened its doors this summer, while the other new tenants are slated to open sometime in 2024.
“Each of our new tenants — be it a unique fashion retailer, a revolutionary home furnishings brand, or an imaginative indoor playground, appeals to our diverse audience of visitors and aligns with our commitment to delivering an unparalleled experience in the heart of Macomb County,” says Melissa Morang, general manager of The Mall at Partridge Creek.
Box Lunch offers a selection of pop culture-licensed merchandise. For every $10 spent at its more than 200 locations, Box Lunch commits to providing a meal to someone in need. Shoppers can visit the 3,142-square-foot Box Lunch now, which is located east of MJR Cinema.
JD Sports, a global sportswear retailer with more than 100 stores in the U.S., offers an array of branded athletic and casual wear. Their top-tier products cater are meant to cater to athletes and those looking to incorporate sporty and stylish elements into their everyday wardrobe. JD Sports will be located south of BRIO Tuscan Grill. The 5,395-square-foot store is expected to open by early 2024.
Kids Empire offers an indoor playground experience where children of all ages can climb to new heights, jump, run, build, slide, snack, ride, and more. With more than 50 indoor playgrounds across the U.S., the brand works to provide a safe space for children to use their imagination and create lasting memories with their families. Kids Empire will be located across from COACH in a 10,998-square-foot facility and will likely open in the summer or fall of 2024.
Lovesac is known for its adaptable and sustainable products in home furnishings. The company’s modular “Sactionals” and oversized “Sac” bean bags can be customized to fit a variety of spaces and styles. Lovesac will be located next to Pandora in a 1,400-square-foot store. The retailer, which plans to open at Partridge Creek in winter 2024, has about 200 locations across the United States.
Windsor, a fashion retailer for women, offers clothing, accessories, and footwear provides a range of styles, from casual chic to glamorous formal wear. When Windsor opens in winter 2024, the store will be in a 3,416-square-foot facility. It has more than 300 locations across the United States.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on August 31, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Three metro Detroit business leaders have opened an American Freight store in Clinton Township. The store features affordable home furnishings such as furniture, mattresses, appliances, and accents.
Located at 37055 South Groesbeck Hwy. (near Metro Parkway or 16 Mile Road), a grand opening will take place over the weekend (Sept. 1-3). By buying directly from factories and selling in warehouse style stores, American Freight states it offers everyday low prices on quality furniture and mattresses.
The 25,000-square-foot location is owned by Tom Purther, CEO of Cambridge Investors in Troy; Scott R. Jacobson, chairman of Cambridge Investors and president and owner of SRJ Land Co. in Bingham Farms; and Daniel Stern, principal of Lormax Stern Development Co. in Bloomfield Hills.
The trio came across the idea of adding American Freight locations to one of the shopping centers they owned in Alabama and thought it would be a perfect brand to grow in Michigan.
“We’re excited to open in Clinton Township and give the community access to the widest assortment of quality furniture and mattresses,” says Purther. “This is just the first of many locations we are planning to add to the metro Detroit area.”
Offering same-day delivery on all in-stock items, American Freight offers:
Living room furniture (sofas, loveseats, sectionals, ottomans, and recliners)
Bedroom furniture (beds, nightstands, dressers, mirrors, and drawers)
Kitchen and dining room furniture (counter and standard-height sets)
Mattresses
Bed Frames and accessories
Rugs and accents (lamps, desks, TV stands, and area rugs)
New-in-box appliances (refrigerators and freezers, washers and dryers, cooking appliances, dishwashers, etc.)
“Continuing our growth around metro Detroit has been really important as we push to offer the best furniture, at the best prices to Michigan residents,” says Mark Randles, regional sales manager for American Freight. “This new location in Clinton Township allows us to be able to offer this high-quality experience with more people in the northern suburbs.”
American Freight will be open Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. For more information on American Freight in Clinton Township, visit here or call 586-782-6300.
American Freight, a subsidiary of Franchise Group Inc., was founded in 1994. The company has more than 370 U.S. locations in 40 states, including Michigan locations in Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Clinton Township, Flint, Grand Rapids, Lansing (2), Livonia (2), Monroe, Muskegon, Portage (2), Saginaw, Taylor, and Warren.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on August 30, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Mill Steel Co., a flat-rolled steel and aluminum supplier that has an operation in Melvindale and is based in Grand Rapids, has acquired a 90,000-square-foot facility in Mansfield, Ohio. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The transaction supports Mill Steel’s recent acquisition of Cleveland Metal Exchange (CME), which marked the company’s entry into the flat-rolled stainless steel and aluminum metal markets.
The new location in Mansfield is equipped with a 72-inch Pro Eco slitting line, 60-inch Paxson slitting line, as well as a 50-foot-deep looping pit for surface-critical material processing. Additionally, Mill Steel plans to add cut-to-length processing capabilities. This will provide a greater opportunity to use competitive sourcing and delivery costs for its budding Midwest customer base.
The facility is located for ease of access by rail and interstate. It neighbors Cleveland Cliffs Mansfield Works, providing an additional supply option for its growing stainless and aluminum segment.
Concurrently, Mill Steel is making an $18 million investment into its Melvindale facility with the addition of a new slitting line, new pack line, two new cranes, and 50,000 square feet of warehouse space. These changes are slated to be completed in 2024 and will complement Mill Steel’s processing network to keep pace with its expanding book of business.
“The proximity to our customer base and geographic benefits made this an excellent opportunity. I look forward to the additional capacity this provides to support our double-digit growth,” says Pam Heglund, CEO of Mill Steel.
Posted By: The Detroit News on September 12, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Detroit-based Greatwater Opportunity Capital shared its plans Tuesday for a new mixed-use development in the city’s Midtown neighborhood.
The $14 million project at 3740 Second Ave. is the first new construction project for the firm, which has redeveloped properties in Detroit for affordable housing for the past decade.
“Midtown is one of the strongest, most walkable communities in Detroit and we’re excited about bringing much-needed additional housing to the neighborhood,” Greatwater co-founder Jed Howbert said in a statement Tuesday. “Our work is about much more than renovation and building structures — it’s about doing our part to build neighborhoods that can thrive for generations to come.”
The 39,355-square-foot project at the corner of Brainard Street will include 33 studios and 24 one-bedroom apartment units. Twenty percent of the units will be set aside at rent levels affordable for residents earning 80% of the area median income. The affordability was made possible through a neighborhood enterprise zone property tax abatement, officials said. The firm also received opportunity zone funds and financing from Diversified Members Credit Union.
The project will include first-floor commercial space, secured parking and a bike room. Each apartment unit will have energy-efficient windows and a washer/dryer.
Detroit-based McIntosh Poris is the architect and Eastpointe-based Monahan Company is the general contractor.
Construction is underway and is expected to be completed in spring 2025.
Sue Mosey, executive director of Midtown Detroit Inc., said Tuesday the organization is pleased to see Greatwater Opportunity Capital bringing a new mixed-use construction project to the neighborhood. The building will replace two raised multi-panel solar panels on an otherwise empty, fenced parcel.
“This project builds on their strong track record in apartment rehab and helps build even more density in a part of the district seeing significant signs of rebirth,” Mosey said.
Greatwater Opportunity Capital’s project portfolio includes 2,000 units across 54 buildings. Its past projects include the Kean, a 16-story Art Deco apartment building, and the Hibbard, a nine-story structure, both on East Jefferson.
Posted By: WoodTV on May 31, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A new multi-million dollar expansion project is now underway at Gerald R. Ford International Airport.
The $156 million rental car facility is the latest building to be added as significant investment continues to expand capacity and improve amenities.
The design of the building will be the first of its kind in the state. The airport held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday morning to officially mark the beginning of construction.
The new consolidated rent-a-car facility will be five stories and is planned to handle the growing demand projected for the next 20 years, according to Tory Richardson, the president and CEO of the Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority.
“Really for us it boiled down to building its own entire facility, all rental cars under one roof,” Richardson said. “It will be completely connected to the terminal so a seamless journey for the passenger.”
Moving rental cars from the existing parking garage will free up additional covered parking spaces. The new rental car building will replace the east parking lot. The airport also has future plans to expand overall available parking spaces.
The building will help with sustainability by reducing the miles needed to get the cars in place for customer pick up and for most servicing.
“We’ll be alleviating 90% of that by having the facility consolidating into one location here, thus removing about 600,000 miles of roadway travel each year and over 500,000 pounds of carbon emissions,” Richardson said.
Kent County is backing the bonds for the project, which will be paid back by the airport.
“This is the kind of investment that we like to see in our airport. It demonstrates the commitment to making sure that those people that use this facility have the best experience possible,” said Stan Stek, the chair of the Kent County Board of Commissioners.
Doug Small, the president and CEO of Experience Grand Rapids, said upgrading the capacity and efficiency of the airport benefits the local economy.
“A well-run airport with the amenities that people expect in other cities or cities twice our size … now are here and that’s gonna help us continue to attract more business to the community,” Small said.
The project will also ensure recreational travelers have better access to rental cars.
“The last study we did was 2021 and $900 million in economic impact that tourism brings to this community, that keeps small businesses in business, provides a great tax base,” Small said.
The construction phase is expected to be finished by the summer of 2025 and the building open to the public by the end of 2025.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on September 10, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The new Gordie Howe International Bridge is still nearly two years from completion.
But already anticipation is building in northwest Ohio for the new $4.4 billion international crossing promising to smooth passenger vehicle and commercial truck traffic between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.
Local real estate and economic development officials are optimistic it will bring demand for warehousing and commercial space to Toledo to take advantage of the trade and transportation opportunities the bridge will afford.
“I absolutely believe more businesses will locate in Toledo,” Perrysburg Township Trustee Bob Mack said of the bridge’s impact. Mr. Mack is a Toledo-based commercial real estate company Signature Associates partner.
The Gordie Howe International Bridge also should lure auto suppliers that bring parts just-in-time to the many assembly plants in Ohio, Michigan and Ontario because of the time it will save traversing the Detroit River and customs, said Joe Cappel, vice president of business development at the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority.
It will be a duplicative crossing to the 93-year-old Ambassador Bridge, which handles thousands of trucks daily and is a mile upriver from where the new bridge is under construction.
Mr. Cappel said the new bridge will definitely speed truck traffic when it opens, but the jury is still out on whether it will actually result in more truck traffic than the Ambassador Bridge currently carries.
“Time will tell whether [the new bridge] increases trade,” he said.
The Oregon Economic Development Foundation will hold an economic impact forum on the new bridge on Sept. 28 at the Maumee Bay Lodge and Conference Center at 1750 State Park Rd. in Oregon.
It kicks off at 9:30 a.m. with networking followed by the program at 10 a.m. and more networking and food at noon.
The scheduled speakers are Marta Leardi-Anderson of the Cross Border Institute at the University of Windsor; Tim Mayle of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing; Susan Restrepo at the Ohio Department of Development; Stephanie Campeau of the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority; and Jim Robey of Robey Analytics and Vestian Global Work Place Services.
The highest span of the Gordie Howe International Bridge is already in place as construction continues on the 1.5-mile crossing and highway ramps along I-75 in Detroit. The Canadian government is paying for the bridge, and construction began in June 2018. The Canadian government expects to recoup the costs through toll revenue.
Mr. Mack at Signature Associates said the state of Ohio had the foresight to widen I-75 through Toledo to Findlay to accommodate the growth in traffic that the bridge and Toledo’s renewal would generate.
“The state knew it was coming and wanted to plan for it,” he said.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on September 4, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The future of Labor Day is at work at Penta Career Center in Perrysburg Township.
In a welding class, fiery orange sparks spurt up from welders in action. In another wing, a student wields a remote control — that he built — to work a robot. Nearby, another group of teens is learning how to wire an electrical outlet.
And these are mostly 17-year-olds.
Ty Grayson, a senior from Perrysburg, is learning how to program robots.
“I’m getting ahead by taking this opportunity,” said Mr. Grayson, who plans on pursuing an associate’s degree in electrical engineering at Owens Community College.
“I’ve talked to people in college and some of them didn’t even get to do this in college, until they got to the point where they were doing a co-op,” he said. “I’m getting ahead of the curve.”
The welding class, which was in the second week of the school year, is getting used to the gear, the smells and the heat, said instructor Ryan Thomas, who’s been at Penta for 16 years.
Ellie Dobbelare, a junior from Oak Harbor, Ohio, is one of the 100 welding students at Penta.
“It seemed like a lot of fun,” she said about choosing welding. “This is a great way to open a door before I graduate.”
“Welding is off the charts for us,” said Phil Stockwell, work force development coordinator at Penta.
More and more, the work force is looking to Penta for future employees, he said.
“When students go out on job placement, when they come out of programs, they don’t come back. Employers … say we are their ‘go to’ for machinists, welders,” Mr. Stockwell said.
“We want to stack the deck in the student’s favor. The more skills that are transferable, that mean something to the employers locally, the better off those students are going to be. They’ll be ready for success,” he said.
Penta graduates go on to work at First Solar in Lake Township, Werk-Brau in Findlay, Rosenboom Custom Crafted Cylinders in Bowling Green, and Whirlpool in Clyde, Ohio, Mr. Stockwell said.
“I just came from Otsego. There were 11 students alone at Otsego who are working at Rosenboom and coming out of our labs and the partnerships that we have,” Penta Superintendent Ed Ewers said.
Penta programming is geared toward life choices, he said.
“We’re not talking about two options, of college or career. We’re talking about pathways toward success, that allow a student to really decide what their future is going to look like,” Mr. Ewers said.
Phil Haas’ electrical class was learning how to splice wires and terminate them on outlets. When they graduate, the students will be ready to work in the residential housing industry, he said.
“My first year here, there was a little bit of buy-in from industry,” said Mr. Haas, who has been at Penta for 11 years.
“Over the last eight or 10 years, we’ve actually got partnerships with the IBEW, where they have an internship program, to try to get these young people on the job sites,” he said.
Penta has curriculum geared toward high students, and programming made for adults.
They primarily serve the 17-25 age group, Mr. Ewers said.
At Penta, students attend a traditional academic class three hours a day. For another three hours, they are learning a trade.
Penta’s member schools are Anthony Wayne, Benton-Carroll-Salem, Bowling Green, Eastwood, Elmwood, Genoa, Lake, Maumee, North Baltimore, Northwood, Otsego, Perrysburg, Rossford, Springfield, Swanton, and Woodmore.
Penta grad at work
Zak Wilson, of Swanton, said that he knew he always wanted to be a carpenter. Through Penta, he said he got his foot in the door at Rudolph Libbe Group, which is based in Walbridge.
“My grandfather was a carpenter and I always liked helping him,” said Mr. Wilson, who is a 2014 Penta graduate. Ryan Zellner, of Perrysburg, went through the Rudolph Libbe apprenticeship program in 2004.
“My dad was in the trades,” he said. “I actually considered going to school for engineering, but I like to work with my hands, in the field.”
With his carpentry specialty, Mr. Zellner has worked on Bass Pro Shop in Rossford and Kalahari in Sandusky. He became a foreman and is now a supervisor. An apprenticeship is more of a “guideline,” Mr. Zellner said, made up of mostly on-the-job training.
“You’ll go to school for a week, maybe every three months,” he said. “You get paid while you’re going to school.”
“The apprenticeship program, it’s open to people of all experiences,” Mr. Zellner said. “You learn as you work.”
Penta isn’t the only presence for Rudolph Libbe recruiting. They also have partnerships with Toledo Public Schools and the Washington Local School District, said Jim Philo, vice president of field operations.
“Draft Day,” which was put on by I Build the 419 in April, also helps recruit high school students. Also in the spring, there was a JA (Junior Achievement) Inspires event, which gives career ideas to middle and high school students.
According to the I Build the 419 website, the starting hourly wage for a journeyman is $35 per hour and includes benefits.
Mr. Philo said they try to reach students as young as sixth grade to discuss the different trade careers, including bricklayers, ironworkers, painters, roofers, cement masons, and carpenters.
“There’s a concern,” Mr. Philo said about filling future jobs. “That’s why we try to participate in all that we do. It’s an aging workforce.
“Right now, there’s a lot of work going on, so there’s a lot of opportunities,” he said. “For somebody getting in the trades, this is an ideal time.”
Looking for more
A career in trades is flexible and expanding. Mr. Philo said he started his career as a “tender,” supporting brick masons. He eventually earned a degree in construction management at Bowling Green State University. He’s been with Rudolph Libbe since 1989.
“Working with the trades gets you in the door and the opportunities are endless. It’s what the individual decides to make of it,” he said. Mike Keane, director of field operations for Rudolph Libbe, said his military service, from 1987-91, led to a trades career.
“I started doing some roofing and framing houses. At the time, in the ’90s, Rudolph Libbe was swamped,” Mr. Keane said. “I essentially got hired over the phone.”
He was a journeyman carpenter from 1990-2014, then was promoted to superintendent. The Hollywood Casino was his last project before he became a director. The careers aren’t just for kids either.
There’s a “Helmets to Hardhats” program available now for those with military service to get into the trades, without a sponsor immediately.
“I had a guy in my apprenticeship class who was 55,” Mr. Zellner said.
There will always be a need for the trades, he said.
“If you’ve been on a construction site, it would be pretty tough to do as a robot,” Mr. Zellner said.
Posted By: mlive on August 30, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A new Chick-fil-A is opening next week in the Grand Rapids area.
The Chick-fil-A, at 3461 Alpine Ave. in Walker, will be the sixth in the area when it opens Thursday, Sept. 7.
“I think every time a Chick-fil-A opens for business there’s excitement all around, so this should be no exception,” said Mitch Goltz, co-founder of GW Properties, the project developer. “This is a location that they’ve wanted to be at for a long time, and it will bring a lot of new traffic and business here and satisfy the hungry chicken urges of most Americans.”
GW Properties is a retail development firm based in Chicago. The Alpine Chick-fil-A is the firm’s first in the Grand Rapids area. Goltz said they have other Chick-fil-A restaurants in the works for Michigan.
According to Walker Planning Commission documents, the 5,000-square foot restaurant will have 87 parking spaces and a double drive-thru. A 28-seat outdoor patio is also planned.
There is enough room for 70 vehicles to be in line at once, according to the site plans.
The Chick-fil-A will be the second in Walker, with the other located at 356 Wilson Ave. NW.
The other Grand Rapids-area locations are at 2750 E Beltline Ave. SE in Grand Rapids, 5525 28th St. SE in Cascade Township, 700 54th St. SW in Wyoming and 1545 Edgeknoll Drive SE in Gaines Township south of Kentwood.
The Golden Corral that previously sat on the Alpine site was demolished to make way for the construction of the new Chick-fil-A.
It was the last Golden Corral in West Michigan. The nearest ones now are in South Bend, Flint and Saginaw.
Posted By: Detroit News on August 17, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
One recent afternoon, workers at LM Manufacturing in southwest Detroit stood at their stations on the production line, each doing their part to assemble seating for the Ford Bronco and Ford Ranger.
After launching production last month, three shifts of nearly 700 workers at the plant on Fort Street assemble between 1,000 and 1,200 seats daily, which are then delivered to Ford Motor Co.’s Michigan Truck Assembly Plant in Wayne.
The plant’s location, the ability to expand, and access to a ready labor force were among the top reasons for the company’s site selection, said Sylvester Hester, president and CEO of LM Manufacturing. The company leases the building from Bedrock, part of a 37-acre campus the firm purchased in 2020.
“After an exhaustive search, we decided that, hey, this is where we want to be,” he said. “This is our new home.”
The facility is one example of the manufacturing plants coming online recently in Metro Detroit during a period of strong demand for industrial space.
Real estate experts say there’s high demand for such sites even as lease rates increase for an eighth straight quarter.
“We’re seeing demand in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb,” said Eugene Agnone, senior vice president of CBRE, a commercial real estate services and investment company. “It’s still very robust. And there’s a lot of spec development in each of those markets as well.”
Agnone said several factors are driving demand, including the auto industry’s transition to electric vehicles.
“Obviously automotive electrification,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of e-commerce demand and a lot of onshoring of manufacturing.”
‘A lot of leasing’
During the second quarter of this year, developers in the Detroit market completed eight industrial buildings totaling 1.2 million square feet, according to CBRE’s Q2 industrial market report.
Construction is underway on 18 properties in Metro Detroit for a total of 5.4 million square feet, according to the report. Among those buildings are the Romulus Trade Center in Romulus, the Eastland Commerce Center in Harper Woods and robotics company FANUC America in Auburn Hills.
In Detroit, four industrial projects are underway totaling 1.3 million square feet that are expected to be completed later this year or in early 2024, according to CBRE.
And more industrial projects are in the pipeline. Companies looking to move into Detroit include Ypsilanti-based vacuum insulated glass developer LuxWall Inc., which recently said it is considering leasing a facility Bedrock would construct in southwest Detroit to produce its energy-efficient windows. And Magna International has plans for a 280,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Auburn Hills.
Some of the developments in the planning phase just a few years ago are now in operation. Late last month, online retail giant Amazon opened its 3.8 million-square-foot fulfillment center on the site of the former Michigan State Fairgrounds. And last year, automotive supplier Dakkota Integrated Systems opened a 375,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on the former Kettering High School site.
In Auburn Hills, Farmington Hills-based Friedman Real Estate recently facilitated a deal for DTE Energy to lease space to store equipment at a 528,340-square-foot building at Pinnacle Logistics Park in Redford.
“We’re doing a lot of leasing on the industrial side,” said Jared Friedman, executive managing director of Friedman Real Estate. “And then we’re also doing a lot of build-to-suit as well. And the reason we’re doing build-to-suit is because there’s a lack of industrial buildings because the market is so tight.”
Friedman Real Estate, in partnership with Southfield’s General Development Co., is building the seating plant for Magna International in Auburn Hills, which will supply seats for electric vehicles to be produced at the nearby GM Orion Assembly Plant. The Magna facility is replacing a former animal shelter and pet adoption center on Brown Road.
“So we’re seeing a lot of demand, not only on existing product but building custom buildings in the industrial space because there’s a lack of available product and still a lot of strong demand from the automotive sectors,” he said.
Projects that are done speculatively tend to be pre-leased before they’re complete, Agnone said.
That appears to be the case for NorthPoint Development, which has ramped up its development in Metro Detroit in the past few years with several projects, including those in Shelby Township, Romulus and Detroit. The Kansas-based firm also opened an office in downtown Detroit as it grows its presence in the area. Its portfolio is largely industrial.
NorthPoint Development has 3 million square feet of construction under development in Metro Detroit and has delivered 1.35 million square feet this year in Michigan, said Marc Werner, a regional vice president of NorthPoint Development.
Although the company is mum about prospective tenants prior to building completion, Werner said leasing activity is strong. Every completed project is 100% leased, he said, and of the 3 million square feet under construction, about half is already leased.
“It’s really supply chain distribution warehousing and e-commerce and automotive …” he said. “The industrial fundamentals are really strong. There’s a lack of Class A industrial warehouses in the market, and there’s a large labor population.”
Werner said the company has had a lot of success with brownfield redevelopment, such as the Cadillac Stamping Plant and the former headquarters site for American Motors Corporation in Detroit as well as the former GM Warren Transmission Plant in Warren.
“Those are three examples of automotive manufacturing buildings that were absolutely vacant for years that we’ve been able to get redeveloped,” he said.
Among the projects NorthPoint Development has underway is the Eastland Commerce Center in Harper Woodson the site of the former Eastland Shopping Center. That project, which consists of three buildings, is expected to be complete by the end of the year, Werner said. (Joe Hamway and Greg Hudas of Signature Associates are proud to be a part of leasing this exceptional new development!)
The company also has construction underway on the former headquarters site for American Motors Corporation on Detroit’s west side. Work is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2024.
The EV shift’s impact
The city of Detroit has seen growth driven by original equipment manufacturers, accelerated by the push for electric vehicles, said Kenyetta Hairston-Bridges, executive vice president of economic development and investment services for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp.
“I think Detroit is positively positioned to be able to capitalize on those opportunities going forward because we do have the land,” she said. “We do have land that is still available that we could site these projects. We have a favorable climate in terms of the regulatory climate for manufacturing and industrial projects. And the workforce. When many of the industrial projects come to us, they say we really like the Detroit market because south of Eight Mile, you have a concentrated workforce, available workforce here in the city of Detroit. As well as your expertise around your engineering talents and things like that.”
Hairston-Bridges said the city has more than 1,000 acres it has targeted for future industrial development; however, she declined to name most of those locations. She noted two locations in the city ripe for future projects: 9.3 acres near Interstate 94 and Mt. Elliott and 12 acres yet to be developed at the former Kettering High School site.
The focus is not on logistics or distribution, Hairston-Bridges said, but rather on support of the automotive industry.
“We’re really talking about those industries, those new industries, that are being accelerated as a result of your electric vehicles,” she said.
In 2020, Bedrock, known for its office and residential holdings in Detroit’s central business district, entered the industrial market with the purchase of the 37-acre former Sakthi Industrial Campus. Now known as the Fort Street Industrial Campus, it houses Bedrock tenant LM Manufacturing in 260,000 square feet of space and Diversified Synergies LCC in 200,000 square feet of space.
“The Detroit region is still extremely attractive to a variety of industrial and manufacturing users,” said Kofi Bonner, chief executive officer at Bedrock, in an email to The Detroit News. “The needs of these users have evolved to match the automation and logistical demands of the OEMs. Retaining and attracting these businesses is key to continued diversification of the Detroit economy and Bedrock expects to continue its efforts to provide real options right here in the city limits.”
Bedrock says it has had exploratory conversations with LuxWall Inc. and has received interest from companies in the manufacturing, transportation and warehousing sectors.
CBRE’s Agnone doesn’t see the interest waning.
“There’s a lot of demand from developers seeking out large parcels of land to develop,” he said. “That can be time-consuming as to whether or not it’s for environmental wetlands, entitlements or be it rezoning. So there are a lot of large national developers that are not yet here, but are here looking to try to title properties that they can then develop.”
Posted By: DUBSINESS on August 21, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
People Driven Technology, an IT provider with offices in Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, and Columbus, Ohio, broke ground Aug. 17 on a new, $7 million, 28,000-square-foot technology hub in Wixom.
People Driven Technology provides IT solutions that allow customers to optimize, simplify, and scale technology needs through the complete product lifecycle, from planning to deployment and continued maintenance. Offerings include integrated and secure infrastructures, hybrid cloud computing solutions, cybersecurity, and physical security solutions (weapons detection, video surveillance, access control, etc.).
The hub, which will be located at 49070 Alpha Court, will feature offices, warehousing space, and a technology lab. It is designed to bring together employees, partners, and customers to collaborate and experience cutting-edge technology firsthand.
Expected to be completed in the spring of 2024, the facility will house 54 employees initially, with the goal of 75-plus employees by the end of 2025. The company has seen growth in market share since being founded in west Michigan in the spring of 2021.
“We are excited to be part of the Wixom community and bring these high-tech jobs to Oakland County,” says Bryan Teipel, president of People Driven Technology. “With over 500 customers in the Midwest, our expansion into Oakland County brings us closer to those we serve in the manufacturing, healthcare, government, and education sectors.”
The company currently services eastern Michigan from leased facilities in Farmington Hills and Novi. It is a family-owned business that focuses on consumable outcomes for its clients and, through its leadership, has decades of combined business, technology, and engineering experience.
People Driven Technology says it’s focused on developing the next generation of tech-based leaders through partnerships with local schools and its support for the Michigan Council of Women in Technology.
“Through a 7-mill tax abatement over 10 years with the city of Wixom and the MEDC, People Driven Technology has committed to bringing 75 jobs to Oakland County by 2025,” says Ajay Raman, Oakland County District 14 Commissioner. “The new facility and jobs are part of Oakland County’s strategic growth, which includes recognizing the future need for high-tech jobs within the region.”
The company also provides sales, service, and installation of computer and networking equipment through managed support services including maintenance and enterprise agreements.
Posted By: Detroit News on August 21, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The state of Michigan is starting to explore how to create “highways in the sky” to prepare the state’s aeronautic infrastructure for the advent of commercial drone usage.
In the new state budget that starts Oct. 1, the Legislature appropriated $17 million for infrastructure to support the launch of commercial drones that could one day deliver everything from groceries to epipens.
The money was signed into law weeks ahead of the expected release of a feasibility report assessing how the state could make commercial drone flights a reality — and meet federal scrutiny.
The allocation in the state budget marks the first time the Michigan Department of Transportation will receive direct state dollars for infrastructure supporting unmanned aerial systems and other advanced aeronautic priorities. The Michigan Economic Development Corp. has awarded roughly $1 million in grants over the last several years to about 15 companies specializing in commercial drone usage, but none for a state-driven effort to build out the drone corridors.
The grants come ahead of the expected release of a study that looks at commercial drone use in three key locations: the Detroit area, to study urban deployment; the Traverse City area, to study urban, rural and overwater flights; and the Detroit-Windsor crossing, to look at cross-border implementation.
The study done in cooperation with the Ontario province and several other partners is expected to make recommendations regarding potential uses for commercial drone technology, its economic impact and the infrastructure needed to facilitate the emerging industry.
Providing the flight pathways and radar systems necessary for the commercial drone industry falls within the state’s overall infrastructure responsibilities, said Bryan Budds, an administrator for the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Office of Aeronautics.
“We have to provide those highways in the sky,” Budds said.
Of the $17 million allocated in the budget, $10 million goes directly to MDOT for advanced aeronautics infrastructure — including more futuristic elements such as vertiports and electric passenger planes — and $7 million to a Battle Creek economic development agency trying to set up its own commercial drone program at the local airport.
MDOT is still unsure of how it will use its funding as it works with the Legislature to clarify intent and as it awaits a final copy of the study.
“We still invested an overwhelming majority of the budget into legacy projects like roads and bridges,” said Rep. Ranjeev Puri, a Canton Township Democrat who helped shape the transportation budget. “What was unique about this budget was we spent a little bit of money on new technology and mobility initiatives.
“I want Michigan to still be the transportation capital of the world.”
Michigan needs ‘playbook’ for infrastructure
Michigan largely is seeking to obtain Federal Aviation Administration clearances that would allow for air corridors where drones would be able to fly “beyond visual line of sight,” an essential approval needed for any sort of serious commercial drone operation in the state.
To establish those corridors, various studies of potential risks of crashes with ground or air objects, additional radar systems at low altitudes and coordination with commercial manned aircraft is necessary — a process that the state kicked off with the feasibility study expected to be released soon.
“That’s what the state is doing,” said Michael Healander, president and CEO for Detroit-based Airspace Link. “They’re building up the roads and hardware and systems for operators to fly BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight).”
Airspace Link, which won the contract for the unmanned aerial system feasibility study, operates internationally to help states and cities to set up drone infrastructure compliant with state and federal requirements. Healander boils down the task to the creation of “Google Maps for drones, but the roads aren’t built yet.”
That study led by Healander’s company is complete and should be published in the coming weeks, said Charlie Tyson, technology activation director for the Michigan Office of Future Mobility within the Michigan Economic Development Corp.
“The goal is for that to be a playbook that we can utilitize to take to the FAA to get beyond visual line of site drone operations approval for certain use cases,” Tyson said. “There’s active and ongoing conversations with FAA led through MDOT aeronautics.”
The establishment of the “beyond visual line of sight corridors” corridors would allow operators with the proper regulatory approvals of their equipment to seek waivers to fly equipment beyond visual line of site.
Figuring out uses
State officials said potential uses anticipated with the technology and infrastructure include small package deliveries, last-mile logistics or even the use of drones in firefighting operations.
Officials got a sneak peek of one potential use at Operation Northern Strike at Camp Grayling last week, when Brighton-based Blueflite demonstrated its products and their potential to transport medical supplies and other items to areas where ground vehicles wouldn’t be able to safely reach.
James McClearen, cofounder and chief technology officer for Blueflite, said the company, which makes unmanned aircraft and software to sell to operators, has also launched pilot programs testing its equipment for transport of lab-to-lab samples, deliveries of AEDs, epipens and Narcans in emergency situations and medication deliveries to front lines in combat areas.
The company has received a grant through the state for some of its product development, but largely has to take its technology out of state for federal testing and permitting because Michigan doesn’t have the requisite testing facilities.
“It has to be something that the state drives, supports and takes ownership for,” McClearen said of commercial drone infrastructure in Michigan. “It’s not an easy thing to do and it takes a long, long time.”
In March, Michigan Medicine said it would partner with the drone company Zipline to home-deliver prescriptions to “hundreds of thousands of patients” next year. The company would use new technology that allows a drone to drop the package down on a tether, potentially to someone’s front door, rather than having the drone land, which requires more clearance space.
The company likely will have to apply for waivers from the FAA to participate in the pilot program with Michigan Medicine because Michigan does not yet have approvals for beyond visual line of sight corridors.
Battle Creek eyes ground floor
About $7 million of the $17 million in targeted commercial drone grants in the budget will go to Battle Creek Unlimited, the city’s economic development arm currently jonesing for a commercial drone park at the Battle Creek Executive Airport.
Battle Creek Unlimited expects to use the funds to develop beyond visible line of sight infrastructure — including a low-altitude radar system — on about 200 acres of developable land at the airport.
“It’s an emerging industry that has high paying jobs, but Michigan has got to develop the ecosystem,” said Joe Sobieralski, president and CEO for Battle Creek Unlimited. “Battle Creek is just one part of that.”
Sobieralski argued the low-traffic airport that currently hosts Western Michigan University’s flight school, airplane repair company Duncan Aviation and manufacturer Waco Aircraft is an ideal spot to test the concept of a drone park. The nearby Battle Creek Air National Guard Base also runs drone tests out of its facility.
Rep. Jim Haadsma, the Battle Creek Democrat who secured the grant, said he’d heard talk of plans for a potential drone park for the airport for years and felt the airport was well-positioned for a pilot program.
“This is not about small, hobby remote control drones flown in county park facilities,” Haadsma said. “This is about commercial possibilities. … The opportunity to become a key player in this enterprise is now.”
The funding comes roughly four years after Battle Creek Unlimited was given a $150,000 state grant for a feasibility study reviewing the potential for a drone park at the airport.
Battle Creek Unlimited declined to release a copy of the full report, which was paid for with taxpayer money and used to barter for another $7 million from the state Legislature. The group said the report contained information that could be used by competitors.
The Michigan Economic Development Corp., which also has a copy, did not immediately provide it to The News.
Posted By: mlive on August 28, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Plastics Omnium has confirmed it’s chosen Grand Blanc Township to build the largest hydrogen storage manufacturing plant in North America.
The company announced on Monday, Aug. 28, that it will design, develop and produce high-pressure hydrogen storage systems for medium and heavy-duty, zero-emissions vehicles at the $171-million plant, creating 175 high-tech manufacturing jobs. The investment includes the creation of a state-of-the-art validation and prototyping lab that’s expected to be leased at a yet-to-be-determined location.
Monday’s announcement comes after the Michigan Strategic Fund Board approved a $5-million grant for the Plastic Omnium New Energies USA project and another incentive worth up to $2.3 million if the company moved forward with the development on 50 acres in the Grand Blanc Enterprise Park off Baldwin Road.
MLive-The Flint Journal could not immediately reach a spokesperson for Plastics Omnium for comment on Monday, but the company, which had been in talks about alternate sites in Indiana, Ohio and Canada, announced its commitment to build here in its news release.
In addition to the funding commitment by the state, Genesee County and the township are “committed to investing in the infrastructure and workforce development for the project,” the company’s announcement says.
Township officials have been in discussions with the company and are expecting to receive a site plan for the project in October with construction starting in spring 2024. The production facility is expected to be completed in 2026.
Information provided to MSF Board members said the township also anticipates granting a property tax abatement in support of the 200,000-square-foot plant,which will have an annual production capacity of up to 100,000 high-pressure hydrogen vessels.
“We are excited to launch the construction of our first hydrogen mega-plant in the United States, in Michigan, the heart of the automotive industry,” Laurent Favre, chief executive officer of Plastic Omnium, said in the announcement. “This investment follows Plastic Omnium’s record $2-billion order from a major U.S. automaker earlier this year, which confirms our leadership as a key technology partner for U.S. sustainable mobility players.”
Neither the company nor officials for the state of Michigan have identified which automaker placed the $2-billion order or what ties it may have to vehicle manufacturing in the state.
Township officials have said they have been in discussions with the Plastic Omnium and are expecting to receive a site plan for the project in October with construction starting in spring 2024 and the production facility completed in 2026.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also met with executives from the company during her visit to France in June, making the case for the Grand Blanc Township site, state officials said last week,.
Plastic Omnium, the parent company of Plastic Omnium New Energies USA, is described by the state as a leading tier-one automotive supplier. It is the worldwide leader for fuel systems and bumpers, serving all the domestic original equipment manufacturers as well as several foreign car manufacturers with annual revenue nearing $10 billion.
Posted By: mlive on August 23, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Construction is expected to start within 30 days on a two-building apartment development at the corner of Wealthy Street SE and Sheldon Avenue SE containing 58 market-rate units and ground-floor commercial space. The development, being led by W&S Development Partners and Cella Building Company, is expected to cost $16.4 million and be complete, baring any weather or construction delays, by November 2024, said Heather Coyne, director of marketing at Cella Building Company.
Rents will range from $1,179 a month for a studio to $2,400 for a two-bedroom. As of now, no tenants have been selected for the commercial space, Coyne said.
The site of the apartment building was formerly a vacant lot, and is located adjacent to the Division Avenue corridor. Nearby businesses and developments include Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital, Trinity Health Saint Mary’s, and an income-restricted senior living apartment building constructed by ICCF homes.
Mike Coyne, CEO of Cella Building Company, described the location as a “very key entrance to the city of Grand Rapids and to downtown.”
“We’re very excited about this project — not just what it’s going to do be able to do for our residents but … what it’s going to be able to do for the city of Grand Rapids,” he said Tuesday, speaking to the Michigan Strategic Fund board.
On Tuesday, the board approved a $3 million Michigan Community Revitalization Program loan for the project as well as a $544,048 reimbursement, from state taxes, for brownfield eligible activities at the site. The board, affiliated with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, approves state incentives, grants, tax breaks and other investments designed to spur economic growth in the state.
The brownfield program, offered at the state and local level, is designed to encourage the redevelopment of contaminated, functionally obsolete properties. It provides reimbursement, through the capture of tax revenue, for activities such as demolition, lead and asbestos abatement, environmental assessment and remediation costs, and site preparation.
“No project is going to solve our housing issues, each project is important and moves the needle just a little bit,” Jono Klooster, assistant economic development director for the city of Grand Rapids, said Tuesday in support of the project.
In addition to the state incentives, the Grand Rapids City Commission previously approved a request for a $1.3 million reimbursement over 14 years from a city of Grand Rapids brownfield program to help offset the cost of developing contaminated, functionally obsolete properties.
It also received a 15-year Neighborhood Enterprise Zone tax cut valued at nearly $1.1 million over 15 years.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on August 15, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Transworld Business Advisors franchise owner Jeffrey Hoag has opened offices in six southwest Michigan counties, and is seeking entrepreneurs who want to buy or sell a local business.
Transworld Business Advisors is a global leader in the marketing and sales of businesses, mergers and acquisitions, and franchises. Hoag currently is hiring brokers to staff the six locations covering Berrien, Cass, Van Buren, Allegan, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties, along the Lake Michigan shoreline.
“I see this work as a tremendous chance to help sellers and buyers achieve their dreams while maintaining important resources within our communities,” says Hoag. “This is a great place to put down roots and contribute to the local business community in a meaningful way, and I’m excited to lead the team that will bring the vast resources and expertise of Transworld Business Advisors to the communities I know and love.”
Transworld Business Advisors offers comprehensive brokerage services through membership in United Franchise Group (UFG), a family of affiliated brands and consultants. It is managed within Starpoint Brands, a specialty division of UFG comprised of brands in the retail, food and beverage, and professional services sectors.
The connections give it access to a worldwide network of advisors with more than four decades of experience in the franchising industry. Franchisees own and operate locations in the territories they are granted by the brand.
“We’re proud to welcome Jeff into the Transworld family, which will benefit tremendously from his local knowledge and relationships,” says Andy Cagnetta, CEO of Transworld Business Advisors. “The southwest Michigan area offers significant opportunities for people who want to join the small-business revolution and get maximum value for their companies, and we’re happy we can help them succeed.”
Hoag is a native of West Michigan and has continued living and working in the area since graduating from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture.
Before joining Transworld Business Advisors as a franchisee, he worked for a large architecture and engineering firm where he led the K-12 practice group for five years.
Posted By: The Blade on August 20, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Toledo and northwest Ohio can generate 9,000 jobs and $4 billion in economic impact if designated a federal innovative hub by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, a consortium of local industry and civic leaders said in a grant application.
Moreover, the more than $75 million that the consortium could expect over multiple years would lead to unprecedented technology sharing between the area’s four major glass makers and First Solar to provide the companies with a leg-up in international markets for their respective products, leaders say.
In the grant, the partners have pledged to reduce carbon in their manufacturing processes and work toward tougher and more lightweight glass as a step toward a more environmentally friendly future, said Kyle Sword, R&D director for Toledo-based Pilkington North America.
Pilkington is the leading supplier of glass to solar-panel giant First Solar, which operates three production plants in northwest Ohio and is the largest manufacturer of solar panels based in the United States.
“We would all benefit from thinner, stronger glass,” Mr. Sword said of consortium members.
In a tight, five-page application filed with the EDA last week, and shared with The Blade, the group known as the Northwest Ohio Innovation Consortium lays out why Toledo has the assets, vision, and need to be designated one of 20 cities in the United States as a tech hub.
It describes ambitious goals in the first paragraph of the grant.
“The NW Ohio Innovation Consortium (NOIC) is requesting designation as a Tech Hub to decarbonize the solar panel value chain by accelerating the decarbonization of glass (the bulk of a solar panel) and advanced manufacturing techniques,” the grant says.
“Already the leader in solar R&D and domestic production, northwest Ohio has the capacity and potential to become a self-sustaining global leader in affordable, sustainable solar within seven years,” it states.
The EDA, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, will judge the applications based on which markets have the assets and best chance of making a difference in overall energy consumption, promoting advanced U.S.-based technology and reaching underserved workers and populations.
In all, the EDA plans to select just 20 recipients for tech hub designations, then open those groups to federal funding authorized initially at $500 million but budgeted at $10 billion under the Inflation Reduction Act.
The Toledo group should know if it’s been selected as a tech hub before October, said Roger Smith, the regional innovation officer for the consortium whose regular job is a manufacturing technology leader at global bottle maker O-I Glass in Perrysburg.
Another consortium leader, retired local KeyBank President Jim Hoffman, said the consortium hopes to win more than $100 million from the program over multiple years. The EDA says initial awards will be between $50 million and $65 million per tech hub designee.
That money would go a long way to spur job creation and economic development, said Mr. Hoffman, chairman of the Regional Growth Partnership.
The grant states that innovations in solar and glass will create a combined 9,000 jobs and $4 billion in economic impact while “driving equitable regional growth in an economically distressed area and strengthening U.S. economic and national security through production of the most sustainable solar energy with domestic manufacturing.”
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get a return on investment in technology that will help our glass and solar-energy industries to survive and prosper,” Mr. Hoffman said.
O-I’s Mr. Smith said the heart of Toledo’s proposal is to use a local workforce to find new ways to make thinner glass and use less energy or alternative fuels in the manufacturing process. That would give the region’s solar panel companies, First Solar and Toledo Solar, an edge in marketing a more efficient solar panel to customers worldwide.
“Glass accounts for 97 percent of the weight, 34 percent of the carbon footprint, and 47 percent of the cost of a solar panel,” the Toledo grant application states. “By using renewable energy and other innovations to manufacture lighter, thinner, and stronger glass, solar panels will become even more cost-effective and sustainable, reducing the embodied carbon of glass by up to 80 percent.”
The U.S. solar industry could use a boost — with First Solar doing most of the heavy lifting domestically in an industry where production of solar panels has shifted heavily to China over the past two decades, the grant says.
“The U.S. solar market is exploding — growing 24 percent a year over the past decade and, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, will provide 40 percent of domestic electricity by 2035,” the grant states. “And yet America is not rising to the challenge — U.S. solar production declined from 13 percent of global production in 2004 to less than 1 percent today.”
Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar, whose largest solar-panel manufacturing footprint is in northwest Ohio, makes its panels using cadmium telluride solar that already offers the greenest option among manufacturers globally, said Lou Trippel, First Solar director of global product manufacturing who operates from the company’s Perrysburg offices.
Utilities and customers worldwide are seeking to reduce their carbon footprint wherever possible, making a more lightweight, efficient solar
panel an attractive product, he said.
“The premise of the [grant] program is to take what is already established here — where we have areas of expertise and technology — and work on ways to leverage that leadership,” Mr. Trippel said. He was referring to Toledo’s long history of glassmaking and the area’s emerging expertise in solar energy.
First Solar operates three solar-panel production plants in northwest Ohio, with the latest coming fully online this summer. The company employs 2,128 people locally, he said.
The consortium also is pitching how to train more workers, both production and technical employees, for employers inside the consortium and out. Educational partners are the Toledo Public Schools, the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, and Owens Community College.
The four local glassmaking members of the consortium are O-I, Libbey Inc., Owens Corning, and Pilkington North America.
O-I’s Mr. Smith said the grant would be used for worker training and recruitment as well as a variety of collaborative projects to advance glass manufacturing.
For example, each of the glassmakers locally have sophisticated tech centers with labs and, in the case of O-I, pilot glassmaking lines.
Mr. Smith said he envisioned the members experimenting jointly with hydrogen to power the lines, or alternative biofuels, to see if they can produce stronger, thinner glass using cleaner energy sources than natural gas or another fossil fuel.
The participants would likely strike confidentiality and intellectual property agreements to share results and benefit consortium members as a whole, he said.
That’s possible, even likely, since the industrial partners make glass, but they don’t really compete in the marketplace. O-I makes bottles. Libbey makes plateware. Owens-Corning produces fiberglass and building products. And Pilkington makes sheet glass for solar panels and other industrial uses.
Mr. Smith said altogether the companies already spend about $500 million annually on research and development. The grant money would allow the partners to accelerate those developments, he said.
The consortium also is seeking $30 million to $50 million of the $125 million in tech hub money that the state of Ohio this year has set aside for mid-market cities like Toledo and Dayton looking to create jobs through technological breakthroughs.
Thinner, stronger glass would be a game-changer in the marketplace, said Ludovic Valette, O-I vice president and chief technology officer.
He said beverage makers and bottlers worldwide want bottles that use less energy to produce.
And the less they weigh, the more pallets could be put on trucks for shipment to distributors and retailers.
“Thinner, lightweight glass for containers is a top priority,” Mr. Valette said.
Posted By: The Blade on August 28, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain has decided to build a $150 million distribution center in Findlay as it develops plans to expand into northwest Ohio.
The Sheetz, Inc. facility on the city’s northwest side is expected to generate 750 full-time-equivalent jobs over the course of five years, a summary posted by the Regional Growth Partnership of Northwest Ohio said.
“Sheetz is thankful for the cooperation and support of all the local, county, and state leaders who have helped make this project possible,” Michael Sheetz, the Altoona, Pa.-based company’s president and chief executive, said in that posting.
“We’re excited to bring new opportunities to the area, as we continue to expand throughout the state of Ohio and into Michigan in 2025,” Mr. Sheetz said. “Findlay is located in the heart of this new growth area and will play a big role in the future of Sheetz.”
The family-owned chain has more than 600 stores in six states, including significant numbers in the Cleveland, Youngstown, and Columbus areas in Ohio. Besides selling its own branded gasoline and typical convenience-store merchandise, it is known for its “made to order” counters offering hot and cold sandwiches and other convenience foods.
Metro Toledo’s convenience-store market is already thick with Speedway, Circle K, TrueNorth Energy, and S&G stores, among the major players.
The Sheetz distribution center, which will include a regional food-preparation function, will be supported by a $1.1 million Roadwork Development Grant to the city of Findlay from the Ohio Department of Development. The grant will provide for widening a portion of Township Road 99 within the city by 6 feet; installing new storm sewers, curbs, and gutters; building new turn lanes at the Sheetz property entrance, and thickening the roadway’s surface for use by heavy trucks.
“Ohio is a great place for a family-owned and operated business like Sheetz to grow and succeed,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement. “Sheetz stores have been extremely well received in the Ohio communities where they’ve expanded, and this new, advanced facility will improve efficiencies for the company both here at home and throughout the Midwest while creating good-paying jobs in the Findlay area.”
Hancock County officials are also excited about the project.
“We are happy to have played a role in attracting this project and look forward to seeing the positive impact that Sheetz will have,” said Dan Sheaffer, the executive director of Findlay∙Hancock County Economic Development. “The facility will bring more well-paying, quality jobs to the area by a family-owned company that is truly committed to community success.”
Posted By: The Detroit News on August 14, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Metro Detroit’s self-storage industry is growing in unorthodox places as people look for places to store their stuff. Once located off the beaten path, these facilities are now more visible in repurposed buildings, as the need for other types of development, such as retail and office space, shrinks.
Examples: the Albert Kahn Building in Detroit’s New Center area will house self-storage on the first floor and the basement, the former Wimbledon Racquet Club in St. Clair Shores is being outfitted for self-storage, and the former Plante Moran building in Southfield will become a self-storage facility.
“I’d say over the last like five years, we’ve had a really big increase in new construction of self-storage and demand,” said Jared Friedman, executive managing director of Friedman Real Estate.
Warren, Livonia and Sterling Heights have seen consistent self-storage activity, with an additional 100,000 square feet annually, according to StorageCafe, a nationwide storage space marketplace powered by Yardi. In the last five years, additional storage facilities have opened in Troy, Westland, Farmington Hills, Flint, Rochester Hills and Southfield, according to the firm. Warren and Canton Township are expected to see the most storage-space growth in 2023.
Overall, an estimated 781,000 square feet of storage space is expected to be completed in the Detroit area by the end of the year, a more than 250% increase over the 219,000 square feet added in 2022.
A once ‘overlooked’ market
The Metro Detroit area is an interesting self-storage market because of the diverse ages of its rental population, said Doug Ressler, manager of Business Intelligence at Yardi-Matrix.
“As you get around the peripheral, the borders, what we call the exurbs, there’s more of a proclivity to be able to engage with self-storage,” he said. “And also, because developers from a standpoint can also get land around the exurbs from a permitting, zoning and cost standpoint, which makes a much more reasonable price point for the users, the demand than say in a downtown core.”
Friedman said that traditionally, the self-storage market was largely made up of mom-and-pop operations and that national developers who got into the business targeted high-growth areas such as Charlotte, Denver and Florida.
“I think a lot of the national developers overlooked Michigan as a market historically, because it’s Michigan and there wasn’t a lot of growth going on here,” he said. “But I think a lot of people realize that we had a lot of good demographics.”
“We’re a very large place to live,” he said, pointing to Metro Detroit’s population of roughly 4 million people. “The automotive companies have done really well over the last few years. So I think a lot of things have changed for the better and Michigan became more relevant market for a lot of development of self-storage.”
When Farmington Hills-based Pogoda Companies built a storage facility at Eight Mile and Lahser in 1999, there was 2.5 square feet of storage per person within a three-mile radius, said Adam Pogoda, president of Pogoda Companies, which owns or manages 70 self-storage facilities, including 50 locations in Michigan. Now that figure is 13 square feet per person, he said. Several sit along a stretch of Eight Mile, including a 1-800 Self Storage facility in Oak Park.
“It’s just exploded,” he said.
Converting nontraditional spaces
Construction is underway for self-storage at the Albert Kahn Building on Second Avenue in Detroit’s New Center area.
Owners Matthew Sosin of Northern Equities Group and Adam Lutz of Lutz Real Estate Investments purchased the building in 2018 and renovated the upper floors to contain 206 apartment units. Sosin said they explored uses for the first floor and basement before deciding on self-storage.
“We’ve talked about a variety of uses in the lower level,” he said. “A gym, which we eventually moved for our residents to the second floor. And so storage was kind of a natural use down there. I think the highest and best use of that space there. And I think it’s needed in the neighborhood.”
There will be 250 storage units available by the end of the year, Sosin said. Pogoda Companies will manage the facility.
Friedman Real Estate, which owned the former Plante Moran building on Northwestern Highway, considered other uses, such as apartments and offices, before getting the site rezoned and selling it to Devon Self-Storage at the end of last year. The company has seven self-storage facilities, mostly in the Grand Rapids and Holland areas.
“They wanted to convert that building to self-storage because Southfield is obviously an extremely dense area,” Jared Friedman said. “Close proximity to a lot of households. And the visibility off the freeway was unlike any other, and I think that’s really important for a lot of these groups is they want people to be able to see where they are.”
A need for proximity
Customers prefer to be close to the storage facility they use, Pogoda said, and what’s considered a prime location has changed over the years.
“In the ’90s, you wanted to be on (Interstate) 75, 94,” he said. “You wanted to have your facility visible from the highway so the most eyeballs could see it. Now, you really want to be on a high street in a high-traffic area. Much closer to where people live and where people have apartments and condos.”
Who’s most likely to use a storage facility? People ages 46-65 are the most predominant group, making up half of all users throughout 150 cities, Ressler said.
“What we see people doing is not really moving per se, but reconfiguring the home and ergo needing space to store things that heretofore may have been in a bedroom or things like that,” he said. “The overall proclivity of people is to not get rid of things.”
One recent Friday, Waterford Township resident Alec Berlingieri visited National Self Storage in Pontiac to pick up camping gear for the weekend. Berlingieri said his family rented two 5-by-10 units more than a year ago in preparation for a move. When those plans changed, they decided to keep the units and use the extra space to store kitchen equipment and household items.
“It has been kind of nice for some things to just be out of the house and not have to worry about it,” he said.
One of the biggest benefits is not having to carry heavy items into the basement, he said.
“It’s been convenient for organizing, too,” he said. “Where we’re just like, ‘all right, we’ll pack up stuff we want to keep in the storage unit,’ even when we’re rearranging the house and things like that. It’s kind of just nice to get things completely out of the house.”
Pontiac resident Marlene Marion uses National Self Storage to store items for her church’s youth department. She previously kept the items, including inflatables and Christmas trees, in her basement.
“It started getting overwhelming in my basement,” she said. “We have a little room at the church, but it was best to get the storage here.”
Posted By: CoStar on August 10, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Maybe barista bars and pickleball courts aren’t that important to workers after all.
Since the waning days of the pandemic, employers have tried just about everything to lasso workers back to the office. Some have swapped out aging desks and chairs for newer models. Others have switched to hybrid work schedules.
The tactics seem to be working, as office use has slowly risen across the country, though it remains lower than before the pandemic. Some employers and office owners spent millions of dollars adding amenities, including bars designed with Mad Men-style motifs from the 1960s, indoor gardens, arcade games and even beekeeping workshops. But interviews with design professionals and a new survey show that maybe what companies should have focused on was giving staff what they really want — a place to be left alone and get work done.
About 48% of respondents in the United States said focus on work was the most important reason for them to go to their office, according to Gensler’s 2023 workplace survey in a finding backed up by executives involved in workplace design. Of the 14 choices offered in the survey, “access to amenities” ranked dead last, at 24%.
“There are people who want to go back to the office because of” distractions from kids or pets at home, James Woolum, an interior designer at ZGF Architects in Los Angeles, told CoStar News.
When broken down by age group, Gen Z, millennials and Gen X respondents in the U.S. all chose focus on their work as the most important reason to go into the workplace, while baby boomers chose access to technology as the No. 1 reason, according to Gensler, the largest architecture firm in the U.S. by revenue. Also in the mix: Workers want to have some opportunity to talk to colleagues.
Some employers seem to be getting the message. Architects and interior designers say corporate clients are increasingly requesting private workspaces in office renovation projects. These spaces take the form of phone booth-style cubbies, libraries where silence is required or small conference rooms suitable for just a handful of people.
“If two or three team members need to have a conversation, they can jump into these empty rooms,” Woolum said. “These are often non-reservable spaces designed for spontaneous meetings and collaboration.”
Still, about two-thirds of employers worldwide haven’t redesigned their offices in the past three years, meaning workers are going to office spaces of a different era that don’t give them the choices they need to do their job, according to Gensler’s survey.
Quiet, Please
Staff members also want spaces where they can just be left alone, too.
A workplace needs spaces “where you can have privacy for some heads-down work, or to decompress and reflect on a meeting that just occurred and to prep for the next meeting,” Janet Pogue McLaurin, global director of workplace research at Gensler, told CoStar News.
While phone booth-style offices are not a new concept for workplaces, they remain quite popular. In a recent renovation for TreviPay, architecture firm Clockwork added phone booth-style offices to the payments technology company’s Overland Park, Kansas, headquarters.
“We typically include those for all our clients because they get used so frequently,” said Lara Schneider, a principal with Clockwork.
It’s a place where an individual can sit down, close the folding door and get work done without someone tapping them on the shoulder and breaking their concentration. But the doors have vertical windows so it doesn’t feel like you’re trapped in a cell.
It’s much less common for office renovation clients to ask for trendy amenities like treadmill desks, Schneider told CoStar News. Those offerings are expensive and many employers can’t afford them. Access to an ergonomic work setting ranked second to last on Gensler’s survey of reasons U.S. employees want to go to the office.
Face to Face
While many workers may want a place at the office that’s free from interruptions, others want to see their colleagues in person.
In the Gensler survey, the No. 3 reason U.S. workers said they want to return to the office is “scheduled, in-person meetings with team members.” The fifth-highest reason was “to sit with my team.” Gensler surveyed thousands of U.S. full-time workers at companies with at least 100 employees who are required to work from the office at least some of the time.
“You don’t just want to work alone, but also work with other people throughout the day,” Gensler’s McLaurin said.
The best approach is to provide several arrangements in the same office to meet the full spectrum of work styles, added Woolum.
“There are probably a million and one reasons why people want to come back to the office and it’s hard to meet all of those,” Woolum said. “So we want to give people a range of experiences.”
Open collaborative spaces have proven to be popular, Woolum said. Some staff members work well when other people are around, provided they’re not constantly interrupted.
These are “library spaces where 10 to 20 people can work in the same room, but there’s the expectation that there’s not phone or video calls,” he said.
ZGF included libraries in its office renovations for Expensify in Portland, Oregon, and the Publishers’ Clearing House headquarters in Jericho, New York. ZGF renovated its own offices in New York and Washington, D.C., to provide a variety of work setups for individuals, small groups and large gatherings. Partly because of their designs, those locations have nearly 100% in-person daily attendance, Woolum said.
Amenities like bocce ball courts are still important, especially to employers looking for so-called creative office space, said Brooke Gothard, a managing director at JLL who represents tenants on office space leasing.
“Gone are the days when you could check the box with a building café, conference center and fitness center,” Gothard said.
The espresso stand and sushi bar don’t necessarily need to be in the actual office, Gothard said. The most desirable offices are those located in mixed-use properties with varied retail offerings or in walkable neighborhoods with a plethora of restaurants and shops.
Splashy, photogenic amenities aren’t going away, even if they’re less important than employers thought. ZGF has found that climbing walls, cornhole boards and Aeropress coffee are more important to certain types of tenants, Woolum said. Some of ZGF’s technology clients have offered those types of amenities for so long that they’ve become a part of the corporate culture.
“Some tech clients, if we told them they could save a bunch of money by not having a barista or food choices,” Woolum said, “I can’t see them agreeing to that.”
Posted By: The Detroit News on August 14, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
City officials in this quaint western Wayne County community are rethinking a controversial outdoor dining policy after it ignited backlash this summer from local restaurant owners.
In mid-July, an update to the city’s outdoor dining policy was proposed that would have increased fees for outdoor dining areas from $1.50 per square foot to $15 per square foot for the season, a 900% hike. The changes were proposed to address walkable areas and accessibility.
The changes were voted down 6-1 by the City Commission this month after restaurant owners complained about the fee hikes, some threatening to shut down their patios altogether.
“They kind of blind-sided us with this,” said Bill Farwell, the owner of Penn Grill and Bar. Now, the policy is back before the commission, said Plymouth City Manager Paul Sincock.
“I think there’s some work to do … but again, they don’t have to have anything until next April,” when the outdoor dining season begins, said Sincock.
The City Commission has been considering an update to the outdoor dining policy because of the flexibility that establishments had with outdoor dining during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many restaurants used outdoor dining areas to stay open, he said.
“The rules were in constant flux …. There were a lot of changes being made on a regular basis to what would be allowed and what would not be allowed,” said Sincock.
During the pandemic, he said the commission met with restaurant owners to work on guidelines for the outdoor dining policy. Now it needs to be updated, he said.
The city allows patios over 5,000 square feet on public property without additional parking. Some new establishments added patio space on private property and had to pay to add parking, Sincock said in an administrative recommendation July 12.
“Keeping all these things in balance is the challenge that the City Commission faces when adopting a formal policy that will be in place for years,” he said.
Restaurant owners, meanwhile, say they were willing to pay an increase but not 900%. Farwell was part of the group of business owners that threatened to shut down outdoor dining areas if the new policy was passed. His restaurant has a 429-square-foot of outdoor dining space. At $1.50 per square foot under the current policy, it costs the bar nearly $700 annually, not including other fees like the application fee. But under the proposed $15 per square foot for the entire season, which runs 214 days from April to November the city said, the bar would have had to pay nearly $7,000 annually for its outdoor dining area.
“All the bar owners got together, and we told them we would close all our patios down,” said Farwell.
Farwell said another concern is the width of the sidewalks that city officials are considering. He said a 9-foot sidewalk made to have a 6-foot sidewalk to walk could cut an establishment’s patio in half. Sam Khashan, owner of the Irish pub Sean O’Callaghan’s, said he has a smaller sidewalk and he was only able to sit about eight to 10 people at first. During COVID, the pub had to expand into the street.
“Right now, we’re one of the only ones in the street in Plymouth,” he said. “Some have a natural bumpout, so they don’t need to do it, but they’re still using city property.”
Officials said the city has considered ways to make outdoor dining more effective for patrons and business owners. Sincock said the commission has considered patio platforms, removing and adding bumpouts, additional parking, and new patio bumpouts.
“The City Commission has been working hard to come up with a plan that would give them a five- or seven-year window that we would continue to allow outdoor dining use of public property, use of parking spaces and all of those things,” said Sincock.
Khashan, who has a 525-square-foot outdoor patio, said he hopes the city and restaurants can continue to discuss outdoor dining policy.
“There is nothing official right now, but I think we have a good working relationship with the city,” said Khashan. “I spoke with the mayor, and I spoke with restaurant owners, so I think we are on the right track.”
Owners such as Farwell and Khashan said raising per square footage is not the way to go. Plymouth bars are still planning to close their patios if a large increase is passed.
“It’s not to close to prove a point; it just kind of shows why we won’t be able to afford to do this if it got to that 900% mark,” Khashan said.
Officials said the policy is certain to increase the per-square-footage fee by at least $2-3 per square foot per day. The deadline to approve a new policy is April.
Posted By: CoStar on August 7, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
As if by magic, new tenants are appearing at a slew of vacant stores that once housed outlets of Bed Bath & Beyond, Kmart, Sears, Lord & Taylor, Tuesday Morning, Big Lots, Christmas Tree Shops and A.C. Moore. That’s because Spirit Halloween is once again popping up in towns across the United States and Canada.
The Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey-based specialty retailer this year plans to open a record number of pop-up stores, more than 1,500, compared with 1,450 last year, according to a company spokeswoman. The retailer, which is celebrating 40 years in business, temporarily leases storefronts that are typically 5,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet to build out a brick-and-mortar footprint for the Halloween season leading up to the spooky annual holiday celebrated on Oct. 31.
In what’s become an annual tradition, Spirit Halloween fans swarmed the grand opening of the company’s flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, even though it was only the last weekend of July, a full three months ahead of the holiday. Nearly 3,000 people from across the country attended, with hundreds lining up the day before to get in. In addition to getting a first peek at the store, shoppers could enjoy tarot card readings, graveyard bowling, face-painting and photo opportunities.
Halloween has been a growing category for retail with sales increasing annually, according to the National Retail Federation. Last year that trade group predicted a record $10.6 billion in spending overall for the holiday.
Spirit Halloween can generate rental income for a now-vacant store until a permanent tenant is found for the space by its landlord. Owners of vacant retail space get help paying their carrying costs, such as taxes and insurance, while the pop-ups help drive foot traffic.
Spirit Halloween in some cases is leasing former store sites of chains that have downsized or liquidated, such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Kmart, DressBarn, Sears, Pier 1, Tuesday Morning and CVS, among others. Those locations are in strip centers and malls strewn across North America.
Spirit Halloween, which calls itself the nation’s largest Halloween retailer, has plenty of competition. Giant discount chains such as Walmart and Target sell all kinds of Halloween-related goods, as does Amazon.
The company also has a rival in Party City, which usually opens Halloween City stores for the season. But the Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey-based party-supply retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early this year. Despite that proceeding, Party City will be opening Halloween City pop-ups this season, according to a company spokeswoman.
“We’ll have more details about openings over the next several weeks,” the spokeswoman said in an email to CoStar News.Up
Back when Party City filed for bankruptcy protection, one retail analyst was critical of its performance in the Halloween sector compared to Spirit Halloween and discounters such as Target.
“On competition, much of this has come from an increasing number of occasion-based pop-up stores, such as Spirit Halloween,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a note. “These have become destinations for key occasions such as Halloween, which have traditionally been very lucrative for Party City, which now struggles to match the ambiance and authority.”
Posted By: DBUSINESS on August 9, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Consumers Energy in Jackson will be issuing a request for a proposal to explore the possibility of selling its 13 hydroelectric facilities located throughout the state of Michigan as the energy provider continues to evaluate the future of the dams and considers all options to safely maintain the dam reservoirs.
Last year, Consumers Energy conducted a series of public meetings with community members and local leaders about the dams’ future. Based on community feedback, Consumers Energy understands how important these facilities and the associated reservoirs are to local communities.
Therefore, the energy provider is exploring all options to safely maintain the reservoirs while reducing costs for Consumers Energy’s customers.
“After numerous conversations over the past year, it is clear the reservoirs are important for economic and recreational opportunities in these communities across Michigan,” says Norm Kapala, vice president of generation operations of Consumer’s Energy. “But we also know that the current model for financing our hydroelectric power operations requires customers to pay more than nine times for the cost of energy compared to other sources of generation.”
Consumers Energy began working with local officials and meeting with community leaders last year since licenses for the company’s dams begin to expire in 11 years. Consumers Energy’s 13 dams together produce less than 1 percent of energy used by the energy provider’s nearly 2 million customers, and they are several times more expensive than other energy sources.
“Today’s announcement is an initial step we need to take to learn more about what selling the facilities might look like,” says Kapala. “If we choose to move forward and sell these facilities, our intention is to minimize the cost burden for customers while keeping the recreational and economic benefits for our communities. No final decision has been made, and we continue to explore all options.”
Consumers Energy is planning another series of public community meetings later this summer and into the fall with the goal of collecting community feedback and discussing what a potential sale of the dams would mean, as well as other options continuing to be considered.
“We know communities and residents that treasure these dams will have questions about the future,” Kapala says. “That’s why we will continue to provide timely updates and be transparent throughout this decision-making process. We’ve committed to exploring all options for safely maintaining these reservoirs for decades to come.”
Consumers Energy’s 30- to 40-year federal operating licenses on the Muskegon, Manistee, Grand, Kalamazoo, and Au Sable rivers are set to expire beginning in 2034 through 2041.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on July 27, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Solar power equipment manufacturer First Solar, which operates three northwest Ohio plants, will open its fifth American factory in 2026 at a location to be determined, the company said Thursday.
Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar Inc.’s announcement comes as it continues to develop plans to expand the existing Ohio facilities’ manufacturing capacity and create a research and design innovation center near its current facility in Perrysburg Township.
The company expects that Ohio will see about 100 new research and design jobs at the Perrysburg facility, which will open in 2024.
In a statement to investors Thursday, First Solar cited its “plan to upgrade and expand” its “northwest Ohio manufacturing footprint.” It also mentioned its “intention to invest up to $370 million” in the dedicated Perrysburg research and design innovation center.
It is unclear how many manufacturing jobs will be coming to the region through the fifth factory, but the company stated in a written announcement Thursday that Ohio and Alabama will see a total of about 850 new manufacturing jobs after ongoing facilities projects are completed.
In November First Solar announced it had selected Lawrence County, in northern Alabama, as the site of its fourth manufacturing facility in the country. That plant is expected to open in 2025.
Expansions are taking place at all three manufacturing facilities in northwest Ohio, First Solar’s communications consultant Steve Kerekes confirmed. The company plans to complete all three expansions by the end of 2024. Other than the facility in Perrysburg Township, there are two facilities in Lake Township, the newest of which opened earlier this year.
First Solar currently employs 2,500 people in the United States, and it will employ about 4,000 Americans in total once the fifth plant opens.
The new plant announced Thursday is valued at $1.1 billion and would produce photovoltaic solar modules, while employing about 700 people.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on August 10, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Freight in and out of the busy Port of Toledo means 7,971 direct and indirect jobs to the region and $906.2 million in annual economic impact, a new maritime shipping study shows.
Those numbers are up substantially from five years ago, the last time Martin Associates of Lancaster, Pa., published its study on the impact of shipping on the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Atlantic Ocean and beyond.
The Port of Toledo and Port of Monroe are two of 41 U.S. and Canadian ports along the route from Duluth, Minn., to the ocean closely studied by Martin Associates.
Jobs from the Port of Toledo have grown by nearly 1,000 since the 2018 study, in part, because of the opening of Cleveland-Cliffs’ Direct Reduction Plant in Toledo in 2020 on 100 acres at the port.
The plant heats iron ore at the plant using natural gas to produce hot briquetted iron ready for steel-making blast furnaces.
About 2 million tons of iron ore now come into the Port of Toledo annually for processing, said Joe Cappel, vice president of development for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority.
The 906.2 million in economic activity was up 35 percent compared to the $669 million in economic impact identified by the 2018 study.
The Port of Monroe also is an economic driver, the recent Martin Associates study shows: It is responsible for 1,064 direct and indirect jobs and about $85 million annually in economic activity.
The study is called the Economic Impacts of Maritime Shipping in the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence Region.
Posted By: The Detroit News on August 9, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Battle Creek-based Kellogg Co. said Wednesday that its planned split into two companies is on track to be finalized in the fourth quarter of this year.
At an investor day event, company officials said the split will create two entities: WK Kellogg Co., which will focus on cereals like Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes in North America, and Kellanova, which will focus on snack foods and growth opportunities in foreign markets.
Kellogg Co. announced in June 2022 it would split into three parts: a cereal business and a plant-based food company, both of which would remain headquartered in Battle Creek, and a snack business to be headquartered in Chicago with a campus in Battle Creek. The company subsequently said in February that it would keep the plant-based food business, MorningStar Farms.
Kellogg’s snack food business, which includes brands such as Pringles and Pop-Tarts, accounts for the majority of the company’s revenue. According to Kellogg’s website, Kellanova predicts projected net sales of $13.5 billion in 2024, compared to $2.7 billion for WK Kellogg Co. This month, Kellogg Co. reported second-quarter net income of $357 million on revenue of $4.04 billion.
Kellogg is looking to increase its global market for its snack business, the company said Wednesday, according to Arun Sundaram, the vice president of equity research at CFRA Research.
“In developed markets like the U.S. or even Europe, using the brand Kellogg doesn’t really provide that much value,” Sundaram said. “Consumers sometimes don’t like big brands; they like smaller brands, newer brands, so saying Kellogg’s Pringles or some like that doesn’t really resonate that well.”
Sundaram added: “It does resonate really well with consumers in emerging markets. So for example, incorporating the master brand Kellogg and all the packaging, consumers are rushing to buy these products because they’re the big brands well known to have a strong reputation.”
In the United States, Kellogg is more interested in emphasizing its sub-brands, such as Pringles and Cheez-Its, as individual products.
WK Kellogg Co. is looking at around two or three years of flat sales growth because cereal consumption in the United States is in a secular decline, Kellogg shared at its investors meeting on Wednesday. Sundaram said the company “is OK with that.”
While Steve Cahillane will remain as chief executive officer of Kellanova, Gary Pilnick, Kellogg Co.’s vice chairman of corporate development and chief legal officer, was appointed WK Kellogg Co.’s chief executive officer designate in August 2022.
“The leadership appointments are subject to — and will be effective upon — completion of the planned separation of North America Cereal Co.,” Kellogg said in a press release.
Kellogg decided to keep MorningStar Farms amid falling sales. In April, MorningStar Farms discontinued its meat alternative brand, Incogmeato.
Sundaram thinks this is the right move. “Right now is a tough time to be competing in the frozen plant-based meat aisle of the grocery store. There’s been a lot of new entrants and you can get new brands coming in or new companies entering the space. There’s been a lot of hype over plant-based meat. The category was doing really well in 2020, but overall, the plant-based meat category has slowed down considerably over the last year or two.”
Sundaram thinks that the plant-based meat industry will consolidate over the years and come down to a few front-runners and “anticipates better days for MorningStar Farms.”
For food packaging industries as a whole, Sundaram said they will face pressure in 2024 to improve volume sales as food price inflation levels off.
“This year, 2023, price-related growth is driving overall sales growth because volumes are actually down year-over-year, so really all the revenue growth has been driven by prices,” Sundaram said. “And then in 2024, we’ll probably see overall growth will moderate, but we’ll probably see more balanced growth between price-related growth and volume-related growth. And then towards the end of 2024 and starting ting 2025 there will be a lot more pressure to grow volumes because there probably won’t be any more price-related growth left for companies.”
Posted By: DBUSINESS on August 14, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Biggby Coffee, based in Lansing, currently has more than 360-unit coffeehouse franchises and has seen 43 new franchise agreements signed and 31 new stores opened so far this year.
“Currently, we have 361 stores open and around another 140 in development for a total of close to 500,” says Tony DiPiero, vice president of emerging market development for Biggby. “That 500 is a big deal because we have a goal to have 500 stores open by the end of 2024, and we still have a full 18 months to get those 140 that are in development through the pipeline.”
Twelve of the 43 franchise agreements signed are for developments in emerging markets, including Illinois, Idaho, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. One of the 27 new store openings is in Memphis, Tenn., marking the brand’s entry to Tennessee, and it’s already working on a second Tennessee location in Nashville.
“A competitive advantage of ours is offering an array of different store models,” says DiPiero. “We can go traditional — we can build an end cap location with a drive-thru, we’ll build a modular drive-thru-only shop and we can even do kiosks. We can get very creative with our prototypes, and that helps our owners cater their build-out to each unique community.”
The BCubed concept has been a driver of the brand’s flexibility and has seen success since its 2018 launch. Earlier this year, Biggby Coffee opened its 50th modular drive-thru location.
BCubed concepts are prefabricated and delivered to their designated locations to be assembled. Manufacturing takes around four weeks, and installation can take as little as six hours. With the model, franchise owners have infinite opportunities in terms of development options and can both shorten their development timeline and reduce costs.
With the help of the BCubed model, additional flexibility for franchise owners and an ever-growing demand for Biggby Coffee, DiPietro says the system also is on track to reach 1,000 stores opened by the end of 2028.
“Historically, we double in size every four to five years,” he says. “We’re looking to grow in every state that we’re currently in, and we use an area representative program to help us sell in certain states, as well as the support of our home office team to fill in where we don’t have area representatives.”
Biggby Coffee aims to sign a total of 100 franchise agreements this year as it continues to fill the pipeline, but development numbers are just one of many indicators the brand uses to evaluate its success.
Posted By: Detroit Free Presson July 25, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A Bill Gates-backed startup is eying land in Detroit near the demolished Southwestern High School as a possible location for a factory that would make energy-efficient windows and create hundreds of jobs.
Under one scenario, Dan Gilbert’s real estate firm, Bedrock, would construct a building that it would then lease to the startup, Ypsilanti-based LuxWall.
LuxWall is making preparations for high-volume production of its novel vacuum-insulated window glass. The company was started in 2016 and billionaire Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures is among its financial backers.
LuxWall plans to open its first production plant, Factory 1, in Litchfield Township in Hillsdale County, where it could employ up to 111 people, according to state development officials.
For its Factory 2, which development officials say could employ as many as 342 people, LuxWall is looking at various sites in Detroit, including Bedrock-owned land near the former Southwestern High School.
But LuxWall also is looking at Ohio and Indiana for Factory 2. The neighboring states are said to be dangling lower electricity rates and “attractive incentive proposals” to lure LuxWall.
The LuxWall jobs would pay an average wage of $1,653 per week plus benefits, which calculates to nearly $86,000 per year, according to state development documents.
On Tuesday, LuxWall CEO Scott Thomsen asked board members of the Michigan Strategic Fund in Lansing for a $6 million performance-based grant. Only if the company builds both factories in Michigan would it get all the grant money.
He said that one Detroit site LuxWall is considering is in southwest Detroit at Fort Street and Waterman that is owned by Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock firm. Since 2020, Bedrock has owned 37 acres in that general area, including the site of the old Southwestern High School and the former campus of defunct auto supplier Sakthi Automotive Group USA.
The former high school, 6921 W. Fort St., opened in 1921, closed in 2012 and was demolished early this year. LuxWall’s CEO didn’t say precisely where at the intersection Factory 2 might go.
“Bedrock would construct the building and then we would obviously lease the building from Bedrock, and then we will scale that building,” Thomsen told the board.
Representatives for Bedrock and LuxWall did not respond to Free Press inquiries for more details about the potential site or when LuxWall expects to make its decision for Factory 2. The area is near the future Gordie Howe International Bridge. A representative for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. said they could support a property tax abatement for LuxWall if the company ultimately chooses Detroit.
“We really love where the wage rates are at — very strong — especially relative to other manufacturing industries currently in the city,” David White, senior director for business development at the DEGC, told the Michigan Strategic Fund board.
LuxWall currently has 49 employees and is already producing some windows in Ypsilanti. The company is not yet cash-flow positive, its CEO said, but hopes to be by the third or fourth quarter of 2025. They plan to sell their windows to residential and commercial customers.
The Michigan Strategic Fund board voted unanimously to approve the $6 million grant. Factory 1 and Factory 2 could eventually produce up to 600,000 window units per year, according to state development documents.
Posted By: The Detroit News on July 25, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Oak Park-based electric commercial vehicle company Bollinger Motors Inc. has been awarded $3 million from the state in support of its plan to add up to 237 new jobs and invest $44 million in its Oak Park and Livonia facilities.
The Michigan Strategic Fund board approved a Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant for the company during its meeting Tuesday.
The board also approved grants for global automotive supplier Magna and vacuum insulated glass developer LuxWall Inc. for investments that will create several hundred jobs as well as amendments to the previously approved grants for battery parts manufacturer Gotion Inc., which plans a production facility in the Big Rapids area.
Bollinger, founded in 2015 in the Catskill Mountains of New York, revealed its first working electric truck prototype in 2017. The company then moved to Michigan, where it employs 70.
Jason Puscas, general counsel at Bollinger, said that through a partnership with Roush Industries in Livonia, the company is midway through its design validation prototypes and less than nine months away from startup production of its first vehicle.
The firm is preparing to start production of its first vehicle in the first half of 2024. The initial product will a Class A medium-duty chassis cab.
“These are traditionally used for lower-mileage, local route applications and we’re going be able to offer a variety of use cases for our region with body options such as flatbeds, boxes, buckets and refrigeration bodies,” Puscas said during the Tuesday meeting. “This is a market segment that does not currently have a solution in the EV space.”
Most of the capital investment will at the firm’s Livonia manufacturing location, according to an MEDC briefing memo. Some will be used to expand its corporate headquarters in Oak Park. The jobs created by the investment are expected to pay an average wage of $55.37 per hour plus benefits.
Puscas said they will be able to fulfill orders of up to 2,500 vehicles next year. He said he expects employment to grow from 70 to 300 by 2028.
The board also approved amendments to two previously approved grants for battery parts manufacturer Gotion that remove Big Rapids Charter Township from the project and extend the timeline by one year. The board also approved changes to the MSF Designated Renaissance Zone that would reduce the boundary and account for the changes to the project site.
In October, Gotion announced plans for a $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery parts facility on the outskirts of Big Rapids. The company later said it would focus its initial efforts solely in Green Township after Big Rapids Township requested a federal review of potential security risks associated with the Chinese-owned facility.
Gotion expects that during the next seven years, the project will create at least 2,350 new jobs and a projected investment of $2.36 billion by Dec. 31, 2031, to build and equip the battery material facilities, according to an MEDC briefing memo.
“The Michigan Strategic Fund’s unanimous approval today aligns with Gotion Inc.’s publicly stated decision in February to focus on our core area of development in Green Charter Township, which is part of Mecosta County and near the city of Big Rapids,” Chuck Thelen, vice president of Gotion Inc.-North American Manufacturing, said in a statement Tuesday.
“With the MSF’s important administrative vote, Gotion Inc. is now one more step closer to investing $2.36 billion into Mecosta County’s economy and creating more than 2,300 good-paying jobs for people living in every community throughout the region,” he said.
According to MEDC staff, the incentive amendment was needed “to appropriately address the restructuring of the project site that has taken place since MSF Board approval as well as minor delays.
“Though these were high level changes, and the project remains the same with regard to job creation and investment, an amendment request is needed to accurately reflect the changes,” MEDC staff wrote. “In addition to height restrictions associated with the airport in Big Rapids Charter Township, wetland impacts also changed the configuration of the site.”
The company plans to create a new battery campus at an industrial park in Green Township for the production of cathode and anode materials for battery cells.
According to the MEDC, Gotion and economic development agency The Right Place Inc. are working on acquiring land and have purchase agreements for the parcels needed for near-term development.
The board also approved Tuesday a $4.25 million Michigan Business Development Program grant for Magna Seating of America, Inc. for a project expected to create up to 532 new jobs and a capital investment of up to $105.1 million in Auburn Hills.
The global automotive supplier plans to construct a 280,000-square-foot facility and is considering Auburn Hills for the project, according to the MEDC. Nearly 90% of the facility will be manufacturing and the rest office space.
“While Magna remains committed to Michigan, incentive assistance is necessary to make the expansion in Michigan a competitive decision,” MEDC staff wrote.
Michigan has Magna’s largest U.S. footprint and serves as its corporate home. It operates 32 facilities in the state and employs more than 11,000 Michigan residents. According to an MEDC briefing memo, the company has also considered its facility in Tennessee. Mexico was also under consideration. The jobs created by the investment will pay an average wage of more than $958 per week plus benefits.
The board approved Tuesday a $6 million Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant for Ypsilanti-based LuxWall Inc. The company, which develops vacuum insulated glass, plans to create up to 453 jobs and make a capital investment of up to $165.67 million in Detroit and Litchfield Township in Hillsdale County.
LuxWall Inc. was founded in 2016 and develops vacuum insulated glass expected to reduce heating and cooling energy consumption by approximately 45%. The company has 49 employees in Michigan.
The company plans to renovate and rehabilitating two buildings totaling 216,000 square feet in Litchfield Township on the site of the former American Axle plant. The firm is also evaluating locations in Detroit for a second facility that would consist of 280,000 square feet. Among the potential Detroit locations is a site at Fort and Waterman streets, owned by Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock, said Scott Thomsen, chairman and CEO of LuxWall.
“Bedrock would construct the building and then we would obviously lease the building from Bedrock and then we will scale that building,” he said.
The Litchfield Township factory will allow the company to produce 200,000 energy efficient windows each year, while the second in Detroit would take that figure to 600,000 per year, officials said. Thomsen said the company is backed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, 2150 Ventures and Prelude Ventures. The project’s jobs are expected to pay an average wage of $1,653 per week plus benefits.
Posted By: The Detroit News on July 19, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
At the Marko Law office downtown, attorneys are settling into their new office space. The lobby is prepped to receive a Detroit-themed mural and a conference room awaits a Spanish woodworker’s large table top that will be delivered through a fourth-floor window.
The company moved this month from a space at 1300 Broadway to a corner office suite more than double the size at 220 W. Congress St. The owner of both buildings, Basco, customized the new 7,100-square-foot space for the firm. Other tenants include Tropical Smoothie Café and Venture X co-working space.
“We really wanted to stay in downtown Detroit but were completely out of space,” said attorney Jonathan Marko, the firm’s founder and principal. “It became a Frankenstein of sorts. Conference rooms were turned into new offices until we had no space left. We were even renting space from the tenants above us and below us, literally bursting at our seams.”
Some Metro Detroit owners are renovating their office buildings to attract and retain tenants at a time when there is low demand for office space following the COVID-19 pandemic, with many white-collar employees working remotely part-time or full-time. At the building on Congress, Basco exposed the original wood rafters and brick walls and installed new mechanicals, elevators and windows.
The timing worked out well for the firm, Marko said, because it was difficult and expensive to acquire a new office before COVID-19. Now potential tenants have their pick as companies move to hybrid work, downsize or stay put.
“It was absolute insanity getting any office space,” Marko said. “Prices were through the roof. And they were going like hotcakes everywhere. I mean, it was insane. It was insane at the time. The pandemic has changed that. There’s more inventory, a lot more inventory. Better pricing. You have room to negotiate. You did not have room to negotiate before the pandemic. It was like take it or leave it.”
Nevan Shokar, vice president with Basco, said that with the arrival of Marko Law, the building is 100% leased.
“Basco is proud to deliver a Class A, fully customized office solution, keeping our tenant within our family of properties,” he said.
‘Reluctance to relocate’
The real estate office market in Metro Detroit was slow at the start of the year, according to a first-quarter report by real estate firm Savills Detroit.
“As continued economic uncertainty prevailed and hybrid workplace strategies evolved, many occupiers extended the pause in real estate decision making, while some reevaluated the scope of their occupancy requirements,” the firm wrote. “Tenants showed reluctance to relocate, as evidenced by eight of the ten largest lease transactions this period involving tenants that stayed in place and restructured lease terms.”
The availability of office space rose 40 basis points from the 24.3% reported in the third quarter of 2022 and was up 160 basis points since the first quarter of 2022, Savills Detroit said. There has been a decline in asking rents, which are off 1.1% since last year. Sublease space was at all-time high of 2.5 million square feet.
A study of 63 North American downtowns by the University of Toronto ranked Detroit 36th in return to pre-pandemic activity, having recovered 57% of its 2019 traffic.
Some Detroit suburbs saw growth in office rental rates from a year ago, most notably the submarket that includes Bloomfield Township, West Bloomfield and Bloomfield Hills, with an increase of 14.9% to $27.73 per square foot. Birmingham and Ann Arbor remain strong markets for office space, said Greg Bockart, executive managing director for the Savills Detroit office.
“When people are reevaluating what they want post-pandemic, it’s amenities, walkability, reasons for people to come back to the office,” he said. “So they’re either looking for an investment into amenities within their own space or a building that has amenities or a walkable community like Birmingham, Ann Arbor, Royal Oak or Detroit.”
Companies are gravitating toward smaller work areas, said Jared Friedman, executive managing director of Friedman Real Estate.
“We don’t need as much office space as we used to,” he said. “And even … before COVID, we still had a lot of vacancy in our market. So it’s going to take many years to get rid of the excess supply in our market. And it’s going be costly and painful for some owners.”
Friedman said some buildings will need to be repurposed and those that can’t be reused will need to be torn down. The former Plante Moran building on Northwestern Highway in Southfield, for example, will become a self-storage container facility. The firm, which previously owned its long-time headquarters, moved to the Southfield Town Center in 2021.
Detroit sites get investment
Elia Group is banking on its location and amenities to draw office tenants at 511 Woodward in downtown Detroit. The firm purchased the long-vacant building in 2019 and has invested more than $20 million into its renovation, said RJ Wolney, chief investment officer for Elia Group, which also owns four eateries downtown, including PARC.
The building is 50% occupied, Wolney said, but his outlook is optimistic because of its location and features. In addition to having Capital One Cafe as a tenant, Elia Group is constructing and will operate an Asian restaurant called Zuzu on the first floor and a bar called Upstairs Bar on the second floor. The company is courting other potential tenants, mostly in professional services.
“They want to be working in a great location with a ton of things around them, amenities in the building or amenities around them,” he said. “And that building offers all of those things.
“I’d say the thesis and the idea of the acquisition pre-COVID in 2019 — all those same themes and elements we see as being even more important now today … being very well-located, quality experience and environment. Whether that be for retail and street level activation or office environment, the same necessities are there.”
Another office building that has received some investment is Detroit’s Fisher Building. The iconic Art Deco skyscraper on West Grand Boulevard recently got a new majority owner when Michigan State University signed an agreement to acquire a 79% stake in the building, a parking garage and two surface parking lots.
The New Center landmark will become home to a business start-up incubator founded by the MSU Research Foundation in a building where the occupancy rate most recently hovered between 65% and 70%. Peter Cummings, executive chairman and CEO of the Platform, the building’s part owner, has said he expects the move to increase occupancy.
New spaces on the way
An emerging question: How the office market will fare as new office space comes online with the addition of Bedrock’s Hudson’s site skyscraper and the District Detroit development? It depends, said Alex Calderone, managing director of the Calderone Advisory Group in Birmingham.
“Everything that I’ve seen suggests right now that from an office space perspective, Detroit has already been over-built before these new buildings come online,” he said. “To a large degree, whether or not the market can accommodate some of the new projects that are coming online without having to cannibalize from existing space is another question. A lot will just depend on where we go, economically. Where the road takes us.”
When asked if the new office buildings would have an impact on the Fisher Building, Cummings said that’s not a concern.
“The rent that is going to have to be secured to provide a return to those buildings is significantly higher,” he said. “Could be twice the rent we think we need to get at the Fisher Building. So I’m sure there will be more competition going forward over the next two to three years than there has been in the past two or three years, but that’s healthy in an environment of competition. New space creates excitement in the market, and I’m sure that they’ll do well in the central business district.”
The Hudson’s site will offer something that’s not already available in the market, said Brendan George, senior vice president with CBRE. It may cause a “flight to quality” or “flight to experience” among some companies and be strong enough to attract companies not already present in Michigan.
“The obvious one is Chicago,” he said. “It’s only a four- or five-hour drive away. And if you do have somebody looking for a headquarters-type building and maybe they don’t have all their employees yet, those are metrics that they could definitely be looking at. Looking at the labor analytics of what’s an example of a Chicago (building) versus a Detroit (building) and looking at that building and saying, you know, that the cost of occupancy there may be lower than what their options are in Chicago. So it is a high-enough-profile-type project that I absolutely think would get looks.”
Posted By: Commercial Property Executive on July 12, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Co-warehousing—or flexible warehousing—has risen as a practical solution for industrial users of all sizes, particularly for smaller ones. It serves as a way to both cut costs and provide answers to smaller companies that don’t have the resources to access Class A inventory in today’s highly competitive industrial market.
Demand for flexible space has always been there to some degree, Matt Wirth, senior managing director at JLL, told Commercial Property Executive. However, there’s never been a product type that satisfies the specific needs of users who want smaller spaces or facilities that could easily accommodate growth. The rise of e-commerce in the past couple of decades spurred expansions for small businesses, quickly accelerating demand for flexible industrial facilities.
Companies such as Saltbox—which provides flexible warehousing spaces—or Flexe—an omnichannel logistics provider—built their business models on supporting these needs, albeit in entirely different ways. Others have leveraged their existing structures to capitalize on this new trend. A year ago, Capstone Equities launched Portal Warehousing—a logistics platform for small e-commerce businesses, with a first location in Salt Lake City.
How can flexible warehousing help businesses thrive?
There are 33.2 million small businesses in the country, the latest data from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce shows. In e-commerce, nearly 95 percent of direct-to-consumer companies have a revenue of less than $5 million, according to Saltbox Co-Founder Maxwell Bonnie.
“At that scale, the operations become an opportunity cost to growth, resulting in companies stalling out at that size,” Bonnie said. “We aim to reduce that opportunity cost by making scaled up logistics infrastructure available earlier in a company’s growth.”
Co-warehousing gives small businesses a feeling of control over their fixed costs, providing them with the possibility to downsize or upsize based on their needs. Furthermore, they can do that while enjoying all the amenities that come with a modern co-warehousing facility. The intrinsic dynamic positioning of flexible warehouses allows users to take advantage of all the qualities the industrial sector benefits from, while also providing amenities that are usually found in office or retail spaces, according to Gridline Properties Partner & Senior Associate Mateo Romero.
“For example, a user could be a design firm that could use the space as an office and production area with a 3D printer, or a furniture company that has offices and a showroom area for its products,” Romero suggested.
Additionally, the flexible model can make supply chains more efficient for small businesses, which often do not have the resources or expertise to manage logistics without help, Wirth believes. These spaces can also create an incubator-type environment—similar to flexible office—which allows for collaboration and accelerates innovation, noted Wirth.
Saltbox, for example, provides spaces for users at various stages of growth, with a heavy emphasis on small- and medium-sized e-commerce clients. Suites in Saltbox warehouses typically range between 150 square feet to more than 1,000 square feet. At the company’s Arden Hills, Minn., location, small businesses can operate from private warehouse suites ranging from 70 to more than 1,000 square feet, depending on their needs. Moreover, all users have access to daily carrier pickups, loading docks, conference rooms and flex storage space.
“We believe that more small businesses can become big businesses if service providers can support them earlier in their growth,” Bonnie told CPE. “Our goal is to simplify the typical logistics challenges with human-centric services and community-focused workspaces,” he said.
Bonnie is convinced that it is not enough to simply build spaces that small businesses can operate in. The interior design and the amenities available need to make users and their employees want to work from these flexible spaces, ultimately contributing to improved retention rates for both Saltbox and its members.
Recently, some large enterprises also began to show interest in this niche product, Bobby Norwood, director of capital markets with JLL, noticed.
“It’s starting to show up as a solution for bigger users wanting to flex in/out of small footprints in many locations,” he said. “For those that are able to exit traditional leases, I believe it will be a boon for co-warehousing operators.”
Overcoming challenges
Building is expensive in today’s high interest rate environment, both from an industrial real estate valuation standpoint of retrofitting an older building, as well as from the cost of construction if building new, Wirth noted. Therefore, it is crucial to match existing supply with demand.
Flexe’s business is focused almost entirely on large enterprises. Through its proprietary platform, the company connects warehouse operators with users, providing scalability to the industrial and logistics market.
“Enterprises experienced unprecedented shifts in consumer buying patterns over the past two years—and they are still feeling the effects,” said Flexe Director of Logistics Strategy Jordan Lawrence. “Rising supply chain costs, inventory inefficiencies and inaccurate forecasts disrupt and pressure margins. So, it is critical that supply chain leaders manage existing resources efficiently and avoid long-term mismatches between inventory and available industrial space,” Lawrence added.
Markets that benefit the most from co-warehousing
After successfully closing on a $35 million Series B financing round, Saltbox opened new locations in markets that have vibrant small business communities to help them scale e-commerce operations in their early stages of growth.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul metro and the larger Ramsey County area are home to an abundance of growing small businesses and entrepreneurs, so opening the Arden Hills location was a priority for Saltbox. With its booming economy, Miami metro was also on the list of new locations for the company. Most recently, Saltbox entered the Phoenix market—its 12th location nationwide—with a 110,000-square-foot facility in Tempe, Ariz., which continues to play a pivotal role in the nation’s logistics infrastructure and has enjoyed a remarkable start-up growth, according to Bonnie.
Meanwhile, Flexe has been focusing on enterprise capacity solutions and providing logistics programs to expanding distribution and fulfillment businesses. Port markets are the most opportune locations for such an operation, according to Lawrence. “The eastern port markets offer great opportunities as shippers shift inbound strategies from the West Coast to the East Coast. This also creates a mismatch in warehouse capacity—particularly in markets like Norfolk, Va.,” he added.
Lawrence believes that these supply imbalances will likely offer good opportunities for both investors and operators in the coming years, particularly as reshoring and nearshoring efforts continue. Enterprises preparing for peak activity often need to expand in new markets, which is a costly action, but flexible solutions can ease this cost and give users room to meet demand spikes or test new markets.
Going forward, flexible warehousing will likely become its own subsector within the larger industrial market by providing an answer to a constant challenge: matching fixed, capital-intensive resources with volatile and unpredictable demand, Lawrence concluded.
Posted By: DBUSIENSS on July 20, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Loc Performance in Plymouth Township, a leading provider of military vehicle systems, today announced a significant expansion at its facility in Lapeer. The cost and size of the project was not disclosed.
Overall, the company provides track systems, mechanical systems, armor products, fabricated structures, and rubberized products for military, agricultural, and construction applications.
The new project in Lapeer, the company states, includes a major capital investment in new equipment and will add skilled jobs. The new resources will support Air Defense Systems for its key customer Raytheon, an RTX business, a leading supplier of defense technology.
“This expanded business with Raytheon at our Lapeer facility broadens the support Loc offers the U.S. Department of Defense,” says Jeff Hanson, vice president of manufacturing at Loc Performance. “Loc is proud to be a growing supplier in the defense sector, providing critical products for M1 Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), and now Raytheon.”
The new capital investment will include a 5-axis FPT bridge mill to support Raytheon. The bridge mill will provide flexibility and accuracy benefits, and it will strengthen Loc’s partnership with FPT as Loc prepares for further expected growth and the addition of several more 5-axis machines.
The new equipment is expected to be fully operational by the beginning of October. At full capacity, the new equipment will increase the Loc Lapeer 5-axis production machining by 20 percent. The expansion solidifies Loc’s commitment to the area as one of the largest defense employers in Lapeer.
“The whole Loc Lapeer team worked together to make this exciting opportunity happen for our facility,” says David Atkinson, plant manager at Loc Lapeer. “We are thrilled to be growing our partnership with Raytheon, supporting their advanced technology with our incredible workforce in Lapeer.”
Loc Performance has more than 1.7 million square feet of manufacturing space with facilities in Plymouth Township, Lansing, Lapeer, and St. Marys, Ohio, with around 1,000 employees.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on July 24, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Redevelopment plans are coming to fruition in Monroe at the former La-Z-Boy world headquarters site.
An Aldi grocery store, a five-unit strip center with a drive-through, and two six-unit residential buildings are planned for the 26-acre cleared site along Telegraph Road, said Mark Cochran, director of Economic and Community Development for the city of Monroe.
Furniture maker La-Z-Boy moved to its new headquarters in 2015 and sold the site for $1 to the city in 2019 when it was cleared for redevelopment.
The upcoming phase of building is slated to kick off late summer into early fall with the goal of having most of the work completed by early next year, the city said.
Two commercial buildings, one housing a Dairy Queen and another with a Chipotle and SVS Vision store, already have been built on the property. Mr. Cochran said a Five Guys hamburger restaurant is coming to the building with Chipotle and SVS Vision.
“The redevelopment of the former La-Z-Boy world headquarters on Telegraph is making incredible progress — and more development [is] on the way,” the city said in a Facebook post last week.
On Monday, Mr. Cochran said Monroe needs more market-rate apartments and that’s the plan for the former La-Z-Boy site. Squire Properties LLC of Wyandotte, Mich., is the developer of the buildings, he said.
La-Z-Boy was founded in Monroe in 1927 and had operated from its former headquarters for most of that time until moving in 2015 to a $66.4 million new headquarters one mile away.
Monroe Mayor Robert Clark said the mixed-use development fits with the city’s master plan and vision for redeveloping the Telegraph corridor through the city.
On the east side of the development, Huber Drive is being extended north from Elm Street eventually to Stewart Road so that residential and retail users can get access to the development as an alternative to busy Telegraph Road, he said.
The development also deserves its own name beyond being called the former La-Z-Boy headquarters site, Mr. Clark said.
“Eventually, we’ll find a new name,” he said.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on July 19, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Innovative Handling, an automation and materials-handling equipment maker, is planning a $2.4 million addition to its production complex and engineering offices in Sylvania.
The company has received a 75 percent, 10-year tax abatement on the assessed value of the addition and equipment as approved by the Lucas County Commissioners on Tuesday. It was approved as a Community Reinvestment Area Agreement, county documents said.
Innovative Handling is expanding to accommodate business growth, said founder and chief executive Nick Orzechowski. The company uses robotics to design and build automation systems for centralized packaging, load and unload systems, and custom materials-handling lines for customers.
Innovative Handling specializes in custom designing automation that allows customers to bag and package building and consumer products, said Mr. Orzechowski, who started the company in 2001. He said the company has a three-year backlog of orders, necessitating more space and employees. “We’re growing by leaps and bounds,” he said.
The company expects to add five jobs to a workforce of 26 full-time staff. It is seeking engineers, project manager, machine builders, and robot programmers, he said.
Construction commences this month for completion by January 2024, according to the company’s application to the Lucas County Department of Planning and Development.
The increase in employees is expected to result in about $200,000 of additional payroll to the current annual payroll of $432,793, the application noted.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on July 20, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Shape Corp. in Grand Haven, a global tier one supplier, says it has made advancements in the application of complex roll formed aluminum applications for the automotive industry that can help OEMs save time and money in automotive production.
In collaboration with Novelis in Atlanta, a provider of sustainable solutions in aluminum rolling and recycling, Shape now offers a portfolio of roll formed aluminum components, including rockers, battery tray crossmembers, roof bows, and other structural members.
Shape engineers have spent years working on a method of roll forming ultra-high-strength materials, along with researching and developing complex geometries that bring value to structural automotive components.
Shape’s new roll forming technology will use Novelis’ full automotive product line, including fully tempered high strength 6xxx series aluminum sheet alloys. Novelis has developed a variety of high-strength aluminum alloys including 6xxx series Advanz 6HS-, s615, -s625, and -s650 alloys, and the high-strength 7xxx series.
The alloys have been developed to facilitate full circularity as they can achieve high recycled content without loss of performance.
“Offering the ability to roll form complex shapes can be a game changer for automotive aluminum components,” says Brian Oxley, product manager for Shape. “By incorporating high strength 6xxx series aluminum provided by Novelis, we are able to optimize the roll forming process, allowing us to create complex shapes, tight bend radii, and ultimately, more efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective automotive components.
“This collaboration has opened new possibilities for the industry and reinforced Shape’s and Novelis’ position as leaders in material innovation.”
Simplifying the OEM assembly process, roll forming can replace alternative methods that require multiple stampings and time-consuming assembly operations. The roll forming process minimizes the need for secondary operations by forming in higher-strength tempers (maximizing weight savings) with passivation coatings, and with pre-pierced holes and fasteners applied in-line. Furthermore, the ability to reuse tooling for part length variation increases efficiency and reduces overall investment in production.
Roll formed aluminum compliments Shape’s capabilities in roll forming high strength steels and producing high strength, tight tolerance aluminum extrusions. This is especially true when the aluminum extrusion application demands thin, constant wall thickness with geometries suited for roll forming. With this strong portfolio, Shape is uniquely positioned to offer the optimal solution to our customers.
By using higher material strength levels, Shape engineers have developed a range of automotive applications that can offer customers the full potential of roll formed high-strength steel and aluminum. The collaboration with Novelis has allowed Shape to apply its experience in roll forming steel to developing complex roll formed automotive products made of high-strength aluminum sheet.
Posted By: woodtv.com on July 19, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
American Seating is one of those iconic names in Grand Rapids’ West Side manufacturing history. From concert halls to church pews to theaters, they did it all back in the day.
“We’ve been there in that very location 137 years. So there’s a lot of history, a lot of legacy there,” said American Seating Marketing boss Doug Oswald.
But the West Side is losing a little piece of history, as American Seating has announced they’re moving. The good news is the 137-year-old company is staying in Grand Rapids and will move into a renovated facility for its next generation of seat making.
Work is already underway on renovating the 210,000-square-foot headquarters and factory site on 40th near Eastern and 44th Street. Seven miles north and west sits the current headquarters and factory on Broadway between 7th and 11th Streets. But with the office on one block and the factory a long walk across the parking lot, there’s not a lot of opportunity for collaboration.
That will change with the company’s move to $8.6 million facility on the south side of town.
“The offices will be two stories. But it will be in close proximity to the factory production so that we can be efficient and accomplish what we need to,” said Oswald.
While the decision to move was an easy one, finding a place to move to wasn’t, especially with the company determined to stay in the city limits.
“That was a real challenge, especially with our goal to stay in Grand Rapids,” said Oswald.
“There’s very little green spaces available to create a new manufacturing location, and this kind of came up. We had other ideas but when this came up, we really went after it.”
While the company’s seating can be found all over, including many popular sports venues, these days, if you ride a train, trolley or city bus, there’s a good chance American Seating has built the place to park your seat. Transportation seating products have become the company’s stock and trade in the last few years. And business is good — the company is projecting big additions to its workforce in the near future.
“Having a new facility and new environment and so on will also add to our attraction for labor in general,” said Oswald.
As for the West Side site, American Seating will still own it. A local IT company is already set to take over part of the office building. The factory will remain up and running until American Seating has transferred everything to the new site, a process set to start at the end of the year.
“That West Side location has become more retail, residential. And really just not conducive to manufacturing,” said Oswald.
“We’re going to maintain that property and continue to work with the city and other influencers to make sure the right buyer ultimately goes in there. “
Posted By: The Detroit News on July 10, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Target Corp. intends to open a supply chain facility in Detroit on the site of the former Michigan State Fairgrounds in an area where a historic building recently was razed, the retailer confirmed Monday.
The facility will be approximately 180,000 square feet on property at 20250 Woodward Ave., a Target spokesman wrote in an email to The Detroit News. A sign at the site says the future facility will open in June 2024.
The Minneapolis-based company, which does not currently operate any stores in Detroit, provided no further information about the future building.
Not everyone is happy about the plan, though, because an historic building was recently demolished on the site close to where the Target distribution center will be located. The former Agricultural Building, 1120 W. State Fair, was one of three former state fairground buildings listed on the federal National Register of Historic Places.
“It is completely gone. It took them until last month to wrap it up,” said Frank Hammer, co-chair of the State Fairgrounds Development Coalition, referring to the demolition.
The coalition has opposed parts of the plan for the redevelopment of the 160-acre former state fairgrounds near Woodward Avenue and Eight Mile Road. The site was home to the state fair from 1849 to 2009.
Preservationists and others fought to save the three historic buildings after the city initially intended to raze the other two historic structures, the Hertel Coliseum and Dairy Cattle Barn. Those buildings are on part of the site now owned by the city of Detroit and where an indoor transit center is being built. Parts of the two historic buildings were saved after outcry from preservationists and others.
The former Agricultural Building is located on part of the 142 acres owned by Detroit-based Sterling Group and Dallas-based Hillwood Enterprises LP. Also on the site is a massive Amazon distribution center.
The developers did not return emails and phone calls from The News. The former Agricultural Building was razed without uproar because “so few knew about it,” Hammer said.
In 2004, the building became a Joe Dumars Fieldhouse and primarily was used as a place for pickup basketball games. The facility closed last year. The city approved a demolition permit for the former Agricultural Building in late April, according to city records.
Residents were told during a May 31 meeting with a city representative that the Agricultural Building was razed to make way for a Target distribution center, Hammer said.
“We were shown site plans. That distribution center lays right over where the fieldhouse used to be,” Hammer said.
City officials said future plans for site should be answered by the development group. Francis Grunow, a Detroiter active in various historic preservation efforts, was one of those who many lobbied to save the former state fairground buildings.
“It’s disappointing,” Grunow said. “There was so little public knowledge of the plan to demolish the building when clearly there is so much interest in saving them.”
Posted By: DBUSINESS on June 30, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The state of Michigan is working to develop a working prototype program known as the Mobility Charging Hub, which will help to enable companies to transition their commercial fleets to electric commercial vehicles (EVs).
Michigan will have access to $13 million in public funding to support the Mobility Charging Hub development and secure partnerships with companies seeking to test and implement solutions related to EV innovation, fleet management, and overall ease of travel. Initial project partners are Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) and DTE Energy.
The hub, to be located at an existing trucking facility in Redford near I-96, also will serve passenger vehicle charging. Charging infrastructure and slow charging times are among multiple challenges before the broad deployment of EVs is possible.
“We’re excited to partner with the state of Michigan and DTNA to put this site on a key highway corridor for commercial vehicles,” says Tony Tomczak, vice president of electric sales and marketing at DTE. “As DTE’s first venture into owning and operating EV chargers, we’re a proud leader in building publicly accessible EV charging for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, giving our fleet customers another reason to electrify.”
To help make this possible, Michigan’s Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, Michigan’s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification (OFME) is getting $8.5 million in federal funding support from a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant award to establish a grant program through the Mobility Charging Hub that will help fund future activations onsite.
As EVs become more commonplace across passenger and commercial transit alike, truck stops face a fundamental point of evolution to their existing service models. This challenge, however, represents an opportunity to unlock new revenue in the trucking space, create new jobs, as well as redesign urban, suburban, and rural spaces into more sustainable community assets.
Through the new Mobility Charging Hub, Michigan seeks to develop the partnerships, integrations, and business models necessary for accelerating the transition to EVs at scale, while informing a playbook replicable across truck stop locations nationwide.
The Mobility Charging Hub will tackle solutions development through several multi-phased initiatives. In the first phase, the core infrastructure to support EV charging at the site will be established as a foundation. DTE will operate the core infrastructure of the Mobility Charging Hub — including EV charging solutions, solar canopies, and battery energy storage systems, and will look to partner with third-party operators for value-added services.
After successful demonstrated usage and commercial viability in the first phase, OFME and its partners will work to enable the Mobility Charging Hub as a platform for testing innovation, similar to sites like the Detroit Smart Parking Lab, Michigan Central, and the FLITE program at Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids.
DTNA’s Redford facility is equipped with the necessary power, making it an ideal location for the Mobility Charging Hub, state officials note. The location sees more than 10,000 medium and heavy-duty commercial trucks travel daily across the state, or across the state’s borders into Canada.
Furthermore, Michigan accounts for 30 percent of all truck and rail freight between the United States and Canada, making Redford an ideal first location to concentrate on for this activation. In addition, DTNA’s existing workforce training programs for EVs can be expanded in the future to provide training programs related to agnostic EV charging infrastructure with the establishment of the Mobility Charging Hub.
Posted By: The Detroit News on June 26, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
During the fall, the owners of Lakeside Mall signed a deal with the city of Sterling Heights that would pave the way for the redevelopment of the 110-acre site into a mixed-use complex. Tenants at the mall are still wondering what’s in store for them during and after the transition.
“Things happen in life,” said Alex Habre, owner of Sparkles Jewelry. “I’m a very optimistic person, but the issue is the uncertainty for me.”
Lakeside Mall is among Metro Detroit malls undergoing transition amid a changing retail landscape, turbocharged by the enduring appeal of online shopping. Two others in Metro Detroit, Oakland Mall in Troy and Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn, are under new ownership.
Lakeside’s owner, Lionheart Capital, last fall said demolition could begin as early as the end of 2024, although the company has not provided a recent update on the timeline and plan that envisions incorporating some retail options amid planned multi-housing units and a city park. Meantime, Lakeside continues to operate, and the businesses want people to know they are still open.
“We are selling mostly right now — not the jewelry — we’re selling the story that the mall is going to be still for another year, year and a half,” Habre said. “We’re going to be relocating. We’re a family business. We’re going to be in business for some time.”
Lakeside Mall has said it plans to repurpose itself as mixed-use, demolishing most of the shopping center in favor of largely residential development. Oakland Mall plans to diversify its offerings, adding more dining and experience options to the mix. Multi-family residential development could be in the future for the mall’s underutilized parking lots.
This all comes at a time when malls nationally have seen some post-pandemic recovery, according to Coresight Research. Traffic at top-tier malls rose an average of 12% in 2022 compared to 2019, according to the firm, and traffic at non-top-tier malls was up 10%.
The country arguably is over-malled, said Robert Mihelich, a retail property expert at JLL Inc.: “There’s been de-malling that has happened over the years that’s been successful. Whereby they either have taken out the larger anchor and put in some smaller-box users, then turn it into more of a larger power center with outlots. That seems to be a trend that’s worked.
“Some of the other cases whereby they don’t feel that the shopping is going sustain anymore,” he added, “they’ll actually take the mall down and now repurpose the property for alternate uses, i.e., residential and/or even as far as turning it over to home headquarters for larger corporations.”
A long-term horizon
In November, the Sterling Heights City Council approved a memorandum of understanding with Lakeside OOTB Ventures LLC, an affiliate of mall owner Lionheart Capital, for a development expected to include residences, dining, retail, parks, a hotel and office space.
The plan for the Lakeside City Center is expected to bring more than 2,800 multi-family apartments, including 750 senior housing units. The development would include nearly 150,000 square feet of retail and dining, 60,000 square feet of office space, a 120-room hotel and a park. Macy’s and JCPenney are expected to remain on-site during and after construction.
At the time of the agreement, business operators, including Habre from Sparkles Jewelry, expressed the desire to be included in future retail plans at the site.
When contacted by The Detroit News, Lionheart Capital did not provide an update on its plan or timeline. Luke Bonner, senior economic development adviser for Sterling Heights, said Lionheart Capital has not yet submitted an official plan for the site.
This month, Sterling Heights City Council approved a resolution of intent to create a Lakeside Corridor Improvement Authority that would use bonds to help fund infrastructure improvements to a district surrounding and including the mall site. The council is expected to vote in August to formally adopt the improvement authority and its boundaries.
It could take several years for the redevelopment of Lakeside to come to fruition as the mall owners work through the ownership of various parcels and any restrictions on the site, Mihelich said.
“A project as big as they’re undertaking and looking at doing, I don’t see it happening personally for at least 12 to 24 months … ,” he said. “When we develop freestanding shopping centers or strip centers today, it’s a two-year build process. So something of this magnitude is going to take all of three to four years to five years to complete or really get off the ground.”
The mall owners could call in other developers to undertake projects on the site such as multifamily housing, senior living sites or medical facilities, Mihelich added: “They could bifurcate and spin it out to other developers and let them move ahead with it. I see some of that happening. That would probably help them launch quicker and faster.”
Changes at Oakland Mall
At Oakland Mall in Troy, new owner Mario Kiezi has been vocal about his plans to transform the mall. Kiezi, who purchased the mall in early 2022, has said he wants to add more dining and experience options.
Kiezi wanted to take the first year to learn about the property and engage the community. On social media, he frequently posts feedback from his viewers as well as accounts of his visits and interactions with customers at the mall.
The biggest launch for the mall so far is Choco Town, an immersive chocolate sensory experience. The limited attraction launched in March and was extended through mid-July due to demand. The attraction “has gone over very, very well,” Kiezi said. “I call it a case study for future entertainment to come.”
Hobby Lobby opened at the mall in January and several new eateries are planned, Kiezi said, including an Asian-inspired fluffy pancake restaurant and a second location for Seaviche Tacos and Bowls. Detroit 75 Kitchen plans to open a bricks-and-mortar location in the former Sears Auto Center.
Kiezi hopes to announce this year an electronics store that would open in 2025. There’s also potential for residential housing and a park on land surrounding the mall along John R and Interstate 75.
“I believe you’ll see a major change in DNA in late 2025,” he said. Occupancy at the mall is between 80% and 85%, and about 4.3 million people visited in 2022.
Oakland Mall has historically been a survivor, said Russ Long, partner and managing director with Bloomfield Hills-based financial and strategic advisory firm O’Keefe LLC: “Restaurants and experiences will allow Oakland Mall to continue to survive for the time being, but the pressures of online shopping will continue to plague all but the best shopping malls in the U.S.”
Chris Chong, owner of KC Jewelry at Oakland Mall, is taking a wait-and-see approach regarding changes at the shopping center. A tenant in the mall since 2007, he’s watched traffic decline, partly due to the economy and the end of COVID economic relief programs.
Previous mall owners weren’t as vocal as Kiezi about their plans, Chong said: “Of course, I support him as a tenant, but I’m staying neutral and see what he does.”
Retailers in limbo
Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn also is in transition, having had two owners in about a year. In spring last year, previous owner Centennial said it was planning mixed-use amenities. Since then, Kohan Retail Investment Group purchased the mall. CEO Mike Kohan did not respond to requests for an interview.
In Clinton Township, the Mall at Partridge Creek plugs along and appears to be held up by its dining options and movie theater. Owners of the mall, Starwood Capital Partners, did not respond to questions regarding the property.
For Candace Dallo, general manager of tailor shop Mr. Sam Tailor, Lakeside Mall is all she knows. She grew up there as her father operated the business in the mall for more than 35 years.
She frequently gets calls from customers wanting to confirm the shop’s location: “They call and ask if we’re still in here,” she said. “Most of the time, we still get to see customers that come all the time as opposed to like everybody else in the mall. I don’t think they’re busy.”
Habre said business for his jewelry store has been down about 50% since the owner signed an agreement with the city for the redevelopment. It particularly hurt the business during the Christmas season, he said.
“When the mall basically announced it’s going to be demolished completely for a new project, which is a pretty good project, actually, not a bad project, that’s when it started really going down,” he said.
Meanwhile, new businesses are still coming into the mall on shorter leases.
“That makes a world of sense,” Mihelich said. “In order for you to pay your bills, the cost of heat, air conditioning, the maintenance, the water. You have to pay those bills, too. … They have to do whatever they can to support it and hold it up during the transition period.”
Among the new businesses is Jalon’s Treats & Sweets. The company is moving from a food truck to a space in the former Mrs. Fields location, said owner Alonna Harris. When it’s time to leave the mall, Harris said she expects she’ll continue to operate a shop in the area.
Habre just wants clear answers on when he will have to relocate so he can plan. He’s considering a second location for the time being, adding that he’d like to come back to the site if there’s retail space available for him.
“We’re going to be in the area and keep serving the community,” he said. “Basically, that’s what it is. … We need timing. We need to know what’s going on.”
Posted By: The Detroit News on June 26, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Mayor Mike Duggan on Wednesday will introduce a new effort to turn vacant Detroit land into solar farms to power city buildings.
The initiative requires vacant land upwards of 20 acres — equivalent to 20 football fields — to house thousands of solar panels.
The city is looking for neighborhood and block clubs in areas with a lot of vacant land to partner with the city to put that vacant land to energy-producing use. In return, those neighborhoods will receive community benefits proposed by residents. Some examples of those benefits might include energy-efficient windows or rooftop solar panels.
The plan will only be offered to residents that want the solar panels in their neighborhood, said Erinn Harris, deputy director of the Department of Neighborhoods.
“This is for neighborhood groups that are constantly calling us, asking us about vacant land and illegal dumping. People that want to come together and invite us into their neighborhoods to have a conversation. This is not us going into neighborhoods and telling them it’s happening,” Harris said.
The initiative was sparked by a challenge from President Joe Biden to cities across the country to power their municipal buildings using solar.
Victory Development Group has closed on the last developable property in Grand Rapids’ Celebration Village, opening plans for a mixed-use project on the city’s northeast side with 240 apartments and 10,000 square feet of retail.
Victory Development Group closed on the 3-acre property located at 2160 Celebration Drive NE on Wednesday, clearing the way for the roughly $50 million project.
Celebration Village is anchored by the Celebration Cinema GR North movie theater. The area, commonly referred to as Knapp’s Corner, contains several major retailers and chain restaurants, including a Meijer store, Melting Pot, HopCat, IHOP, Panera Bread and ALDI.”
Article written by Kate Carlson. Click here to read the full article on Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on June 29, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
More than $2.7 million in Ohio historic tax credits will help revitalize three buildings in the downtown Toledo area, state officials announced Thursday.
The largest local tax credit award, worth $1.35 million, will help rehabilitate the remaining bays and civic auditorium that make up the Toledo City Market — also known as Erie Street Market — at 201 S. Erie St. and owned by IBC Properties.
The overall project, valued at $13.5 million, will convert the space into a dance studio, food hall, and culinary education center, according to the Ohio Department of Development and previous Blade reporting.
Another $1.1 million tax credit will go toward revitalizing a 40,000-square-foot building at 1301 Adams St. that has stood vacant since the early 2000s.
A former office and car dealership, the building is expected to be transformed into a mix of commercial spaces, including a brewpub, food hall, a small concert space, retail, and more, developer Andrew Newby told The Blade in 2022. The project’s estimated cost is $11.6 million.
A third Toledo project at 324 N. Erie St. in downtown was awarded a $250,000 tax credit. An almost $1.5 million project would redevelop the upper floors of the building into eight market-rate apartments over the existing first-floor barbershop.
Thursday’s awards for the Toledo projects were among 38 given out to 16 communities statewide totaling more than $50 million. It is the 30th round of funding from Ohio’s Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program. The tax credits are doled out twice per year.
“Many of these buildings were once home to the factories, shops, and offices that drove Ohio forward, and they still have a place in Ohio’s future,” Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement. “We are excited to help revive these historic structures so they can once again be a valuable part of their communities.”
Posted By: Toledo Blade on July 2, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Toledo postponed acting on a request that would help to fund a $5 million capital improvement project being proposed for the tired and largely vacant Swayne Field Plaza.
Toledo City Council was asked to approve a request to underwrite an $816,000 loan through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for that central Toledo project but put off until July 18 taking action on the issue.
The plaza, which is a 7.4-acre parcel near Detroit Avenue and Monroe Street west of downtown in the Englewood Revitalization Strategy Boundaries, hasn’t seen significant investment in decades. The proposal to renovate the plaza was discussed in June during a Toledo City Council Neighborhoods and Community Development meeting.
“It’s in a neighborhood where the market really has not worked, so we have cobbled together funding sources from a variety of places to do this very important project,” Rosalyn Clemens, director of the department of housing and community development, said at the meeting.
The privately owned shopping center was purchased in 1994 by John Kim for $1.4 million and in 1995 was transferred to the family corporation, Swayne Field Shopping Center, Inc.
If the city approves underwriting the federal loan, terms of the 20-year agreement stipulate that now property owner Un Young Chin of Temperance would be responsible for paying the annual debt service of $62,679 or about $5,000 per month. Should default happen, the city would take over the property and the responsibility for paying back the loan. The agreement falls in line with the section 108 loan guidelines and directives through HUD, Ms. Clemens said during the June 12 meeting.
“There’s more than enough loan to value to accommodate this debt. We believe this is a good investment,” Ms. Clemens said.
Ms. Chin, who also addressed the committee, said she is confident she can fulfill her debt obligation.
“It’s really a great opportunity. I’ve been thinking about upgrading the building, but it’s too much for me so I appreciate the cooperation of all of you. I’m really excited about this project,” Ms. Chin said.
While councilman Vanice Williams is pleased with proposed upgrades to the shopping plaza, which is located in her district, she voiced reservations about the loan obligation payment.
“My concern is the fact that it is a high debt service of almost $63,000 for the owner to pay a year when we don’t have a guarantee of who the renters will be,” she said.
In addition to the HUD loan, other funding sources to renovate the shopping center would include $1.5 million of earmarked federal community project dollars that were secured through U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s office; $1 million carryover in Community Development Block Grant funds from last year; and a $28,000 grant from the Toledo Community Foundation.
A $1.9 million Department of Energy Enhancement and Innovation Grant could also be administered to Neighborhood Housing Services of Toledo to fund the plaza renovation project. The money would be used to establish the Toledo Healthy Homes Training Center there. If the deal is approved — lease negotiations are under way — the training center would serve as a regional hub to provide training needs for the weatherization assistance program. The program offers energy efficiency training and other services to weatherization assistance program providers as well as local contractors used by the program, Ms. Clemens said.
Input for the renovation project has involved multiple community meetings and an online survey. If all of the funding comes together, phase one of the project, which could begin next spring, would include parking lot and facade improvements, infrastructure improvements, plumbing and electrical upgrades, fencing repair, landscape and streetscape improvements, and feature lighting.
Future development of the site also calls for a housing development on the side facing Monroe Street, Ms. Clemens said.
Posted By: mlive on June 24, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
In downtown Muskegon, an old bank building that has sat vacant is being transformed into a mixed-use space that includes a restaurant collective with diverse cuisines and boutique retailers. The plan for the six-floor building, located at 221 W. Webster Ave., is for it to become the new home to a restaurant collective called The Vault, along with boutiques, private business tenants and a variety of co-working spaces.
The 2021 redevelopment plan for the building, at the time vacant four years, called for offices, commercial space and apartments. Core Realty Partners is excited about the new plan and in the process of repurposing the space into a gathering spot, with the goal of keeping the old nostalgic flare of the former National Lumberman’s Bank of Muskegon, once the city’s oldest bank, constructed in 1962.
“The place has two big vaults in it, so we want to use that to kind of capitalize on the name,” said Troy Wasserman, co-partner at Core Realty Partners. “That’s where The Vault Food Collective came into play.”
The Vault concept will encompass the first floor of the building, where guests will be able to grab a drink from the bar and lounge in the common area equipped with a vapor fireplace or grab a bite to eat from four local food eateries.
There will be big and bright windows that align the entrance of the first floor, complementing the tall ceilings with a modern twist. Planned for the second floor are retail boutiques, which overlook the first floor in a wide-open mezzanine similar to the Grand Rapids Downtown Market. Floors 3 to 6 of the former bank would be home to Core Realty Partners, Core Commercial, Brickley DeLong’s headquarters and various co-working spaces.
“We want the retail spaces to be unique brands that kind of go with the uniqueness of the food court,” Wasserman said. “We’ve been quite selective of what goes in there because we’ve had a couple of people that have approached us.”
In addition to the six-floor complex, there will be an outdoor courtyard to the left of the building. By the fall, it would be transformed into a space to eat or drink outside while enjoying live entertainment. Core Realty Partners is also behind the vision of the Northtown 794 building in Muskegon, which is home to popular spots including 794 Kitchen & Bar, Aldea Coffee and Capone’s Speakeasy and Restaurant.
The idea was to mirror a similar inviting space that kept the community and local businesses interested, Wasserman said. John Essex, who is the primary partner on the project, echoed the sentiment of connecting restaurants and cafes that reflect the diverse community along the lakeshore.
“We’re trying to get more restaurants and food offers that represent the entire community so we that we’ve got an eclectic mix,” said Essex. “It’s not just going to be the burger crowd or the craft beer crowd.”
The next step for the realty commercial company is securing a liquor license so that patrons can browse the retail boutiques with a drink in-hand as well as walk outside to the courtyard. Available co-working spaces will be set to move into July 15. Completion of the new multi-use space is set for October 2023. To learn more about the unique space, visit coreplazamuskegon.com.
Posted By: Detroit Free Press on June 8, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A new horseracing facility planned near the southwest corner of Five Mile and Ridge roads is one step closer to becoming a reality.
The Plymouth Township Planning Commission unanimously approved at a special meeting June 1 a motion to send the site development plan to the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees for a final nod.
The board will review the final site plan and PUD contract, along with a community benefit agreement allowing public use of proposed soccer fields, pickleball courts and other amenities under specific guidelines.
Dubbed Northville Downs of Plymouth Township, the project is proposed on part of a 128-acre parcel near the southwest corner of Five Mile and Ridge roads. Plans include a half-mile oval harness racetrack, grandstand, racing building, horse barn and more.
Changes were made to building elevations since the May 3 meeting, when the planning commission sent the applicant back to the drawing board to make changes after commissioners said the building looked too industrial.
Township Planner Laura Haw said revised plans showed the building’s masonry component had been extended to the roofline along with the addition of windows and horizontal stone elements. Proposed signage was also added to the building.
Fire and emergency access issues, along with concerns over lighting, had also been corrected, Haw said.
Casino concerns
Throughout the approval process, residents have voiced concerns over the perceived potential for a future casino on the property.
A narrative provided by Northville Downs in January indicated an “anticipated future phase” of the project would include a 54,000-square-foot gaming facility, pending required legislative approval.
But Northville Downs owner John Carlo said in a phone call that the concept has been scrapped and no longer exists in the plan.
“What we were doing was setting the site up so that in the event that favorable legislation was passed in the state, the size and scope of what we would need would fit on the property,” Carlo said. “That was the intent, to say, ‘Will this fit if the legislation changes?’
“We’ve been trying to change the legislation for 25 years,” Carlo added, noting legislative changes are necessary before Northville Downs can implement practices used by the horseracing industry in surrounding states. “We’re going to continue to fight for it, but there’s no plans to build that 53,000-square-feet building, zero, whatsoever at this point.”
At the June 1 meeting, township attorney Kevin Bennett provided a summary of Michigan gambling laws, including the specific criteria under which a casino can operate.
“Both the Michigan Constitution and Initiated Law 1 of 1996 prohibit the operation of a casino in the Charter Township of Plymouth,” Bennett summarized, noting the law applies throughout the state. “The only way a casino would be authorized in the Charter Township of Plymouth is if it were approved in a statewide general election by both a majority of the voters in the state and a majority of voters in the Township.”
If an additional building is conceived for the project in the future, changes to the PUD agreement with Northville Downs would require the township and the applicant to start over at the beginning of the planning process, including a public hearing, Haw said.
Resident concerns
Like at each previous meeting, a stream of residents voiced various concerns about the project, including worry over road conditions in the area and the increase in traffic once the new facility opens.
Planning Commissioner Tim Boyd pointed out that a traffic study available on the township website indicates the facility will generate substantially less traffic than the eight buildings planned in the Ridge 5 industrial complex previously approved on the site. That plan was later abandoned by the developer.
“If you can believe (traffic study) numbers, and I’ll leave it up to you if you believe them, it generates about a tenth of the traffic those eight businesses would have generated,” Boyd said.
Residents spoke of other concerns, as well.
“More than the conditions of traffic, I wonder what we are doing to our community,” said Shirley Peters. “The ambiance of our community is being tainted by bring this racetrack to our community…I’m very concerned about the type of gambling that will occur.”
Plymouth Township resident Maryann Adams also took the podium and said she was not opposed to horseracing in general.
“You need a place to continue your livelihood and I’m not here to oppose what you do,” Adams said. “I am opposed to have this racetrack in my community. It is legitimate, but I don’t want it in my community.”
A representative from the nearby Oak Haven mobile home community submitted a letter outlining concerns that the project would negatively impact quality of life of residents and deter future residents.
Supervisor: ‘A very thorough process’
The plan will now return to the Plymouth Township Board of Trustees, which could potentially grant final approval. At a Feb. 23 meeting, Trustee Chuck Curmi urged a ‘no’ vote on the project, which moved ahead with a 6-1 vote.
Township Supervisor Kurt Heise said the project will not be on the board’s June 13 agenda, but it could be considered at the June 27 meeting. Although the planning commission has held two special meetings for the project, Heise said the township is not rushing the approval process.
“I think the desire is to have this as a standalone so we can be totally focused on that one issue, so we can really give it our, our due diligence in a special meeting setting,” Heise said. “And, we want to make sure that the public has the ability to speak at these events, which of course they always do.
“This has been and continues to be a very thorough process,” he added. “We are working very closely with the Northfield Downs development team, their engineer, their attorneys. They’re being thoroughly vetted under our local ordinances.
Heise also wanted to reiterate that there is no plan for a casino at the site.
“The most that they can ask for would be enhanced horse betting, with machines that would utilize this historical horse betting technology,” he said. “It’s something that’s well known within the industry.”
Posted By: Flint Beat on June 5, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Signature is proud to be a part of such an exceptional new development! For leasing information, contact Joe Hamway / Greg Hudas
New development began today at the former Buick City site on Flint’s north side.
The June 5, 2023, groundbreaking for the future “Flint Commerce Center” industrial park was overseen by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Congressman Dan Kildee, Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley, and other local officials and investors in the project.
The commerce center is being developed by Ashley Capital, a privately-held industrial real estate investment firm that has already transformed another former General Motors’ (GM) property in Livonia, Mich. into an Amazon distribution facility.
Ashley Capital closed on its first 20 acres of Buick City in March 2023 and has since been working with RACER Trust, the organization tasked with the site’s environmental clean up and sale, to acquire its roughly 330 remaining acres.
That transaction is expected to be finalized by the end of August 2023 according to a company press release.
When completed, the same release notes, the Flint Commerce Center is expected to generate a total investment of $300 million for up to 10 buildings and create 3.5 million-square-feet of space and as many as 3,000 jobs.
“We’ve made this massive investment because we think Flint is a good place to be, with an excellent partner in the City of Flint, strong workforce, great infrastructure, and ready access to expressways, rail, and abundant electricity,” said Susan Harvey, the senior vice president for Ashley Capital in a statement.
According to the firm’s documentation, the first building of the future commerce center should be ready for occupancy in the first quarter of 2024.
It will be located at 2300 North St. and feature 330,000 square-feet of space, ceilings with 32′ height clearance, 65 dock doors and 400 parking spaces.
As Flint Beat previously reported, Harvey said the cost for repurposing the Buick City brownfield will exceed traditional brownfield development costs due to concrete slabs, underground foundations and utilities that were left in place when the site’s former GM buildings were demolished.
The redevelopment effort has therefore been supported by approximately multiple investments outside of Ashley Capital, including $3.25 million from Flint’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, $2 million from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and $8.5 million from the State of Michigan Strategic Fund.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on June 9, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Tommy’s Boats is one step closer to opening a dealership, complemented by a four-level, glass-enclosed boat tower visible from I-75, just west of Joslyn Road and next to a Topgolf facility and close to Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, in Auburn Hills.
This week, the Auburn Hills Planning Commission approved the project 8-0, and now it will be considered by the City Council on June 19.
The development would include a 21,483-square-foot boat dealership sales and service building, the four-tier tower that would have internal lights at night, and an associated inventory storage parking lot. The nearly 5-acre site is zoned B-2 (general business district).
Tommy’s Boats, founded in Denver in 1981, today has 16 dealerships in multiple states, including Michigan locations in Waterford Township, Grand Rapids, and Walloon Lake. The dealerships offer new and pre-owned inventory, including craft from Bennington, Chaparral, Cobalt Boats, Malibu Boats, Manitou, Starcraft Marine, SunCatcher, Tahoe Pontoons, and more.
In addition, the company operates nine on-water rental programs throughout eight states, including Michigan, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Tennessee, and Texas.
Tommy’s Boats is believed to be the largest ski and wake dealer globally and one of the largest pontoon dealers in North America, supplying a full suite of boat repair services, rental services, and retail goods and apparel.
According to the planning commission, the “proposed development includes a building with a modern architectural design and enhanced landscaping that will help improve the appearance along Great Lakes Crossing Drive and the I-75 corridor.”
Tommy’s Boats is targeting a construction start date no later than May 1, 2024, with an anticipated opening by May 1, 2025. The proposed dealership is expected to employ between 20 and 30 people. The total investment is estimated at $6 million.
The mini tower will have a height of around 60 feet. The planning commission notes nighttime lighting will add a distinctive element to the project since it is adjacent to Topgolf Auburn Hills, which is heavily illuminated at night, and within the Great Lakes Crossing Outlets entertainment district.
The tower’s lighting system is arranged so that lights shine on every boat in the tower. Light trespass is minimized since the lights shine inward onto boats, and the use of color lighting in and on the display tower is prohibited.
If approved, the development would be the first standalone boat dealership in Auburn Hills. In addition, the development team will make a financial contribution to assist with the creation and maintenance of off-site public spaces and improvements to the future Auburn Hills Public Square project in downtown Auburn Hills.
In November 2022, the Auburn Hills City Council had approved a Carvana auto dealership at the Tommy’s Boats site, but since that time, Carvana notified the city of the withdrawal of their project.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on June 8, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Cameron Mitchell Restaurants today announced it will reopen the Big Rock Italian Chophouse at 245 S. Eton St. in Birmingham, set in the former Grand Trunk Western Railroad Depot, in the summer of 2024.
The project is a joint venture with Cameron Mitchell Restaurants and a number of local investor partners, including Tom Celani, founder and owner of Luna Entertainment in Novi, and Dario Bergamo, president and CEO of Globale Group, a sales and marketing group representing manufacturers in Warren, and a longtime automotive executive.
The $10 million investment in Big Rock Italian Chophouse will transform the landmark building into a signature restaurant to gather with family, friends, and business associates for all occasions.
The 11,000-square-foot fine-dining Italian chophouse will feature a curated menu of best-in-class prime steaks and chops, and a selection of handmade pastas, rich sauces, and a world-class wine list. Big Rock Italian Chophouse will also offer an extensive bourbon collection and a signature handcrafted cocktail menu.
“We’re thrilled to introduce Big Rock Italian Chophouse to Birmingham. Over the next year, our team will work to update and reintroduce this spectacular property,” says Cameron Mitchell, founder and CEO of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. “We consider southeast Michigan a second home market and are eagerly looking forward to the opening and success of another new concept in Birmingham.”
Throughout its 30-year history, Cameron Mitchell Restaurants has operated several restaurants in Michigan, including Cameron’s Steakhouse in Birmingham (now Mare Mediterranean) and Mitchell’s Fish Market in Livonia, Lansing, Rochester Hills, and Birmingham (the latter location is now Sidecar Slider Bar), which were sold to Ruth’s Hospitality in 2008.
Cameron Mitchell Restaurants’ sister-company, the Rusty Bucket Restaurant & Tavern, currently operates four locations in Bloomfield Hills, Northville, Park Place, and Bingham Farms. Most notably, Cameron Mitchell Restaurants introduced the first Ocean Prime in Troy 15 years ago, and has since opened 17 more across the country from New York to Beverly Hills, with the newest location opening June 21, 2023, in Las Vegas.
Big Rock Italian Chophouse will be designed by Chicago-based design firm, Knauer Inc. The property will seat approximately 375 guests, including more than 100 outdoor seats and will have three unique bars and multiple private dining rooms.
It will feature a private cigar club and terrace with an intimate setting for members to enjoy exclusive, specialty cigar offerings. Each space will invite a unique experience by mixing contemporary details into a classic setting to give a timeless feel.
Rich leather and wood details contrasted by dramatic overhead canopies will create a warm and comfortable ambiance throughout the establishment.
“As a Detroit native, it is exciting to partner with an organization like Cameron Mitchell Restaurants to create Big Rock Italian Chophouse,” says Celani. “From dining and drinking to enjoying a cigar with friends after a long day, this will be a premier destination for many years to come.”
Big Rock Italian Chophouse will include a private membership club experience featuring a collection of amenities unique to Birmingham. In addition to a personal concierge, guaranteed reservations at Big Rock Italian Chophouse, and preferred reservations at any Cameron Mitchell Restaurant nationwide (including Ocean Prime in Troy), members will have access to an exclusive lounge and separate cigar lounge with an intimate setting and access to luxury amenities and special events not available to the public.
“Our goal is to create a comfortable space that will bring people together, not just for a special occasion, but to enjoy each other’s company over a glass of wine, a great meal, or a cigar,” says Bergamo. “Tom and I have a deep-rooted understanding of the metro Detroit market, and we are excited to see the realization of our and Cameron Mitchell Restaurants’ vision.”
After operating as a train station, in 1984 the building was converted to Norman’s Eton Street Station by Norman and Bonnie LePage. Following a successful run, which included new offerings and a different name to Big Rock Chophouse, the couple closed the restaurant in December 2021.
Founded by Cameron Mitchell in 1993, Cameron Mitchell Restaurants operates 45 restaurants company-wide under 20 different concepts, with 23 restaurants located in Columbus, Ohio.
In addition, the national Ocean Prime concept has 17 locations in 14 states plus the District of Columbia, and in summer 2023, will open its 18th location and first one in Las Vegas on June 21, 2023.
The Rusty Bucket Restaurant & Tavern, a sister company of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, currently operates 22 locations in five states. For more information, visit www.cameronmitchell.com.
Luna Entertainment was founded by Celani in 2001 to oversee his existing gaming projects and continue to grow his presence in the gaming industry. Since that time, Luna expanded its reach in the gaming industry to include developing, financing, and owning casinos in Colorado, Nevada, California, and Oklahoma.
Luna also is engaged in the retail, real estate, and venture capital sectors, and its businesses include Harley-Davidson dealerships, a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership, and Celani Family Vineyards in Napa Valley. For more information, visit https://lunaent.com/.
Posted By: REjournals on June 7, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The property management business has evolved. There was a time when property management teams focused on making sure the snow was plowed, trash picked up and lights stayed on. Those are still important jobs. But today, property managers are equally focused on doing everything they can to provide tenants with the best possible experience.
This means scheduling on-site events such as barbecues, after-hours gatherings and lunch deliveries. It means providing amenities that will inspire workers to return to the office and building a community at the job that will keep workers coming back once they’ve left their home offices.
We spoke with Rob Pritz, portfolio manager at the Cincinnati office of Hiffman National about the evolving role of property managers. Here is what he had to say.
The commercial office sector is certainly in flux today. Does having a strong property management team in place help the owners of office buildings attract more tenants to their properties?
Rob Pritz: Companies have more options when it comes to finding office space than they’ve ever had before. Having a skilled property management team to handle efficiency, cleanliness and basic services is more important than it has ever been. But there’s another duty that has seeped into the property management world: managing tenant experiences. It’s about amenitizing the common areas of a building, providing the perks at work. Workers expect more when it comes to amenities and food service. It’s up to property management teams, then, to boost the appeal of an office building, whether that’s through providing amenities throughout the building or scheduling events and interactions. All of this has crept into the property management world. We are still providing day-to-day services, but we are also focusing on improving the experience for tenants.
This trend has gotten a lot of attention, but it started before the pandemic, right?
Pritz: It definitely did. Managing the tenant experience is now just one more thing to add to our utility belt. It is one more thing we offer to provide the best value for tenants and, therefore, the best value for the owner of the property.
There’s another thing that has been around for a long time but has become even more important for the office sector today: a mixed-use environment. I’ve been fortunate to have been involved in several mixed-use projects recently. These have much higher leasing and success rates than do other office properties. When you combine the amenities of the building and the amenities of the location, such as surrounding restaurants and retail offerings, you just have a more appealing and enticing destination. For property managers working these mixed-use spaces, it’s about activating the entire user experience.
The live/work/play aspect has been in play for several years. A lot of new projects are focusing on that mixed-use experience, that combination of office and retail. They have seen strong success.
We’ve seen that several suburbs are focusing on this mixed-use approach, combining office and retail, to create a walkable area for workers. Is this trend only getting stronger?
Pritz: It’s true in urban downtowns, too. When people are going to work, they need an experience that they can’t have at home. Everyone is in the amenities arms race. This started before COVID. Office owners need to provide the experiences that workers can’t get at home, everything from collaborating with other people to attending a happy hour, getting a coffee with coworkers or walking to a sporting event after work. If you feel like you are the only one in the office, if you’re stuck in a bland cube farm, you won’t want to go into work. But when you are walking around downtown or in a suburban downtown and you see activity and enthusiasm on the streets, that makes the experience of going into work different. You can’t have that at home.
That type of experience draws people back to their offices. The walkable experience is important, which is why mixed-use developments work so well. People want to stand up from their desks and take a short walk to get coffee or their lunch. They want to finish their work and meet for a happy hour with their friends.
What kind of amenities are important inside office buildings themselves? Are property management teams spending more time on providing and managing these amenities?
Pritz: The amenities arms race has been going on for years. That goes to the common spaces within the building. It’s about activating those spaces, having tenant events, creating a shared experience among the tenants. It’s about getting people back together, having them spend time together. In a mixed-use environment, property managers get into the management of retail and restaurants. It’s a collaborative and cross-branding type of experience.
Certain buildings have advantages. The rules of real estate haven’t changed: It’s about location, location, location. Places with better locations have better success. Places with more walkability have more success. If you are doing a new project, those are the things I’d prioritize, creating that mixed-use experience. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have success with older office buildings. You just have to bring the amenities to them.
It’s not necessarily about bringing in a ping-pong table. It’s about having a ping-pong table in a location where a lot of people gather. That way, everyone can be in on the game or watch it. You want to create areas in which people can gather, take a break and have their lunch. It’s about making those spaces warm and inviting. You don’t see as many old-school cube farms today. People are bringing those walls down. Today, you need to provide extensive indoor and outdoor landscaping to help create an inviting experience that makes workers feel happy to be in the office.
Do these in-building amenities make workers more productive?
Pritz: I can’t speak to that. But they do increase people’s enjoyment at work. I think that in-person work is important. I enjoy going to an office. But you must make people feel happy about being at work. You have to give them the amenities so that they want to be in the office more frequently.
What should building owners look for when hiring a property management team?
Pritz: The baseline operational items are still the most important. That has to be expected, that your property management team will make sure the building runs efficiently and smoothly. But strong property management teams will also handle the tenant build-outs, including the legal agreements that come with them. They will provide ideas for amenitizing the building. You need to decide what type of marketing your property management team will do to promote the image of the building and not just the leasing of the property. Does the property management team offer community management? What sort of social media platforms will the team use to promote the building?
Property management has changed. We’ve added tenant service to our repertoire. But base-level operations are still important. Being able to combine the tenant services and baseline operations work into one consistent deliverable is what makes for a strong property management team.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on June 11, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Almost two weeks after Bitwise laid off its entire work force, including about 15 employees in Toledo, it remains unclear what will become of its historic UpTown building, which recently underwent a $38 million overhaul.
ProMedica, which had partnered with the Fresno, Calif.-based tech firm on the project, isn’t providing details — including about its investment, the building’s ownership structure, or whether it expects to have a presence at the 1300 Jefferson Ave. building going forward. Spokesman Tausha Moore said late this week that ProMedica was still “re-evaluating the project.”
Publicly available lease and deed documents associated with the property show it’s owned by Toledo Innovation Center Landlord LLC, which lists Bitwise’s California headquarters as its address. The documents are signed by Bitwise’s former co-CEO Jake Soberal, who was fired by Bitwise’s board along with the company’s other leader Irma Olguin, Jr., last week.
Several local officials say the silver lining is that the project got finished before Bitwise’s financial implosion. They said they still hope the facility could serve as a tech-focused business incubator, just without Bitwise as the primary tenant. Bitwise had planned to eventually employ almost 400 people at the 100,000-square-foot building.
“I’m satisfied that we have a rehabbed building that’s beautiful,” Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken said this week, adding that county officials have offered their assistance to ProMedica in the hunt for possible tenants. The county spent $1 million of its federal American Rescue Plan Act funds on the project.
Mr. Gerken said he does not believe Bitwise will be making any more payments on the building, so it’s crucial that tenants can be found to start paying back the loans taken out for the project — including a combined $17.5 million in financing provided by the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority and the Development Finance Authority of Summit County.
John Szuch, chairman of the finance and development committee of the Toledo port authority’s board of directors, said the good news is there are still some funds leftover from construction that could be used for the building’s upkeep expenses and a few loan payments in the short term.
“It’s a very complicated capital stack,” Brandon Sehlhorst, the city of Toledo’s economic development director, said of the project’s financing. “There’s a lot of creditors involved in that project, and it’s going to take some time to unravel it.”
Officials acknowledged it won’t be easy to fill the building. Following the pandemic, Toledo has had an increasing amount of empty office space. The area’s office vacancy rate was 18 percent at the end of last year, according to the most recent Reichle Klein Group analysis.
Sam Zyndorf, managing partner of the commercial real estate firm Signature Associates in Toledo, said given the beauty of the remodeled building, a tenant can be enticed to move in eventually.
But he noted several big hurdles: The size of the empty space dwarfs what most local companies would need. Given the pricey remodel, a fairly high rent price will need to be charged. And recruiting an out-of-area tech firm to replace Bitwise will be difficult, considering the tech sector as a whole is slumping.
Lorraine Hotel, new apartments
Local leaders had pitched Bitwise and the remodeled Jefferson Center as the anchor of what they said could be an innovation and technology-focused UpTown revitalization. The district extends northwest from downtown, and its major thoroughfares include Adams and Monroe streets.
Toledo City Councilman Vanice Williams said the neighborhood “still has momentum” even without Bitwise coming, with its other existing vibrant areas that include the shops, bars, and restaurants along Adams.
“We can’t miss anything we didn’t have,” she said of the company.
She’s toured the remodeled building, and said she is convinced someone will want to rent it.
LeSean Shaw, the vice president of Bitwise Toledo before he was laid off, said in an email to Ms. Williams and other local leaders this week that he still hoped the building could be used for a similar purpose that Bitwise had in mind: training people from underserved communities technology skills that would help them get good-paying jobs.
“This is a moment in history, where we can be victims of the implosion of Bitwise Industries, or we can take advantage of the momentum that the company has created,” he wrote.
The Jefferson Center isn’t the only highly touted UpTown project that has stalled out in recent years. The nearby Lorraine Hotel, at 1117 Jefferson, has long been a candidate for a makeover, but it hasn’t yet materialized. Most recently a Cleveland-based group wanted to turn the vacant building back into a working hotel, complete with a café and rooftop lounge, but the firm later backed out.
There might be fresh hope for the old hotel, however. Rami Sebai, an associate adviser for SVN-Ascension Commercial Realty, said this week the building recently went under contract, and the out-of-town buyer appears to be interested in turning it into apartments. He declined to say who the developer is or what the price was, only that it was above $500,000.
In another part of the neighborhood, ProMedica and a Columbus developer, Windsor Cos., in 2020 had proposed a large apartment project on four acres across the street from Uptown Green Park. But there has been no publicly announced movement on the plan for about two years.
Ms. Moore said this week the project is still active, but “there is no definitive timeline for that project, as the developer is still in the process of finalizing the design.”
Marty Lahey, co-owner of Manhattan’s Pub ‘n Cheer on Adams, said that street has steadily added new businesses and developments in recent years, but other parts of the neighborhood have been slower to see signs of a rebirth.
A key for the neighborhood, he said, will be to figure out how to attract more housing developments, including on the many empty plots of land in the neighborhood, which would then be followed by additional retail.
“We still have a ways to go,” Mr. Lahey said.
‘Massive’ infrastructure overhaul
One game-changer for UpTown could come in the form of a massive grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The city unsuccessfully applied last year, and is trying again this year, for a $25 million grant which would help fund a more than $50 million overhaul of 38 city blocks over the course of six years.
The overhaul would include water and sewer upgrades, road work, new sidewalks, streetscape improvements, more trees, and a new TARTA mobility hub, according to the city’s application for the funds.
Mr. Sehlhorst said a central goal of the project would be to better connect UpTown with the Junction neighborhood, on the other side of I-75, including with a multi-use path. Much of the money would also go toward improving streets in Junction.
“In many ways, Junction and Uptown are poised for transformation,” the city’s application for the federal money stated. “However, fully capitalizing on this momentum — and, crucially, ensuring that all neighborhood residents have safety and equitable access to its benefits — will require a fundamental transformation of the area’s infrastructure.”
Mr. Sehlhorst said, if approved, it would be a “massive project” that would involve “essentially tearing up all of UpTown” over a six-year period starting in 2026. He said the city expects to hear back on whether it has secured the grant by June 28.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on June 8, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Taylor Automotive Family on Thursday announced the purchase of three properties in the Toledo area, including the former world headquarters of Dana Commercial Credit and ProMedica at 1801 Richards Rd. in Toledo.
The Richards Road campus totals more than nine acres and includes a 55,000-square-foot building and a stone bridge, which is a replica of a bridge at the Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters.
Taylor also purchased a 44,000-square-foot office building at 5855 Monroe St. in Sylvania and 61.7 acres of prime development land in Arrowhead Park in the Maumee area.
The sale price for the Richards Road property was listed at $3.75 million, and the Monroe Street property at $2.95 million. A price for the Arrowhead Park site was not immediately available.
“Although there are no specific current plans for these excellent properties, a thorough analysis will be conducted on how best to utilize these properties in a way that will help to further grow our tremendous greater Toledo community and enhance the lives of its wonderful people,” Taylor Automotive Family said in a statement.
The three sites join 14 other properties already owned by Taylor in Toledo, Sylvania, Perrysburg, Findlay, and Lima. The purchases are headed by Stephen D. Taylor, whose auto dealerships in the Toledo area date back nearly 44 years.
The Taylor dealerships are in Sylvania Township, Perrysburg, Findlay, and Lima, Ohio. Brands include Cadillac, Kia, Hyundai, and Genesis.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on June 6, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A state grant announced this week to offset infrastructure costs will support Toledo’s efforts to redevelop the former North Towne Square property into an industrial site.
JobsOhio has awarded the city a $1.5 million grant for the North Towne Roadway Project, which calls for the reconstruction of a 1.95-mile stretch of road that encompasses the proposed 70-acre industrial site. Toledo City Council reviewed the proposal at Tuesday’s agenda review for it June 13 meeting.
Brandon Sehlhorst, commissioner of economic development, has asked city council to authorize a grant agreement to accept the funds, which will offset the project’s overall $4.2 million cost.
The roads surrounding the property, near the intersection of Alexis and Telegraph roads, are “easily the worst roads in the city of Toledo” based on engineer standards, Mr. Sehlhorst said. Road reconstruction will involve shrinking the number of traffic lanes from five to three, with one lane each moving in each direction and one middle turn lane.
The project will also reconstruct the roads leading to the main thoroughfares of Alexis and Telegraph and North Detroit Avenue.
Work could begin in the next few months and be completed this year, he said.
“It really sets a new tone for that corridor, which is exactly what we wanted to do, and it’s absolutely essential that the roads get reconstructed,” Mr. Sehlhorst said before the meeting.
In 2011, the city acquired the property after the mall, which opened in 1980 and closed in 2005, fell into disrepair and was eventually demolished. In 2021, city officials formally announced that NorthPoint Development, a Kansas City-based firm with an office in Detroit, would serve as the site’s owner and developer.
“We would not have been successful in our pursuit of these funds without our partner NorthPoint Development,” Mr. Sehlhorst said.
The first 284,000-square-foot speculative building has been constructed at that site, which now puts the city “in another tranche of competition” to attract new companies, he said. Interest in the site is strong, and a potential tenant could be announced soon, he added.
“It’s less risky. The building is already built, so all these companies will have to do is [configure it] for their operations and then move in,” Mr. Sehlhorst said.
NorthPoint has committed to investing $100 million into the project. Having the road reconstructed is key in attracting business, Dave Weinbrecht, a development manager with NorthPoint, said Monday.
“We wouldn’t be able to attract anybody to that site, or at least any type of tenants that would be valuable to the community and the area, without having that road reconstructed,” Mr. Weinbrecht said.
Plans are under way to construct the second of three speculative buildings next year, as a strong labor force, expressway access, and the site’s proximity to auto manufacturing plants make it attractive to potential business, he said.
Posted By: woodtv.com on May 31, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A new multi-million dollar expansion project is now underway at Gerald R. Ford International Airport.
The $156 million rental car facility is the latest building to be added as significant investment continues to expand capacity and improve amenities.
The design of the building will be the first of its kind in the state. The airport held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday morning to officially mark the beginning of construction.
The new consolidated rent-a-car facility will be five stories and is planned to handle the growing demand projected for the next 20 years, according to Tory Richardson, the president and CEO of the Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority.
“Really for us it boiled down to building its own entire facility, all rental cars under one roof,” Richardson said. “It will be completely connected to the terminal so a seamless journey for the passenger.”
Moving rental cars from the existing parking garage will free up additional covered parking spaces. The new rental car building will replace the east parking lot. The airport also has future plans to expand overall available parking spaces.
The building will help with sustainability by reducing the miles needed to get the cars in place for customer pick up and for most servicing.
“We’ll be alleviating 90% of that by having the facility consolidating into one location here, thus removing about 600,000 miles of roadway travel each year and over 500,000 pounds of carbon emissions,” Richardson said.
Kent County is backing the bonds for the project, which will be paid back by the airport.
“This is the kind of investment that we like to see in our airport. It demonstrates the commitment to making sure that those people that use this facility have the best experience possible,” said Stan Stek, the chair of the Kent County Board of Commissioners.
Doug Small, the president and CEO of Experience Grand Rapids, said upgrading the capacity and efficiency of the airport benefits the local economy.
“A well-run airport with the amenities that people expect in other cities or cities twice our size … now are here and that’s gonna help us continue to attract more business to the community,” Small said.
The project will also ensure recreational travelers have better access to rental cars.
“The last study we did was 2021 and $900 million in economic impact that tourism brings to this community, that keeps small businesses in business, provides a great tax base,” Small said.
The construction phase is expected to be finished by the summer of 2025 and the building open to the public by the end of 2025.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on May 18, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Fifty years ago, downtown Detroit staked its economic revitalization to the Renaissance Center. It was a stretch project if ever there was one — a $357-million Hail Mary that Henry Ford II, then chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Co., called the key to forging “a viable, going, great city.”
Highlighted by a gleaming, 727-foot-high, 73-story cylindrical central skyscraper sheathed completely in glass, surrounded by four 39-story auxiliary towers with the promise of many more, and anchored beside the Detroit River, it was promised that the “RenCen” would single-handedly put the Motor City back on the map of metropolitan greatness.
Nowadays, there’s not nearly as much hype attached to a new development on the site of the former J.L. Hudson’s department store on lower Woodward Avenue. On the block that held the beloved but shuttered old emporium until it was imploded in 1998, Dan Gilbert is raising a building that will become the second-tallest skyscraper in Detroit — the exclamation point on a $1-billion, mixed-use megaproject that has taken five years to start and will consume another couple of years to finish.
It’s a bold signature on Gilbert’s nearly 15 years of pioneering — and highly successful — efforts to revive downtown Detroit. “Dan’s vision is very clear. He’s 100 percent focused on returning Detroit to its rightful position as a world-class city,” says Kofi Bonner, CEO of Bedrock, Gilbert’s real-estate arm. “He doesn’t talk about legacies. To him, it’s the journey. He’s very clear in his moonshot.”
The 45-floor skyscraper will be a luxury Edition hotel for up to 22 stories or so, “and above that, an elegant and lean tower that begins to scale back as it turns into residential,” Bonner says. “(There will be) about 89 or so units. The residences will be branded. Folks living there will have the ability to avail themselves of amenities of the hotel services, which will create an elevated experience for tenants. They’ll also have their own very exclusive amenities.”
Next door, an 11-story office building will have a huge atrium and what Bonner calls “an elegant rooftop anatomy.” Upscale stores will be sprinkled through the first floors of both buildings. A street-level plaza stretching from Woodward to Farmer Street between the two structures will provide pedestrians with easy access to stores and restaurants.
Even in terms of parking, the Hudson-site complex aims to be innovative: To squeeze in enough automobiles in a central business district that remains understandably transit-light and car dependent in the automotive capital of the world, Bedrock is considering “a mechanical parking system where you can put a car on top of a car,” Bonner says.
Gilbert’s tower initially was going to be as much as 900 feet, its cloud-borne apex easily eclipsing the top of the Renaissance Center. But lately, Bedrock has knocked the plan for the Hudson-site tower down to 685 feet, likely due to inflated construction costs and diminished expectations for the future of office real estate in Detroit.
Yet in a major way, Bedrock’s decision was a sign of the city’s progress. Not as much is dependent on that tower as the massive onus that was placed on the RenCen. Over the past decade, Gilbert, the late Mike Ilitch and his successors, and other entrepreneurs already have revived and solidified the lower Woodward core and beyond.
Indeed, new and refurbishment projects now are sprouting up all over town, feeding robust tendrils of revitalization that stretch horizontally — as well as vertically — from downtown to Corktown; from The District Detroit, where three sports stadiums offer nearly daily sports and entertainment, to Greektown; and from the Huntington Place to the Huntington Tower.
HELLO, DETROIT
There’s only one problem with the panoramic view of The District Detroit from the outdoor rooftop lounge at the apex of the new 21-story Huntington Tower at 2025 Woodward Ave.: You can’t quite see home plate at Comerica Park because it’s tucked right behind the right-field stands.
But this is a small nit to pick about a building that’s a pride of the bank, appreciated by employees, and coveted by fellow downtown tenants.
Ground was broken on the glass-clad building by Detroit’s Chemical Bank, which subsequently merged with Minneapolis-based TCF Bank in 2020. After Huntington acquired TCF in 2021 — a transaction that also resulted in another name change of the original Cobo Hall, to Huntington Place — Huntington completed the tower and designated it the commercial headquarters.
Huntington Chairman Gary Torgow dubbed it “the largest bank building built in Detroit’s history” at the tower’s grand opening in September. Originally, it was announced as a $104-million project.
“The main thing it did for us was to consolidate our staff,” says Eric Dietz, southeast Michigan president for the Columbus-based regional-banking leader. “We were pretty spread out.”
Floors 2 through 11 are devoted to parking, an unfortunate necessity in downtown’s tight market. Where Huntington Tower differentiates itself is in how the top nine floors ultimately were designed to accommodate a workforce of 750 people who are working full time or under a hybrid model that brings them in mainly in the middle of the week.
The open concept dominates, with many informal areas for collaboration, glass-walled meeting rooms, sprinklings of spaces for eating and taking breaks, lots of Huntington-brand green, and signage that repeats “Welcome” all over the place. There are some traditional cubicles, many of which are “hoteling” desks shared by staffers, but traditional “corner offices” are nowhere in sight.
The large meeting space on the 19th floor is a company favorite because it can hold up to 300 people and can be configured multiple ways.
“We’re getting a lot of activity in that room from Huntington groups (inside and) outside of Detroit who want to hold annual or quarterly meetings there,” Dietz says. “Nothing against Columbus, but Detroit is new and it’s a great place for colleagues to visit.”
Just one story up is a rooftop deck, a space designed for hosting multiple activities that can hold up to 360 people. Torgow said at the grand opening that it literally provides “a 50-yard-line view of Detroit.”
Ron Gantner, a real estate partner at the Plante Moran consulting firm in downtown Detroit, notes the roof services the fact that “people are interacting with the outside a lot more than in the past. A lot of older buildings (in Detroit) were closed off and shelled in. It’s, ‘How do I create something that’s unique and different than the office building I’m sealed in?’ Hopefully you’re enjoying the outside in some way nine months of the year. The Compuware building started that with an outside deck on the 15th floor.”
All of this adds up to a Huntington Tower that has become the envy of downtown, especially because the bank hasn’t opened it up to other tenants. “There’s a flight to quality in office space in Detroit now, so there was a demand from the outside, had there been space,” says Dave Miller, senior vice president of Signature Associates in Southfield. “But they’re not offering space.”
As Andy Gutman, president of the Farbman Group in Southfield, puts it, companies seeking office space “aren’t supposed to fall in love with a building. But this is a place that people want to (work in) and love to work (in). It’s another beautiful building that leads to a further resurgence of the city.”
And the initiatives keep coming. Late last year, the Ilitch family’s Olympia Development announced a new, $1.5-billion project that will bring housing, office, retail, and two hotels to 10 properties in The District Detroit, which covers 50 square blocks. The brownfield-remake effort is meant to fulfill a longstanding vision for creating vibrant neighborhoods around Little Caesar’s Arena, the sports and entertainment district that the owners of the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings, and the Fox Theatre, already had established.
“The vertical gets better when you create room for the vertical to breathe, with good public spaces and community gathering places,” says Andrew Cantor, president of Related Michigan, the real estate operation for billionaire Stephen Ross, a Michigan native since transplanted to New York City who is Olympia’s partner in the venture. “That’s something fundamental to our approach to this development.”
To be sure, the pandemic put a big dent in the evident economic progress of the city, flushing commuting office workers from downtown for many months and throwing their eventual return into question.
But “in general, the future of commercial real estate in Detroit is strong,” says Andy Gutman, CEO of Farbman, a local real estate management group. “Usually, Detroit is ground zero for distress. But that’s not the case. Look at cities like Chicago, with so many buildings teetering on the point of failure.”
Fifty years ago, Detroit was teetering at the edge of its own historical abyss, pushed there by a diaspora of residents to the suburbs that began in the early 1950s, then was fed by the 1967 riots, white flight, and the subsequent urban-suburban acrimony of the late 1960s. Among the scars of neglect and decay was a downtown riverfront populated mainly by three cement factories, industrial businesses, and warehouses.
An unprecedented corporate consortium led by Ford Motor Co. meant to change all of that. After abandoning initial plans to build a new sports stadium between Jefferson Avenue and the river, the 52 members of the Detroit Renaissance partnership that Henry Ford II had assembled decided to put up a 33-acre destination complex instead. The RenCen would offer 2 million square feet of office space, a 1,400-room Detroit Plaza hotel, and a 350,000-square-foot shopping center with retail shops, cafes, restaurants, banks, brokerage firms, theaters, private clubs, and a department store.
“Something quite remarkable is taking place, something unique in the history of cities,” intoned the narrator in a nine-minute RenCen promotional video that featured a jazz-funk version of “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” the classic composition that gained modern popularity as the theme song from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
Later, the narrator continues, “It’s the largest privately financed urban development in history (and) there will be nothing quite like it in all the world.”
Key would be an iconoclastic interior design by architect John Portman, whose modernist renditions in the Peachtree Center in Atlanta and the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco had helped revolutionize big public spaces. Experiencing the RenCen’s central tower would “touch and delight (y)our senses” and “take your breath away,” the video promised. “It may well be the architectural achievement of this decade.”
But instead of taking visitors’ breath away with its five levels of suspended walkways that crossed a six-story atrium, a reflecting pool, and a revolving cocktail island, the RenCen simply frustrated them. The central tower proved to be one of the most confusing structures in the world, to its tenants as well as visitors. A pedestrian commute from the top of one of the auxiliary towers to the top of the main one could take 15 minutes.
The huge, naked concrete buttresses that were central to Portman’s design also could seem to physically threaten passers-by, in many places providing just a few feet of clearance underneath, in the RenCen’s sharpest expression of brutalist architecture. And within the far-flung network of stores on the lower levels of the complex, shoppers simply got trapped by the loops of a maze that was basically unnavigable.
The stores were “supposed to be a savior against retail moving to the suburbs, but the shopping space” never took off, says Brendan Roney of the Detroit Historical Society. “It’s not like a mall — it’s not, go upstairs and around the corner to get some food. It’s not centralized like a mall is.”
Exasperating inside, the RenCen also proved to be intimidating outside. “It is a total environment, a town within a great city, linked by rail, waterway, superhighway, and air to the other cities of the world,” the promotional video said. The problem was that the complex wasn’t really linked to the rest of its own neighborhood. Many pedestrians didn’t dare try to cross multi-lane Jefferson Avenue, which empties traffic from highways on both the east and the west.
Another infamous feature was two concrete berms that designers placed directly in front of the RenCen facing Jefferson Avenue. They were meant to hide infrastructure such as HVAC equipment, and Henry Ford II reportedly was fastidious about trying to make them look pretty, with ivy covering the concrete. But unfortunately, it was quickly apparent that the berms were both an immense physical barrier as well as a psychological one that basically said, “Stay away!”
General Motors rescued the RenCen, purchasing it from an investor for the bargain basement price of $72 million in 1996 to serve as its new global headquarters, and moving corporate functions lock, stock, and barrel from the 1920s-vintage GM Building in the New Center area. In addition to revitalizing the complex as a center of commerce and tourism, the automaker fixed many of the RenCen’s obvious problems, including removing the berms, lightening spaces inside, and providing a plethora of new signage to help people get around the building.
GM also created the Wintergarden area, connecting the RenCen to the city’s new RiverWalk. Detroit’s riverfront was named Best Riverwalk in the Nation by USA Today in 2021 and 2022, topping better-known walks such as San Antonio’s. In turn, GM has invested $35 million into the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy’s efforts to expand and maintain the RiverWalk.
The RenCen “never has looked better,” says Dan Austin, a City of Detroit communications director, who’s also a maven of historic Detroit buildings. “But there’s only so much you can do with a building that’s built like a labyrinth.”
So, the RenCen’s relationship with the rest of the city was stuck in an uncomfortable equilibrium even as downtown, across Jefferson Avenue, was being reborn. Then the pandemic hit in 2020, immediately emptying GM’s workforce from the towers and keeping most white-collar employees away for more than a year. When GM tried to call them back last fall, internal opposition exploded, and a revolt was on. GM backed off the deadline for a “hybrid,” or part-time return to the office, delaying it until January.
Meanwhile, the RenCen has lost commitments from some of its other major tenants, most notably Blue Cross Blue Shield and Deloitte.
For its part, GM says, “Detroit is our headquarters and our home, and the Renaissance Center is a vital part of the downtown Detroit community. Right now, we’re focused on bringing our employees back to the office, which is an important step for our business and for the continued revitalization of the city. GM is committed to keeping the Renaissance Center in a Class A manner and will never deviate from that standard. Building management is actively canvassing for prospective tenants and offers competitive lease rates and flexible lease terms.”
BOTTOM’S UP
Tucked in among all the other changes to the Detroit skyscape is a $65-million mixed-use project in Greektown that would be notable simply for the fact that the 16-floor tower at Gratiot Avenue and Brush Street will bring new housing to the area for the first time in several decades, in the form of 153 luxury condominiums and apartments.
But what really makes The Exchange stand out is that it appears to be upside down. A construction technology pioneered by the builder, Barton Malow, enabled the Southfield-based contractor to assemble the top floors at ground level and then raise them into place.
Using a process Barton Malow calls LiftBuild — itself the basis for a startup the company acquired — the builder raised the 16th floor last year, and continued lifting and locking successive stories underneath it until, in early February, The Exchange consisted of 14 completed floors on top, around a core that stretches to the bottom, with the final floor lift scheduled by spring.
“LiftBuild is definitely a step in the right direction for the construction industry,” says Ryan Maibach, CEO of Barton Malow, which plans to celebrate a century in business in 2024. The company is involved in a number of other major endeavors, such as building Ford’s $5.8-billion BlueOval SK Battery Park in Kentucky and the Hudson’s development in downtown Detroit, but Maibach is excited about the Greektown project partly because he believes LiftBuild can help shave as much as 50 percent off the time required to build projects such as The Exchange.
Every tall building has a structural core, Maibach explains, “and then you typically build the skeleton around that. But this approach uses the core as a primary structural element and lifting mechanism, so we’re able to create manufacturing space at the base of the building. You see some terrific efficiencies in putting up the building. And because you’re relying on fairly constant and standardized engineering, we see the possibility for automating the design process, too.”
While the RenCen has been foundering, Gilbert has bought, rented, refurbished, and populated downtown office space with thousands of employees of his highly successful Rocket Mortgage and Rock Family of Cos., using his businesses as engines of economic revitalization and drawing in others in pursuit of the same goal. The Ilitch family has operated similarly.
And they weren’t investing for the best ROI. “A lot of that is driven by legacy,” says Ron Gantner, a real estate partner in the Plante Moran consulting firm in Detroit. “It would be hard if you had to do it with a third party and traditional development financial goals to hit. None of this would happen, especially with interest rates where they are now. It’s part of their legacy. They want to create an environment that, hopefully, they and their kids will see. Otherwise, they could go to a bank and buy CDs.”
Every office landlord in Detroit and the region, not just at the RenCen, is dealing with a powerful new dynamic in the wake of COVID-19: the work-from-home phenomenon, coupled with the demand by workers returning to the office, especially younger ones, not to come back to the same old cubicle with the requisite ping-pong table in the break room. “Real estate is part psychology,” Gantner says. “Look at the experiences that kids have in college dorms and classrooms, and technologies. Universities are spending billions of dollars to create that. Students come out of school and their expectation is that this is their amenity base at the office. There’s a lot of pressure on employers to attract top talent, to have open and collaborative work, and the coolness factor is what they’re looking for.”
Tectonic movements in the broader economy also are coming into play, especially the tens of thousands of recent layoffs by Amazon, Meta, Google, and other big digital-tech companies. For two decades before their current contraction, those giants’ ever-expanding hiring gave downtown-office developers across the country hope of landing one big fish that could financially justify their projects.
In Detroit right now, there also are cost pressures on Rocket Mortgage, thanks to fast-rising interest rates that have quelled the retail-mortgage business and prompted the company to offer buyouts to an undisclosed number of employees. Overall, the metro Detroit office-vacancy rate reached more than 26 percent in October, much higher than before COVID-19, according to Signature Associates in Southfield.
Yet, in fact, Cantor says, nationally there remains “strong demand for dynamic office space that’s modern, with inspired designs, large open spaces that allow people to gather and collaborate, and lots of amenities around so it becomes a live-work-play environment that a lot of tomorrow’s talent is seeking.”
The city’s latest tower projects have, of course, taken this well into account, including new space in The District Detroit such as the 20-story Huntington Tower that opened last year. And office landlords downtown and in the suburbs, for the most part, are continuing to invest in places that modern workers will enjoy, especially as more of them opt to live nearby in new and restored residential offerings.
Indeed, the finances behind office construction have changed as the general labor squeeze in Detroit and elsewhere has continued, even in the face of a rocky U.S. economy. “Real estate typically is 5 percent to 8 percent of a company’s expenses, while typically 60 percent is employees,” Gantner says. “What’s happening now is that companies believe they can spend maybe 10 percent to 15 percent more on real estate because it so impacts the 60 percent of their expenditures on labor.”
As Bonner puts it, “Companies are thinking, isn’t it a better strategy to retain the folks you have so that when you come out of this, you’re not behind the eight ball? From our point of view as a landlord to many companies in this situation, we say we’re going to create the best environment that we can for you, so recruiting is easier.”
Nevertheless, many occupants of the office towers in Detroit, and tenants of commercial real estate in the surrounding metro area, are facing a new round of decisions about their future.
“We see a mixed bag of what organizations are doing when their leases are running out,” Gutman says. “Some are kicking the can down the road while figuring it out, leasing for another year, and some are reducing space. And some are returning to the office while not actually going back. Some buildings will come off market as some convert to mixed-use developments, and others will fill back up over time as the economy strengthens.”
One option is remaking vacant offices into residences. “There’s so much office space that we’ll see conversions of suitable buildings to apartments,” says John Boyd, founding principal of Signature Associates. “The apartment market is very strong. They’ve been selling at record numbers.”
As it stands, the Hudson-site tower isn’t going to be an office complex, per se, but a prestigious, high-rise residence with an attached, smaller office building. “It’s perfect for what’s desired and needed right now,” Gutman says. “The office portion of the Hudson site may fluctuate, but other uses may make up for that, and it will be a cornerstone development for the city.”
Then why did Bedrock shave so many stories off the planned tower? “The reason the height was scaled back had everything to do with uses — functionality in those spaces — and not so much a function of cost,” Bonner says. “Now the envelope fits the uses and scale.”
Down on the ground, the cityscape of Detroit gets more varied and interesting every day. The development of apartments and condos in and around The District Detroit is picking up, connecting gentrification in the arena district to neighborhoods to the north. An envisioned capping of I-75 on either side of Woodward will encourage even more organic growth, much like portions I-696 in Oak Park were covered over to create park space for nearby residents.
What the Ilitches and Ross announced “validates the district,” says Eric Dietz, president of the southeast Michigan region of Huntington Bank. “It’s been slow in getting momentum because of COVID-19, but we all know their commitment to continue their vision of the area.”
Confirms Cantor, “We think there’s an opportunity because of the scale of The District Detroit, and because of the (government) requirements of the transformational brownfield (incentive) program to think at scale, to be able to move a lot of projects forward in a short period of time, and to do so in a way to create active, engaging streetfronts, walkable districts, and nodes that are vibrant and fun.”
Broadly, real estate pros say the administration of Mayor Mike Duggan has been making the downtown-development process ever easier, with government services the best they’ve seen. “What happens in Detroit, separate from many cities, is the incredible partnership between members of the private sector, not-for-profit entities that are supportive of the urban infrastructure, and the public sector,” Bonner says. “That’s what has set Detroit apart, plus the urgency and intensity of the efforts.”
In any event, downtown Detroit now spells opportunity to a new generation of economic actors across the country and around the world. “One thing that’s unique about Detroit is that you can make an impact on Detroit,” Gantner says. “Companies can go to New York City or Chicago or Boston and be a headline for a day, but in Detroit they can really move the needle on the city’s success and opportunities for its citizens. That’s something that can be important for a corporate citizen.”
Of course, much of the rest of Detroit remains a challenge: There are 139 square miles, enough to fit the footprints of Boston, San Francisco, and Manhattan inside, but only north of 600,000 people and no pockets of densification outside the central business district. “You have four acres of some neighborhoods where only 10 people live and you have to service them,” Gantner notes.
Yet, these days, Austin says, people are fixing up mansions in the historic Boston-Edison historic district in the center of the city and on “blocks and blocks west of the Lodge Freeway on Atkinson. That’s what you need. The city can’t survive on downtown alone. It needs the neighborhoods to thrive.”
Over it all will loom the fates of the Hudson-site tower and the Renaissance Center. “The vertical and horizontal journeys,” Cantor says, “are how you bring everyone along.”
Posted By: The Detroit News on May 29, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Oakland County has proposed a downtown redevelopment partnership with the city of Pontiac that would move several county operations and as many as 600 employees from the current Oakland County campus of 45 buildings in northwest Pontiac and eastern Waterford Township to downtown Pontiac, the traditional seat of county government.
Pontiac’s Phoenix Center amphitheater, which sits atop a three-story parking garage and hasn’t hosted a show since Wiz Khalifa and Big Sean’s performance in August 2011, would be torn down as part of the project.
The county Board of Commissioners has authorized the county government to enter an agreement to purchase 10-12 acres in downtown Pontiac for $19.2 million. The properties include Ottawa Tower at 5111 Woodward Avenue, a former General Motors building at 31 E. Judson, the lease for the Phoenix Center parking garage and four adjacent parcels of land.
Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel said he is thrilled that the county is interested in investing in downtown and called it a “transformative” project.
“By bringing hundreds of employees from the existing county campus into the heart of our downtown, it will increase foot traffic, provide additional customers and patrons for downtown establishments and really be a catalyst to rejuvenate our downtown,” Greimel said.
The project will focus on the southern portion of the Woodward loop in downtown Pontiac between Orchard Lake Road and Judson Street. It would incorporate the Michigan Department of Transportation’s planned reconfiguration of the Woodward Loop in 2025 and connect Saginaw Street with the rest of downtown Pontiac.
“If you’re in restaurants and your stores are going to be successful, they need foot traffic,” County Executive David Coulter said. “Pontiac is our county seat and has, I think, a tremendous amount of not just potential … , but I think this could be a catalyst for even spurring more private development, other public development and the like.”
Pontiac has experienced disinvestment for decades by Oakland County and companies like General Motors Co., Coulter said. Auto industry job losses following the Great Recession hit Pontiac hard and left the city in millions of dollars of debt and led to the state’s appointment of an emergency manager because of a financial emergency, although it has since begun to attract new development.
The county government’s last significant presence in downtown Pontiac was the courthouse, which moved to the western limits of the city in the 1960s.
Dan McGowan, managing partner at Oak House Deli on Saginaw Street in downtown Pontiac, said he wants more foot traffic, and reimagining the Phoenix Center can only be good for downtown.
“We’re very excited is that there’s an emphasis on bringing the county back,” McGowan said. “We want more foot traffic, we want to sell more sandwiches during the day.”
McGowan also runs the Crofoot Ballroom, an event venue and music-promoting business. He promoted Wiz Khalifa and Big Sean’s final performance at the Phoenix Center and said he has mixed feelings about tearing it down.
“I hope that part of the plan is reimagining a public space within their plans,” McGowan said. “Tear the structure down, sounds great, but Pontiac for many, many years has been an event destination. … This is a unique city that has a concentration of music venues and both active and dormant, that deserve to be reinvigorated.”
The Phoenix Center parking garage and amphitheater divide Saginaw Street into two noncontinuous sections, creating a “black hole” in the city center, he said. Dustin McClellan, founder and CEO of the Pontiac Community Foundation, hopes the county will reconnect them if the project goes through.
“Tearing down the Phoenix Center parking garage and amphitheater will allow the opportunity for Saginaw to be reconnected and reopened which could be really great,” McClellan said. “As long as the county, as they’re making this movement, puts the focus on opportunity for Pontiac businesses and Pontiac residents, I think it can be a catalytic investment for downtown.”
Under the purchase agreement, the county has a 60-day due diligence period to evaluate the property during which the government can withdraw at any time.
Oakland County will need assistance to fund the project, Coulter said. As state legislators finalize the budget for the next fiscal year, county officials are working with them and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration to get money to help with property acquisition, renovation and relocation costs as well as blight removal, streetscaping, greenspace and parking development, he said.
“Literally up in Lansing right now they’re talking to budget priorities up there and we’re hoping to get funds from Lansing,” Coulter said. “It’s not a done deal, we’re still working on it. I don’t know what the odds are at this point. But we are optimistic that Lansing will be supportive.”
The county is also prepared to invest funds from the federal American Rescue Plan Act and capital improvement funds into the project.
Posted By: The Detroit News on May 25, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The failure of several large lenders earlier this year and the banking turmoil that followed have fueled worries for owners of office space such as Boston Properties and Vornado Realty Trust.
The sharp runup in interest rates by the Federal Reserve over the past year and a slowing economy had already set the stage for office building owners and other commercial real estate companies to have a harder time refinance their debt. Then the bank failures, starting with the mid-March collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, rattled the banking industry, which has since tightened its lending standards.
Unlike apartments, industrial buildings and other commercial property sectors, office space has been plagued by rising vacancies since the pandemic popularized working from home.
Falling demand for office space could lead to declining property values, which also makes it harder for owners to refinance. That could drive up loan losses for banks and further limit lending in healthier areas of the commercial real estate market.
“That’s one of the fears or risks here, that if office really gets hit so hard, it can end up bleeding its way into the other sectors,” said Thomas LaSalvia, director of economic research at Moody’s Analytics.
In the first quarter, the vacancy rate for office properties across the nation’s 50 biggest metropolitan areas was 19.1%, the highest rate since 1991, according to Moody’s Analytics.
It’s common for commercial real estate owners to refinance loans on their properties every few years, as it helps free up cash to make improvements or expand their portfolio. As the value of a commercial property increases, usually via strong occupancy rates and rising rents that generate income for the owner, the terms they’ll get to refinance the loan on the property tend to become more favorable.
However, the reverse is also true. For example, as vacancies rise, less rental income comes in, and that could make the property a riskier bet for a lender, who could then charge more to refinance or even refuse to do so altogether.
Almost $1.4 trillion of commercial mortgages are set to mature over the next two years, according to Moody’s. Among office properties, roughly $1.2 billion in loans were scheduled to mature between January and April, but 61%, or $701.3 million, went unpaid, the firm said. Another $7.8 billion in loans are set to be paid off by the end of the year.
Investors have sought shelter from the office space woes this year. The office property segment of the FTSE Nareit Equity REITs Index, which includes virtually all REITs, is down roughly 24% this year. Boston Properties has fallen 28.5% and Vornado is down 35.8%. Meanwhile the benchmark S&P 500 index is up about 7%.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on May 22, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Silverman Cos., a multi-faceted real estate development company in Bloomfield Hills, has gained final approvals to bring forward, with multiple partners, Waldon Village in Independence Township and Baldwin Village in Orion Township.
Together, both mixed-use projects, which are set, respectively, in some of the last desirable locations in north Oakland County, will offer new residential, retail, and restaurant offerings. Each project is valued at $250 million.
“We’ve assembled the best developers, builders, commercial users, and operators in the country and are quickly moving forward with two great neighborhoods that represent a half billion dollars in investment into our area,” says Jim Eppink, director of planning for Silverman Cos.
“In both Independence Township and Orion Township, these locations are right in the heart of activity and growth. We spent years getting the necessary zoning changes, we waited as the respective townships made their road improvements, and these are the last large acreage parcels (each about 70 acres) left.
“I would add both townships, along with Oakland County and various agencies, were terrific to work with. They wanted nothing but the best for their communities, and we worked very hard to meet all of their requirements, as did our partners.”
Eppink, who also is president of J Eppink Partners in Clarkston, a standalone urban design studio owned by Silverman Cos., adds the developer took its time in selecting the right partners for the two projects.
Details of the two properties include:
Waldon Village: Pulte Homes (Troy), Meijer (Grand Rapids), and The Verus Group (Birmingham) join to develop a 68-acre, mixed-use development located on Waldon Road in Independence Township, just west of Sashabaw and I-75. Waldon Village has four interconnected neighborhoods and a large central park including:
Brookfield at Waldon Village: 48 single family homes (Pulte Homes of Michigan) – currently under construction. Walkable to the Village of Clarkston and Clarkston High School
The Towns at Waldon Village: 132 Townhomes (Pulte Homes of Michigan). Currently under construction. Internal parks, open space, and unique architecture.
The Park Villas at Waldon Village: 79 detached single family condominium homes (Pulte Homes of Michigan). Construction to start this summer.
Waldon Village shops:
The Waldon Village Market (a 45,000-square-foot Meijer Village Market) Construction to start this summer. A new neighborhood market concept from Meijer that focuses on fresh groceries, locally sourced produce, and an active outdoor market and café area.
Additional Waldon Village restaurants and retail are currently being finalized. (The Verus Group)
Waldon Village Park: A six-acre park that maintains the natural topography and mature trees within the area and will include trails and open space.
The mixed-use neighborhoods focus on walkability, architecture, commercial uses, outdoor spaces, and connections to the existing neighborhoods within Independence Township and a short bike ride to the restaurants and shops on Main Street in the Village of Clarkston.
Baldwin Village: Moceri Cos. (Auburn Hills), SR Jacobson Development (Bingham Farms), Edward Rose & Sons (Bloomfield Hills), and Alrig USA (Bingham Farms) team to develop a 63-acre mixed-use village located on the west side of Baldwin Road, north of Mogan Road and less than a half mile north of the Baldwin/I-75 interchange.
Baldwin Village is now fully approved by Orion Township and currently is completing final engineering and permitting prior to the start of construction this fall. Like Waldon Village, Baldwin Village is comprised of four interconnected neighborhoods and the preservation of a large natural woodlot and ecological area in the center of the neighborhoods.
A combined team of Moceri Cos., SR Jacobson Development, and Edward Rose & Sons lead the three residential villages. Alrig USA is the commercial developer who will bring restaurant, retail, and grocery uses to the Village. The neighbors include:
Uptown Village: 304 for-lease residences with a central clubhouse and pool
North Village: 79 townhomes, open space, and a central neighborhood green
South Village: 82 townhomes. Interconnected trails, walks, and dense landscape
The Plaza at Baldwin Village: 78,000 square feet of retail and restaurants including Chick-fil-A, two multi-tenant restaurant / retail buildings, and a neighborhood market grocery. The commercial area will have outdoor patios, plazas, architectural highlights, and a robust landscape. The entire neighborhood is walkable, and includes pocket parks, trails, and natural areas.
Posted By: CoStar on May 25, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Popular membership warehouse club Costco has acquired land at the former Northland Mall site in Southfield, Michigan, where it plans to open its first Costco Business Center in the state.
The Washington-based retailer paid $6.5 million to acquire a 13.38-acre parcel at the corner of Northland Drive and Northwestern Highway. The deal comes out to nearly $486,000 per acre.
There, the company plans to build a Costco Business Center, a supersized version of the chain’s typical warehouses that cater to small businesses, including restaurants, caterers, wedding planners, event organizers and convenience stores.
Items sold in these stores include office furniture, professional restaurant equipment, tables and tablecloths for events, custodial equipment and cash registers, in addition to bulk food and drink items.
Unlike its standard stories, Costco Business Centers typically don’t have optical or hearing aid centers, delis, bakeries or pharmacies. The company operates roughly two dozen Costco Business Centers across the country.
The 160,000-square-foot Costco Business Center will be developed as part of Northland City Center, the redevelopment of the 100-acre Northland Mall site designed to include office, retail, medical and multifamily space.
Friedman Real Estate, which brokered the deal and confirmed the sale via a press release, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the timeline of the project.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on May 23, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), the leading trade association representing North American recreational boat, marine engine, and accessory manufacturers, today announced the growing economic impact of the recreational boating industry across the United States.
The 2023 NMMA study reveals recreational boating saw a 36 percent increase in annual economic activity to $230 billion in 2023 from 2018’s $170 billion, and a 14 percent jump in recreational marine industry-related jobs to 812,000 in 2023 from 691,000 in 2018.
The leap comes on the heels of record growth in recreational boating between 2020 and 2022 as Americans increasingly prioritized outdoor recreation, mental health, and time with family and friends throughout the pandemic.
The industry’s momentum is expected to hold steady in 2023 with sales of new and pre-owned boats on par with 2022 as Americans remain focused on outdoor experiences.
“Recreational boating and fishing are a major economic engine in the U.S., and the latest economic analysis underscores the extraordinary growth and demand our industry has experienced coming out of the pandemic,” says Frank Hugelmeyer, president of the NMMA.
“The profound impact the past few years have had on our industry cannot be denied as we’ve seen Americans seek out boating and fishing in record numbers, driving significant economic output and supporting tens of thousands of small businesses and nearly a million jobs.”
States leading the nation with the highest economic activity and job growth from recreational boating include:
Florida: $27.2 billion, up 33 percent and 109,000 jobs, up 19 percent from 2018.
California: $15 billion, up 33 percent and 48,000 jobs, up 18 percent from 2018.
Texas: $10.6 billion, up 56 percent and 38,000 jobs, up 47 percent from 2018.
Michigan: $10.2 billion, up 60 percent and 45,000 jobs, up 45 percent from 2018.
New York: $8.6 billion, up 22 percent and 34,000 jobs, down 8 percent from 2018.
North Carolina: $8.2 billion, up 66 percent and 28,000 jobs, up 39 percent from 2018.
Wisconsin: $7.3 billion, up 107 percent and 35,000 jobs, up 101 percent from 2018.
Georgia: $7 billion, up 80 percent and 27,000 jobs, up 80 percent from 2018.
Washington: $6.9 billion, up 16 percent and 23,000 jobs, up 1 percent from 2018.
Minnesota: $5.9 billion, up 121 percent and 25,000 jobs, up 137% from 2018.
The U.S. recreational boating industry sold just more than 260,000 new powerboats and more than 1 million pre-owned boats in 2022, ranging from small aluminum and fiberglass fishing boats to pontoons and family cruising and watersports boats. Recreational boating is a uniquely American-made industry with an estimated 95 percent of boats sold in the U.S. being made in the U.S.
Approximately 61 percent of U.S. boat owners have an annual household income of $75,000 or less. What’s more, the majority of the 12 million registered boats (95 percent) in the U.S. are smaller than 26 feet in length and are towed by their owners to local waterways.
“With summer on the horizon, we’re anticipating healthy boating participation with more than 85 million people estimated to take to the water in the U.S. amid Americans’ continued appetite for the outdoors and unique experiences,” notes Hugelmeyer.
“With healthy boating participation comes continued economic activity across the recreational boating eco-system, from marinas and harbors to hospitality and tourism and manufacturing and service — lifting up vital small businesses and jobs and the local communities they support.”
The 2023 NMMA-produced economic impact study was conducted with economic research firm John Dunham and Associates and includes all marine companies and businesses related to the manufacture, rental, sale, distribution, maintenance, financing, insurance, repair, and storage of recreational boats, marine engines, and marine accessories in the United States.
Member companies of the NMMA produce more than 80 percent of the boats, engines, trailers, marine accessories, and gear used by millions of boaters in North America.
Posted By: WTOL11 on May 19, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The Vistula Historic District is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Toledo and is known as the gateway to downtown. So, developers are working to revitalize it.
Developers have invested millions in new commercial and business spaces to blend the old with the new.
Rob Keleghan, the principal broker for real estate agency Signature Associates, has been behind the Vistula District for years with the help of Drew McCallum and Matt Nachtrab, who used their deep-seated Toledo roots to assist with the Gateway Vistula Project.
The project has helped turn the Old Westminster Church into headquarters for IT consultant company Nemsys.
The project also opened an alleyway to create an entertainment zone and preserved historic buildings to transform them into commercial spaces for opportunity.
Keleghan said people thought he was crazy for wanting to invest in the Vistula Historic District, but he said it has come a long way.
“The amount of inquiries we are getting because of the changes to the outside because people are actually pouring the money in and they can see that it’s been spent and it’s ready to go,” Keleghan said.
The neighborhood has been given less and less attention over the years, Keleghan said, since the median income for a Vistula District family is only $11,000.
But the area is now getting the eyeballs it needs with $20 million in state and federal grants assisting the growth.
“It’s been really exciting to see developers come in, buy these homes, rent them to people from the community, give them a clean safe affordable place to live,” Keleghan said.
Toledo City Council at-large member Carrie Hartman moved to the Wonder Bread lofts at Vistula a few years ago and said is more than happy to be in a position to help the growth while living amidst it.
“Seeing these private dollars move downtown to the Vistula neighborhood is very exciting to see,” Hartman said.
She’s comfortable where she and what she has, but is looking forward to more things to come for the neighborhood.. She and other residents would like to see more retail spaces, grocery stores and pharmacies.
“It’s a fun neighborhood to live in and there’s’ so much history here. It’s beautiful,” Hartman said.
Metroparks Toledo is also planning to begin phase three of its Glass City Metropark expansion along the river in the Vistula District, but Keleghan said it is still in early talks about what it will entail.
Posted By: Toledo Blade on May 22, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
With Dorr Street ripe for commercial development thanks to the new I-475 interchange, a new retail site proposal moving through the approval process looks to capitalize on increased traffic along that corridor.
The proposed development, Dorr Street Station, is a nearly 22-acre parcel located in the northeast corner of the interchange, which could be developed into new retail stores by way of strip shops and other commercial property, George Oravecz, the project’s engineer, said Monday.
The Lucas County Plan Commission is set to vote Wednesday on the preliminary plat drawing for the proposed site.
“Obviously the location of the interchange changed the dynamics of that whole area,” Mr. Oravecz said. “That interchange is advantageous when it serves a growing population that’s occurring in Springfield Township. And it will cause reinvestment in the homes that are in that particular area in the city of Toledo.”
The proposed site is surrounded by single family residential and multi-family apartments and once plat plans are approved by the commission, the property will be marketed to a potential buyer for the purpose of establishing a commercial business.
The property is located in both Springfield Township and the city of Toledo and site plans would go through the approval process with the appropriate jurisdiction, he said. A zoning change from residential to commercial was previously approved by both jurisdictions, he added.
The property, which was formerly occupied by Dennis Top Soil & Landscaping, once housed the company’s retail spaces, offices, and several maintenance buildings, all of which were removed with construction of the interchange, Mr. Oravecz said. Lois M. Reau, the property’s successor trustee, is named as the project’s applicant.
The interchange has made the area more appealing to commercial developers, said Mike Pniewski, Lucas County Engineer.
“I think there is definite interest in that corner in terms of being a good location for commercial [and] light industrial office,” Mr. Pniewski said. “I think you’ll see some stuff on the southwest portion in the coming months or year.”
Eventually commercial development will also take place in the northwest corner, he added.
In 2018, the Springfield Crossing North development was proposed in the northwest corner as a project that would include two hotels as its centerpiece, along with three restaurants, a senior-housing facility, and other commercial buildings.
Kott Enterprises, the company co-owned by brothers Michael and Greg Kott, were behind the project and had even agreed to pick up an approximately $5.7 million share of the interchange’s overall costs when the project was announced in 2018.
That proposal has not advanced, according to Mr. Oravecz, because Michael Kott has not yet relocated his mulch business. Once he sells the material, the property would be ready for development but for now there are no imminent plans for development in the northwest quadrant, Mr. Oravecz said.
“I don’t see businesses coming and operating because he [Michael Kott] still has a considerable amount of material to move,” Mr. Oravecz said.
In February, there was discussion that Mr. Kott’s mulch business might relocate to 59 acres of property he owns on Angola Road near Byrne Road but there are no intentions to move business to that site, Mr. Oravecz said.
“He’s [Michael Kott] got people of interest I believe in retail uses on that site and that is the direction that he is heading,” Mr. Oravecz said.
The Lucas County Plan Commission will hold a public hearing on several matters including the proposed Dorr Street Station at 9 a.m. Wednesday in council chambers at One Government Center.
Posted By: mlive on May 25, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A rapidly growing cleaning equipment company is doubling its size in Muskegon with a $2.6 million addition.
Pacific Floorcare is constructing a 36,000-square-foot manufacturing facility addition onto its existing building that is of equal size, according to company President Bill Fisher.
The firm manufactures such cleaning equipment as automobile scrubbers, wet vacs, and floor machines, Fisher told the Muskegon City Commission.
The commissioners on Tuesday, May 23, unanimously approved a 12-year, 50% property tax break for the new facility. Taxes paid to school districts, which in this case is Orchard View Schools, are exempt from the tax breaks.
The value of the tax abatement is $39,844 per year, according to information provided to the commission. That equates to about $478,000 over the next 12 years.
The new facility will generate the same amount of new property taxes, as well as an estimated $12,358 annually in new income taxes, according to city information.
“We’re growing rapidly,” Fisher told commissioners. “The reason for the expansion is we have a new product, a very innovative product, that we’re coming to the market with that conceivably can double our business in the next two to three years.”
He added that there’s a “tremendous amount of excitement in our industry” for what he called its new “high-volume product.”
Pacific Floorcare is located at 2259 S. Sheridan Drive in the Port City Industrial Park. The addition is expected to be completed in January 2024, according to the company’s application for the tax exemption.
“We’re excited about the future,” Fisher said. “We’re looking to hire a lot of people from Muskegon.”
Initial estimates are that its 47-employee workforce will grow by another 17 full-time workers. However, that number could grow depending on the new product’s success, Fisher said.
The addition includes a 2,100-square-foot customer training center, according to information provided to the commission.
The 75-year-old company was purchased in 1985 by Larry Hines, president of the Hines Corp. based in Norton Shores, who moved the company to Muskegon from California. The company was Hines’ first purchase, and had been a competitor of Clarke Floor Machine, where Hines previously worked.
Other Hines Corp. companies include Johnston Boiler, located in Ferrysburg; Bennett Pump, located in Spring Lake and China; Cimline Pavement Maintenance, located in Plymouth, Minnesota, and Pearl, Mississippi; and Garlock Safety Systems and Garlock Equipment, located in Plymouth, Minnesota, according to the Hines Corp. website.
Muskegon City Commissioner Rachel Gorman thanked Hines Corp. for its “reinvestment” in the city and noted that it also invests its “time” in city causes.
“I really appreciate not only the investment in the city, but the culture you’re creating at Hines Corp. to be part of our community,” Gorman said. “So, I’m very excited to be voting in favor of this.”
Posted By: mlive on May 20, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A Grand Rapids-based tech firm, whose online app is designed to help stockholders claim company gifts and perks, has received a $510,000 state grant if it creates up to 73 jobs over the next three years. TiiCKER, which has offices in Grand Rapids and Detroit, describes itself as software platform that brings together investors and their preferred brands through a shareholder rewards program.
A news release from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation says the company plans to purchase the building it’s currently leasing at 61 Commerce Ave. SW. The building would serve as the corporate headquarters for the company, which has seven employees.
“TiiCKER was launched to allow public companies to connect with, and market to, their retail shareholders. We’ve since become the world’s largest shareholder loyalty platform with triple-digit user growth and strong customer momentum in the past year,” said Jeff Lambert, the founder and CEO of TiiCKER.
The 73 jobs the company expects to create will pay an average weekly wage of $2,142, according to an MEDC memo. The $510,000 grant would provide the company with $6,986 for each of the up to 73 jobs it creates. The grant agreement is in effect through October 2026.
The company’s expansion, which includes the purchase of 61 Commerce Ave., is expected to generate an investment of $4.8 million.
“Today’s investment by TiiCKER will build on Michigan’s tech strengths and create 73 good-paying, high-skill jobs in West Michigan,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in statement. “TiiCKER’s downtown Grand Rapids expansion reinforces our reputation as a world leader in innovation, makes our cities more attractive places to live and work, and continues to power our tech and information technology sectors.”
Posted By: DBUSINESS on May 8, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Oakland County’s economy is expected to return to normal this year and has a “solidly positive outlook” over the next few years, according to a new report from economists at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
As one of the state’s most populous counties and among the nation’s most prosperous, Oakland County is expected to see job gains over the next three years, bringing its payroll jobs count back to pre-pandemic levels in the second quarter of 2025, and 1.2 percent higher by the end of that year.
In its annual forecast of the Oakland County economy, the U-M Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics (RSQE) predicts the number of jobs will grow by 1.4 percent this year, 1.3 percent in 2024 and 1.6 percent in 2025. The local labor force is expected to grow more quickly than the number of employed residents, which puts upward pressure on the jobless rate this fall and the first half of 2024.
The positive outlook the economists provide in the forecast would follow what they describe as an economic “mixed bag” for 2022. The county’s job growth through the third quarter of last year lagged Michigan as a whole, with Oakland recovering 82 percent of the jobs it lost at the start of the pandemic and the state recovering 90 percent.
They are also concerned by the county’s resident employment count declining by nearly 8,000 in the 12-month period ending in February 2023.
The recent data has been “puzzling,” the economists say, and could be the result of “commuting, an increase in multiple job holdings by residents or a decline in self-employment.”
“Despite the challenges of the past year, we are optimistic that 2023 will feature a return to normalcy in Oakland County’s economy with job growth relatively widespread across industries, even as the national economy slows,” says Gabriel Ehrlich, director of the U-M RSQE.
Overall, Oakland County has fewer lower-income residents and more upper-income residents than Michigan. Countywide, 20 percent of residents live in low-income households, compared to 30 percent of the state. The share of county residents living in higher-income households (28 percent) is much larger than that of the state (17 percent).
Still, the economists say, the prosperity is uneven. As of 2021, the area containing Pontiac and Waterford Township had an average household income, after adjusting for household size, that was less than one-half the average in the area containing Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, and Bloomfield Township.
They also note differences in incomes by race and ethnicity: 18 percent of the county’s non-Hispanic and white residents lived in households classified as lower income in 2021 and 31 percent lived in upper income households. Those proportions were nearly reversed for Black and Hispanic residents.
One encouraging sign in the forecast is that wages are expected to grow more quickly in the county’s lower-wage industries than the higher-wage industries during the next three years. That, they say, should go some way toward lessening wage inequality.
The county’s jobless rate is expected to average 2.7 percent in the first part of this year before rising to 3 percent by the end of it. The economists forecast the rate to rise modestly in the first half of next year as the nation enters a mild recession, dampening the local job market.
The forecast calls for the county’s unemployment rate to fall from 3.4 percent in mid-2024 to 2.8 percent by the end of 2025, compared with a projected state jobless rate of 3.9 percent at the end of that period. If the forecast holds, the county’s rate would be roughly half of a percentage point below its average right before the pandemic.
The economists say the return to pre-pandemic labor force levels reflects the strength of the county’s economy, though they caution that labor shortages “will be an ongoing fact of life for the foreseeable future in southeastern Michigan.”
“We believe Oakland County’s strong overall performance in these measures suggest it is well-positioned for the future despite the current challenges facing the local and national economies,” the economists say in the report. “The combination of an educated populace, a high share of managerial and professional jobs, and an attractive standard of living should provide a solid foundation for economic prosperity over our forecast period and in the years to come.”
The 38th annual U-M forecast of Oakland County’s economy was hosted by the county’s Department of Economic Development.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on May 5, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A new restaurant and banquet facility planned for the former Big Rock Chophouse, set in an historic train station at the north end of the Rail District in Birmingham, is going through the municipal approval process.
The new owners, Cameron Mitchell Restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, plan to reopen the venue as the Big Rock Italian Chop House. In mid-April, the company submitted a design review application for modest updates to the historic structure to the Birmingham Historic Design Committee.
After operating as a train station, in 1984 the building was converted to Norman’s Eton Street Station by Norman and Bonnie LePage. Following a successful run, which included new offerings and a different name to Big Rock Chophouse, the couple closed the restaurant in December 2021.
Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, which operates multiple eateries, including Ocean Prime in Troy, has a successful track record in downtown Birmingham, having in the past operated Cameron’s Steak House (now Mare Mediterranean) and Mitchell’s Seafood Market (now Sidecar Slider Bar).
Seeking a special land use permit from the city, the Big Rock Italian Chop House (245 S. Eton St.) could open later this year so long as the city and state approve various permits, the transfer of a Class C liquor license, and other requirements.
Among the planned improvements to the building are a revamped outdoor dining space at the north end, a pergola, an outdoor fireplace, and new landscaping.
“The Rail District was once a commercial district, but since the city allowed for more mixed-use offerings, you’ve seen new businesses, residences, restaurants, and entertainment coming in,” says Mark Nickita, an architect and urban designer with Archive DS in Detroit, and a former mayor and city commissioner in Birmingham.
“Cameron Mitchell has always been an asset in Birmingham, and I expect they will carry on with the history of the train station and be a great addition in the community. You have seen other establishments come in like Griffin Claw, the Whistle Stop Restaurant was just redone, and there’s all kinds of new businesses in the Rail District. It’s been very successful.”
As the project goes through the approval process, it was unclear if Cameron Mitchell would apply to maintain a cigar bar on the second floor of the train station.
Posted By: DBUSINESS on May 11, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Metro Detroit’s red hot industrial market is drawing new players and spec development as The Opus Group in Minneapolis today announced the start of construction on Airport Corporate Center, a two-building speculative industrial development in Romulus.
The two buildings at 33100 and 33200 Smith Road (just north of Detroit Metro Airport) will total more than 270,000 square feet of space and are being marketed for warehouse and distribution tenants between 40,000 and 270,000 square feet.
Situated less than a mile from the I-94 and Vining Road exit, the 22.7-acre site is at Smith and Vining roads. It is in close proximity to restaurants, hotels, gas stations, and other industrial projects.
“We are pleased to bring this modern industrial development to the city of Romulus,” says Mike Robinson, senior director of real estate development at Opus. “Airport Corporate Center will support economic vitality through employment and expansion of the local tax base. Building tenants will benefit from superior interstate access and logistical efficiencies, including modern clear heights and generous parking for employees and trailers.”
Building A is 100,456 square feet with 32-foot clear height, 12 dock doors, 91 auto parking stalls, and 13 trailer parking stalls. Building B is 170,088 square feet with 32-foot clear height, 22 dock doors, 115 auto parking stalls, and 28 trailer parking stalls.
Both buildings will be complete and ready for occupancy in October 2023.
Overall, during the first quarter, metro Detroit’s real estate market “exhibited a strong performance with a positive net absorption of 861,344 square feet,” notes Katie Rizzo, senior research analyst for Michigan at Colliers, a full-service real estate firm with offices in Royal Oak.
“Notably, the Airport/I-275 and Macomb submarkets have experienced the most robust leasing momentum. Construction activity is beginning to decelerate, and of the 8.5 million square feet of projects underway, 1.7 million square feet is speculative space.”
Opus is the developer, design-builder, and architect and structural engineer of record for Airport Corporate Center. Sean Cavanaugh and Dave MacDonald at JLL are marketing the space for lease. Construction financing is being provided by Associated Bank.
The Opus Group is a family of commercial real estate development, construction, and design companies headquartered in Minneapolis with offices and projects across the country.
Posted By: Commercial Observer on May 1, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Economic uncertainty remains high for commercial real estate through the rest of 2023. There are plenty of big questions, including the interest rate environment and the future of office space. But there are also positives: Multifamily and industrial continue to perform well, and the industry may have underestimated the strength of neighborhood retail.
Keep an eye on these commercial real estate trends and opportunities:
Macroeconomic forces impacting real estate
Geopolitical tensions, market volatility and high inflation will likely remain prominent in the second half of the year, as will other macroeconomic factors.
Market disruptions
Spurred by the recent disruption within the financial industry, economic uncertainty continues. However, JPMorgan Chase and the banking system remain strong. Backed by a fortress balance sheet and diversified deposit franchise, we have a long history of supporting clients through periods of market volatility, and continue to do so.
Interest rates
Between March 2023 and March 2023, the Fed raised interest rates nine consecutive times. Rates have risen at the fastest pace in decades, and it’s taking investors time to adjust. Many commercial real estate owners still pay rates lower than current levels, so refinancing activity has slowed. It’s unclear if rates will continue to rise or if the Fed will change course in the second half of the year. This leaves investors with a familiar feeling: uncertainty.
Commercial real estate trends across asset classes
While the future of the office is unclear, commercial real estate has remained resilient in the first half of 2023.
Multifamily rental costs rising more slowly: Multifamily properties are still going strong. The national vacancy rate for multifamily was at 4.5 percent at the end of 2022, according to Moody’s Analytics, even as the rate of rent increases fell. Vacancy rates vary widely across metro areas, but the median vacancy rate nationwide is 3.9 percent as of April.
Increasing affordable housing: The country’s affordable housing supply continues to lag far behind demand. A multipronged method to growing the housing supply is critical moving forward. Efforts may include finding creative ways to preserve, build and finance affordable housing — the primary focus of the firm’s Capital Solutions group — and working with public entities to create zoning variances that allow greater density in residential areas.
The strength of retail: E-commerce accounts for roughly 15 percent of retail, but that doesn’t mean consumers can get everything online. There are still services that favor or even require in-person visits. For example, trips to the nail salon, barbershop and sports bar are still standard.
Industrial may be stabilizing: Fueled by e-commerce and an everything-on-demand economy, industrial has been booming for years. While the asset class remains healthy, it may be starting to soften. The vacancy rate for distribution and warehouse space was 4.1 percent throughout the second half of 2022 — a record low, as the rate has steadily declined each quarter since the end of 2020. The rate rose 10 basis points in the first quarter of 2023 to 4.2 percent.
Office space still up in the air: Remote and hybrid work have largely reduced demand for office space. Still, Class A properties are performing well. Office properties with leases of 10 years or more may be able to ride out the market correction. But Class B and C office buildings — especially those located with shorter leases outside prime locations — face challenges as the workplace evolves.
Opportunities in commercial real estate
Despite economic uncertainty, commercial real estate investors can capitalize on several opportunities in the coming months.
Agency lending
JPMorgan Chase is a licensed agency lender, offering affordable and market-rate multifamily financing through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Our Agency Lending team will review options with multifamily property investors based on their goals, such as fixed-rate terms of 10 years and longer on a 30-year amortization loan.
Innovative proptech
Our 2023 Business Leaders Outlook: Commercial Real Estate highlighted the top issues driving up costs for the industry. Among them: the increased cost for energy, labor and raw materials, plus snarled supply chains. Proptech, including digital marketing and smart buildings tools, can help commercial real estate owners and investors reduce inefficiencies to cut costs.
Rent payment technology
For years, many property owners and operators relied on manual, paper-based payment processes for rent. These processes can be time-consuming and leave businesses vulnerable to fraud. Digital rent payment solutions can help property managers streamline operations and meet residents’ needs.
Amid market uncertainty, the threat of a U.S. debt default could further complicate the outlook for multifamily real estate.
Posted By: The Detroit News on May 11, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Plans for at least two Amazon Fresh locations in Michigan appear to have been scrapped.
The Madison Heights space once believed to be planned to house the grocer is now available for sublease, according to marketing materials.
The sublease posting for the 42,500-square-foot building at 29411 John R was first reported by Crain’s Detroit Business. The publication also reported that a lease for the former Kroger Co. at 23000 Michigan Ave. in Dearborn has been terminated.
This news comes after nearly two years of rumblings about when Amazon.com Inc. would be ready to roll out its Amazon Fresh stores in Michigan. The list of confirmed and reported Amazon Fresh stores had grown to at least nine locations in Metro Detroit and one in Grand Blanc.
Amazon has not commented on its roadmap for Amazon Fresh.
During a fourth-quarter earnings call in February, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said grocery was an important and strategic area for the company and that in its “few dozen” existing locations, it was doing “a fair bit of experimentation today in those stores to try to find a format that we think resonates with customers.”
The company opened its first Amazon Fresh store in 2021.
Posted By: BISNOW on April 26, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Office space utilization spiked recently, according to separate metrics that track it, published by VTS and Kastle.
Demand for office space nationwide rose 31.3% from February to March, according to the latest VTS Office Demand Index.
The index, which ranks unique new tenant tour requirements, both in-person and virtual, of office properties in core U.S. markets, jumped 15 points to 63 in March. The index came in at 46 in December and January and 48 in February.
“The sluggish start to the year left us in limbo as to whether we’d see normal levels of spring activity return,” VTS CEO Nick Romito said in a statement. “Thankfully, the office leasing market had its spring awakening — and then some.”
All of the cities tracked by VTS saw office demand increase in March, with five of the seven cities reporting office demand jumps of more than 30% month-over-month. San Francisco saw the largest jump, rising 69% from February to March. Office demand in both Boston and Los Angeles was up 42% in March.
Kastle reported that its 10-city average office occupancy was 49.6% for the week ending April 19, up from 46.3% the week before. All of the cities that Kastle tracks experienced increases, with the largest jumps in Houston and New York City.
More workers come to the office on Tuesday than any other day of the workweek, according to Kastle, which tracks office utilization by studying keycard, fob and KastlePresence app access data from 2,600 buildings.
On Tuesdays, occupancy for all 10 cities is almost 60%, nearly 10 points higher than the full week’s average. Unsurprisingly, Friday has the lowest occupancy, 32.7%.
Posted By: Commercial Property Executive on March 15, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
From amenity spaces to the carbon footprint, property managers play a central role in the design of commercial offices.
Traditionally, the design and development of commercial office spaces has been the task of architects, engineers and urban planners. While those professionals do much to influence office projects, they often have relatively little interaction with tenants and their employees. The day-to-day function of an office space, as well as its optimal uses, is the job of the property managers who oversee operations on both a micro and macro level.
In light of the evolving nature of office work, property management-related design considerations, at all stages of development, are central to a commercial office space’s success. According to experts, the key is a data-driven, nuanced analysis which takes into account tenant needs and how the space fits in to its surroundings.
A case-by-case approach
For many property managers involved in this process, a common theme is a recognition that optimality in management is specific to the uses and needs of a space’s tenants, as well as its integration with its surroundings. Chase Garbarino, co-founder & CEO of office and workplace management software provider HqO, sees value generation in these respects as a matter of site-specific strategy. According to Garbarino, such methods should be driven by data-focused analysis of engagement and productivity as well as tenant uses, something unique to individual office spaces and buildings.
“A corporate lawyer, in terms of the space they need for private conversation, is very different from an engineer in our company developing software,” Garbarino told Commercial Property Executive. “When you’re talking to a tech company, you should have an integral understanding of the trends of how engineers work. If it’s a call center, what are the different needs they have for physical space?”
As such, property managers not only play an instrumental role in design process through their operational expertise, but through their technological knowledge. Transwestern embodies this approach in its management-focused development of office space, which focuses equally on tenant experience and maximizing an operator’s returns.
According to Kelly Wheeler, senior vice president & director of operations and strategy for asset services, “The first thing that is most important to understand is what the developer or owners’ goals are, and that is going to vary by asset class and location. Something that you may do in a central business district, you may not do 30 miles west of Houston.”
As a result, specificity informs the business goals of a project. “Recommendations change based on location and asset class,” Wheeler noted. “When you are going ground-up versus repositioning, you have to consider existing occupancy and the tenants already in place.”
The firm implemented these principles during construction of Bank of America Tower in Houston, which was completed in 2019. The property management team was brought on a year before the building was occupied, which enabled it to evaluate everything from mechanical systems to lobby green spaces. “Being able to contribute those nuances during the development of a building are really valuable in the long run,” Wheeler said.
Constant evaluation
To evaluate the needs of tenants and workers at both the macro and micro levels, Garbarino emphasizes using engagement data, as well as building customer-focused relationships. What managers and their colleagues should not do in these aspects is simply borrow from other operators. “The problem historically, in the industry, has been an amenity arms race,” he cautioned. “Don’t go in LinkedIn and see that one hot new amenity that everyone is posting about; that is the polar opposite of being customer-oriented.”
This is a continued focus for Transwestern, particularly regarding the tenant experience in a new development. “Thinking about what the tenants’ experience is going to be after the building is occupied really comes from people who have experience operating the building,” Wheeler noted. “Do you design an open coworking space so that they have a third place to work? Do you have an outdoor garden?”
Building relationships
Alongside the relationships that tenants will have with the space and each other, property managers should consider how an office building is integrated into its location. Those considerations range from the property’s carbon footprint to its potential uses as a public space. For Hudson Pacific Properties, this mindset governs both the company’s approach to sustainability and its interactions with surroundings. From a sustainability perspective, Chuck We, executive vice president of the firm’s northwestern and Canada investments, takes a two-pronged approach, which he sums up as “operational sustainability” and “sustainability from embodied carbon.”
We detailed the firm’s emphasis on moving from coal and gas power toward electrification at the buildings it owns and manages. This approach extends to embodied carbon, where Hudson Pacific has streamlined the sourcing of its materials and products to providers that are able to source locally. “[In the] built space, if you can have an impact on embodied carbon by rebuilding and creating, you can have just as much of an impact on the environment.” We told CPE.
Where the more intangible relationships are concerned, Hudson Pacific has taken to treating spaces as communities that should be integrated with their surroundings. Areas that would conventionally be used for employee dining are transformed to become more accessible.
“Historically, you would look at how many seats can we put out there for people to come out from their office space and have lunch,” he said. “Now, we actually look at that as a bit more of a public amenity. You can drive a couple of food trucks up to service that lunch. It’s not just about building the hard-edge facility; it’s thinking about how you integrate it into the overall thinking about your campus and your offering.”
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on May 9, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
New Horizons Baking Company plans to invest more than $13 million to add a second English muffin production line at its North Toledo facility, economic development officials announced.
The company has said it plans to add at least 45 new jobs with an annual payroll of $2.3 million to staff the new line. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority on Monday approved a six-year tax credit worth an estimated $125,000 to assist New Horizons with the project — one of several regional projects that obtained state tax assistance from the authority this week.
The tax agency said Ohio had been competing with locations in Indiana for the New Horizons project. The Regional Growth Partnership and JobsOhio helped secure the project, according to an RGP announcement.
New Horizons is headquartered in Norwalk, and currently employs 550 people across four regional locations including in Toledo at 1015 New York Ave. The company is seeing increased demand for its English muffins which necessitated the new line including machinery as well as 20,000 square-feet for cold storage.
Production on the new line is expected to start in February. It’s the second major expansion at the Toledo baking facility in the last seven years.
Several other regional projects were approved for Ohio tax credit assistance on Monday:
P.M. Electro Auto Inc., an India-headquartered firm, has proposed building a facility in Toledo that would construct metal tubes used in the solar industry. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved an eight-year credit worth an estimated $560,000 to entice the company, which has said the facility would create 100 full-time jobs. Toledo is competing with sites in Michigan for the project, the state said.
GVS Filtration Inc., an Italian company, has proposed an expansion of its existing facility in Findlay to manufacture several types of filters for automotive, safety, and health care purposes. The state authority approved a seven-year credit worth an estimated $435,000 in return for the company creating 74 new jobs. Findlay is competing with Monterrey, Mexico, for the project, the state said.
Tekni-Plex Inc., based in Pennsylvania, has proposed a new manufacturing facility in Van Wert that would manufacture egg cartons. The state authority approved a seven-year tax credit worth an estimated $430,000 for the project in return for the company creating 100 full-time jobs. Ohio is competing with Indiana for the project, the state said.
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on May 3, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Google plans to build two more data centers in Ohio to help power its artificial intelligence technology and other tools, the company and state officials announced Wednesday.
With one data center already up and running near Columbus, the two new locations will bring Google’s total investment in Ohio to more than $2 billion, officials said.
Ohio is seeing a wave of big investments by the technology industry.
Intel is building a $20 billion chip factory just east of Columbus, and Honda and LG Energy Solution of South Korea are building a $3.5 billion battery plant between Columbus and Cincinnati that the automaker envisions as its North American electric vehicle hub.
The area around Columbus also is home to data centers operated by Facebook and Amazon.
The two new Google data centers will be built in Columbus and Lancaster.
“Ohio is a growing technology hub and data center market, and we welcome these two new Google projects in Columbus and Lancaster to complement the one already in New Albany,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.
Mark Isakowitz, Google’s head of government affairs in the U.S. and Canada, would not say how many jobs would be created, adding that data centers typically employ about 50 people at opening and those numbers increase as they expand.
“If you look at some of the sites we have around the country, it’s hundreds and hundreds of people as you build and as you grow,” he said.
Data centers have proliferated across the U.S. and become a welcome revenue source for local governments. They also require a large amount of electricity and high-voltage transmission lines.
In northern Virginia, which is home to the biggest cluster of data centers, complaints have grown mostly about the constant noise from fans needed to cool the computers and servers.
Posted By: WealthManagement.com on April 25, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Lending terms might have tightened, and deals are being scrutinized more closely, but the capital is there.
In the wake of failures of Silicon Valley and Signature banks this March, media outlets have been awash with speculation that the regional bank sector, and with it, commercial real estate, were headed for a crisis similar to the one seen during the Great Financial Crisis (GFC).
Such takes might get another boost this week, as First Republic Bank’s shares lost about 50% of their value on Tuesday as it became known customers withdrew $102 billion from the bank in the first quarter, more than half of the total value of the deposits First Republic held at the end of 2022.
However, many of the articles forecasting a devastating credit crisis in the commercial real estate sector have been based on incorrect assumptions and don’t accurately reflect what’s happening with bank lenders, according to WMRE sources.
For example, a recent Moody’s Analytics report points out that while both bank lenders and commercial real estate borrowers seem likely to experience some distress in the months ahead, the current down cycle also comes with many mitigating factors that were not there in the 2008-09 period. These include the fact that banks are still, as a group, better capitalized than they were in the years preceding GFC and that many real estate investors now carry lower leverage and have access to a more diverse array of potential lenders than they did during the previous credit crunch.
In fact, some figures that have been thrown around in support of the theory that both regional banks and their real estate borrowers are in deep trouble have simply been wrong, according to Moody’s. For example, it has been reported, incorrectly, that regional and local banks account for 65% to 80% of lending on commercial real estate. In reality, U.S. regional banks hold 13.8% of debt on income-producing properties, while banks overall account for 38.6% of commercial real estate lending, Moody’s found.
As such, commercial real estate debt accounts for just 7% to 10% of total debt in banks’ portfolios, noted Stephen Biggar, director of financial services research at Argus Research, who covers the big money banks. For smaller banks, who do carry more exposure to commercial real estate, that share could be closer to 20% to 30% of total debt, he added.
That’s where borrowers might see the biggest change in the months ahead. As regional banks become more concerned about depositors deciding withdraw their money, as they’ve done with Silicon Valley and Signature, the smaller regional banks might pull back on real estate transactions, according to Chad Littell, national director of capital markets analytics with real estate data firm CoStar. While the larger, national and international “money center” banks actually benefited from recent turbulence in the industry, the regional banks might put more scrutiny on new deals going forward.
“For the very best core assets in good locations banks are very competitive,” Littell said. “For regional banks, those more flush with deposits will show more willingness to lend than those with drawdowns on deposits.”
Case in point, Meridian Capital Group recently secured a $45 million, fixed-rate loan from Valley Bank for Crosby Hill Apartments, a newly constructed, 203-unit luxury apartment property in Wilmington, Delaware, on behalf of Buccini Pollin Group. Given that the bank felt comfortable with both the sponsor and the steady absorption rate at the project, the loan went through even before full stabilization, according to the mortgage brokers involved.
Only a limited number of small and mid-sized banks have risk characteristics similar the banks that have failed recently, according to market observers. Many (and there are thousands) still have the capacity to lend under moderately tighter underwriting standards, such as raising minimum debt service coverage thresholds and loan-to-value (LTV) ratios.
Last year, LTV ratios on commercial real estate loans originated by regional and local banks averaged about 66.4%, with the average loan size at about $7.6 million, according to research firm MSCI Real Assets. LTVs on loans originated by national banks were slightly lower, at 64.3%, with the average loan size of $14.3 million.
Still, a further slowdown on lending would occur in a market that already saw 7% fewer unique lenders being active in the commercial real estate marketplace in the fourth quarter of last year compared to 2021, MSCI reported. Apartment and industrial sectors saw even larger, double-digit declines in active lenders during that time period.
Overall, new loan originations for commercial and multifamily mortgages declined by 54% year-over-year and 23% quarter-over-quarter in the fourth quarter of 2022, the most recent period for which data is available from the Mortgage Bankers Association, an industry trade group. Originations by depositories in particular fell by 47% year-over-year.
At the same time, the 90-plus day delinquency rate on commercial real estate mortgages for banks and thrifts stood at 0.45%, above the delinquency rates for life insurance and agency lenders, but below the delinquency rate for CMBS shops.
Large regional banks have put in place measures to protect against defaults on the commercial real estate loans on their books, including requiring borrowers to deposit a certain amount of funds with them, according to Kevin Heal, chief compliance officer and senior analyst, financial services, at Argus Research who covers super-regional banks. They are still loaning money for commercial real estate, but now require “more skin in the game,” with 60-40% LTVs.
“This buffer provides significant value in the property if a foreclosure occurs,” he said.
Heal also noted that a lot more checks and balances have been put in place to scrutinize the fundamentals of the properties financed. In order to secure a loan on a retail asset, for example, it’s necessary to show that it features a major credit tenant, along the lines of Home Depot, for example.
In addition, nearly all banks have tried to break out of their exposure to office transactions due to the perceived risk around low occupancy numbers, according to Biggar. Exceptions include deals that feature both a client with whom the bank has a long-standing relationship and a high-quality credit tenant, but even those transactions will be put under the microscope.
One of the biggest area of concern for bank lenders right now are loans on properties with some occupancy or rent roll issues that are coming due in the next year or two, since those borrowers will likely have trouble refinancing at higher interest rates, Biggar said. The prime rate today is at 8.00% to 8.25%, he noted. “If they are struggling now, they will have trouble making ends meet at rates that are more than double [what they had been paying].”
Posted By: The Toledo Blade on April 18, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Toledo business leaders want an innovation-hub designation and, with it, potentially tens of millions of dollars in grants that will help the region add technical and white-collar jobs to the strong growth of blue-collar jobs attracted over the past five years, executives told an annual meeting audience Tuesday of the Regional Growth Partnership of Northwest Ohio.
Toledo is preparing to compete with other medium-sized cities for a pot of state money recently proposed for innovation hubs as well as $10 billion in federal money contained in last year’s CHIP and Science Act, said RGP Chairman Jim Hoffman, who is retiring July 1 as the local president of KeyBank.
The hubs are aimed specifically at small and medium-sized cities with skilled and educated labor forces needing to transition to new technology.
A traditional automotive, manufacturing and glass-making center, Toledo businesses are looking to reduce their carbon footprints, Mr. Hoffman said last week.
Examples include General Motors retooling the former Toledo Transmission plant, now Toledo Propulsion, from transmissions to electric-vehicle drives and truck drivetrain maker Dana Inc. transforming its Maumee technical complex to EV subassembly research and development.
At the RGP annual meeting, Mr. Hoffman said the RGP is collaborating with the Toledo Chamber of Commerce and ConnecToledo to fashion an innovation hub strategy with industry and local universities to win a transformational grant.
How much money will be available for state innovation hubs is an open question. As part of an ongoing budget process for next year, the Ohio House of Representatives this week cut Governor Mike DeWine’s $150 million proposal for state innovation hubs to $25 million.
Mr. Hoffman said Senate input and negotiations will ultimately determine where the number comes in. The state innovation hubs are designed for medium-sized and smaller cities, not Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.
In the meantime, Toledo intends to simultaneously seek a grant from the much larger federal pool of innovation funds, Mr. Hoffman said.
“We’ll pursue federal hub funding for sure and perhaps accelerate our work in that direction,” he said.
The annual meeting, the first live since the coronavirus, drew nearly 500 attendees at The Pinnacle event center in Maumee.
Northwest Ohio has the talent, transportation, and quality of living to attract white-collar businesses and workers to the area, according to presenter Bob Hess, vice chair of Newmark Global Strategy & Consulting.
The RGP commissioned Newmark, a renowned commercial site-selection company, to perform an 18-month study of the assets in Toledo that might make it attractive to a technology or white-collar company looking to expand. The cost of the study was not disclosed.
Newmark found that Toledo “punches above its weight” vs. cities of similar size in having the qualities technology companies want.
That’s consistent with an evaluation performed by the Economic Innovation Group, a policy think tank in Washington, D.C., that found Toledo well-positioned to compete for a federal innovation hub grant given the criteria in the CHIP and Science Act.
The group said Toledo ranked in the top 5 cities nationally because Toledo businesses had the talent and potential to transform to new technology and an intense need.
Other ranking cities are Greenville, S.C., Provo, Utah, Tucson, Ariz., and Greensboro, N.C.
Annual meeting speakers said the area has done a good job over the past five years of attracting investment in manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture and their blue-collar jobs.
RGP President and CEO Dean Monske said about 100 expansion projects have been undertaken over the past year in the 17 counties that comprise Northwest Ohio.
Those projects cost $3.4 billion, created 3,353 jobs, and retained another 14,589 jobs, he said.
For example, Abbott Laboratories announced a $570 million new plant in Bowling Green that will make baby formula and other nutritional supplements. That project will create 450 jobs.
Over the past five years, Northwest Ohio has seen $13 billion in capital investment, creating 25,000 jobs, Mr. Hoffman said.
Posted By: mlive on April 24, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The 28th Street corridor in Wyoming was once a hub of entertainment and shopping in the greater Grand Rapids area.
With West Michigan’s first multiplex cinema and first shopping mall, it was the place for family and friends to gather for a weekend outing.
But as new malls opened, namely RiverTown Crossings, and other entertainment options sprung up, the 28th Street corridor in Wyoming saw a decline, with changing stores and less traffic at Rogers Plaza and the eventual closure of the Studio 28 movie theater complex.
“28th Street – it’s a little bit of a bygone era. It’s become kind of this automobile centric node that really bifurcates our community,” said Nicole Hofert, the city’s director of Community and Economic Development.
Now, Wyoming city leaders are embarking on an effort to revitalize 28th Street between Burlingame and Clyde Park avenues with the aim of eventually creating the city’s first downtown area where family and friends can shop, gather in public spaces and more.
The undertaking is dubbed “City Center.”
“Wyoming has been working on this effort for decades. 28th Street has continued to decline over the last 30, 40, 50 years,” Hofert said. “We’ve seen Rogers Plaza change from what it was back in the 50s and 60s and 70s. We’ve seen Studio 28 close and some disinvestment in the corridor.
“And so when we hear our residents say they want a place to go and spend time with their families and they want shopping opportunities and places to eat, this is an opportunity to provide that to them.”
The “catalyst” for the city’s new downtown is a pedestrian bridge over 28th Street, an adjacent, roughly $65 million planned private development with commercial spaces and housing and 3.1 miles of trails connecting nearby neighborhoods and other area trails and parks.
The bridge and planned development off of Hook Avenue on the former Studio 28 property will serve as the marker around which the new downtown will be built, Hofert said.
Then, in six or eight years, the city will assess the development pattern and potentially build another pedestrian bridge over 28th Street to serve as the other cap to the city’s downtown.
“We refer to this as a transformational project for Wyoming, and I truly believe that,” Hofert said. “This project has the potential of not only bringing hundreds of new residents to the community and locating them in a new downtown, but also making connectivity to the neighborhoods to provide safe crossings over 28th Street with new commercial, office space, etc.
“I absolutely believe this is going to be the catalyst that is going to launch that effort.”
With 76,501 residents in the 2020 U.S. Census, Wyoming is Kent County’s second-largest city.
Hofert said while the city had popular gathering places, like Rogers Plaza, a downtown was never really developed in the city. As a suburb of Grand Rapids, she said the city’s development pattern along 28th Street has been more linear, aligned with the sprawl of strip malls to the east.
The first phase of the City Center project on the public investment side is to construct the 600-foot-long pedestrian bridge over 28th Street and bury utility and communications lines in the area – a move that will not only make room for the bridge but also provide a better aesthetic for the downtown feel, Hofert said.
The bridge, which Hofert says will reunify the city’s northern and southern portions, is expected to be open to the public in spring 2024.
The City Center project’s first phase – estimated around $30 to $40 million – also will include constructing the 3.1 miles of trails, although some stretches of those trails could come later depending on available funding. The bridge and associated utility line work accounts for about $8.02 million of that estimate.
Kent County has allocated $6 million in federal stimulus funds to the project, and Wyoming has put forward $10 million in city funds. The city is also seeking federal dollars for the project.
On the private development side, Magnus Capital Partners is tentatively planning to construct three buildings, each measuring five stories, on the former Studio 28 movie theater complex property off of 28 W Place (Hook Avenue) in the area of the new pedestrian bridge.
The city is also talking with other developers and property owners along 28th Street, examining what they can do to their sites and possibly make new investments, Hofert said.
The roughly $65 million development would be just north of Magnus Capital’s recently built HOM Flats at 28 West apartment complex that also occupies a portion of the former movie theater property.
Jason Chronowski, associate marketing manager at Magnus Capital, said the developer currently doesn’t have a timeline for construction or when they might bring their plans before the city’s planning commission.
The upper floors of the buildings would have housing, with the bottom floors having commercial space. Office space is also something being considered for the buildings, Chronowski said.
What exactly will be offered in the commercial spaces is still being worked out, but Chronowski said a focus on local ownership and feedback from residents will help guide that.
He said he could envision a cafe and potentially a dog groomer or pet store occupying some of the space.
“It will be really nice to be potentially near a walking trail and the bridge crossing over 28th Street, that could allow for a really nice getaway if someone goes and they walk the bridge, come over and get a cup of coffee, maybe they get their pet groomed,” Chronowski said. “There’s just potential to build that, really that feel of community and bringing people together and really allowing people to get the most out of where they live.
“We’re excited for the city, we’re excited for our residents. If it comes to fruition, we’re very excited, because it even opens up possibilities for our current residents.”
Posted By: The Detroit News on April 26, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Michigan State University is preparing to sell about 1,000 acres of farmland for the assembly of an industrial megasite in a rural area west of Lansing — a potential $21.9 million transaction needed to make the land suitable for a semiconductor or electric vehicle battery plant.
The East Lansing university signed an option agreement with an economic development group in August, giving first choice of sale to a roughly 1,400-acre development effort that’s prompting increased opposition from community members in Clinton County’s Eagle Township just north of Grand Ledge.
Opposition to Michigan State’s sale — based in part on a pre-existing farming contract for the site — is baked into a larger debate over taxpayer-funded megasite incentives that have already secured promises of large battery operations in the Marshall and Big Rapids areas. Lawmakers approved $385 million in taxpayer funds in recent weeks for projects launched by Ford Motor Co. and Gotion Inc.
But the money approvals were made against a backdrop of clashing support and opposition from residents in both communities who were concerned about the use of agricultural land for the projects, the secrecy surrounding the plan and both companies’ ties to China.
In Eagle Township, similar complaints ramped up last year, when the township board agreed to have its supervisor sign a non-disclosure agreement on behalf of the government body to gain information on the site.
Nearly a year later, the property still is being marketed to potential investors even as community members mount an opposition campaign that’s resulted in the filing of recall petitions against two Eagle Township leaders, packed township meetings and an increase of yard signs saying “No Eagle Megasite” dotting properties around Michigan State’s farmland.
The change to the township’s way of life, should it eventually land a company with the magnitude of what’s being sought for the land, would be “incomprehensible” and concerns about those changes should be heard, said Dennis Strahle, a trustee for Eagle Township.
“I’m asking them to be a good neighbor and not go for the highest dollar,” Strahle said of MSU’s planned sale of the land. “This is a life-changing event. It is going to forever alter this township if it comes to be.”
Other township leaders see the sale of the MSU land as inevitable and the township’s responsibility as putting whatever guardrails in place it can for the upcoming development.
“How do you stop a freight train other than to be ahead and put some guidelines and stipulations in place?” Eagle Township Supervisor Patti Schafer said. “You don’t want it to run over you.”
The Lansing Economic Area Partnership, an economic development organization that is helping the state assemble land and attract businesses for the site, stressed there is support for the project.
“This site in Eagle Township in Clinton County is uniquely positioned to attract high-tech investment and bring our supply chain back to the U.S., to bring manufacturing back that has long been outsourced,” LEAP Chief Strategic Officer Victoria Meadows said. “It can bring thousands of local high-skill, high-wage jobs to folks right here in mid-Michigan.”
The future of farmland
The majority of the land comprising the Michigan Manufacturing Innovation Campus in Eagle Township currently belongs to Michigan State University, which signed an option agreement in August to sell the property for the development.
At about $21,500 an acre, the sale would bring in about $21.9 million if MSU were to sell the full 1,018 acres detailed in the option agreement, according to a copy of the deal. The option has not yet been executed by PG&W LLC, a subsidiary incorporated in April 2022 by the Lansing Economic Area Partnership to assemble the land needed for the industrial site.
MSU acquired the land under an agreement with farmer and philanthropist David Morris in 2005 that anticipated an eventual sale of the property and stipulated that about 55% of the sale proceeds would go to MSU while the other 45% would head to the Clark Retirement Communities, according to a copy of the memorandum of understanding between Morris and MSU.
Morris, the former Eagle Township supervisor, died in 2009.
There’s been concern voiced in the community over Michigan State’s sale of Morris’ land, which was transferred to the university along with an area farmer’s 25-year crop lease of the property.
Any sale of the land will transfer the lease to the new owners, “who will work in partnership with the leaseholder to determine the future of that arrangement,” MSU spokesman Dan Olsen said.
“Importantly, it was the donor’s intention that the land eventually be sold and that subsequent proceeds MSU received would go toward endowments that invest in the education, research discoveries and outreach programs that strengthen Michigan agriculture,” Olsen said.
Patty Morris Raymond, David Morris’ daughter, said she was surprised last year to learn of MSU’s intent to sell the land. She believed her father would have wanted the university to wait until the expiration of the 25-year lease in 2031 before entertaining offers.
“Once the lease is up, it’s their land,” Raymond said. “They’re going to do what they want with it. But I think they should at least honor the 25 years.”
Jake Clark, who farms corn, soy beans and wheat on the property, said about eight years remain on the lease entered into with Morris, and he’s hoping that it will remain in place under the new owners.
Clark was limited in his remarks on the future of the lease agreement, noting Michigan State University required him to sign a non-disclosure agreement regarding the property. But he was freer with his thoughts on the megasite plans in general.
“As a farmer, you know that land is going to be used for housing and development, but not on a magnitude like this,” Clark said. “And not discussing it with the community is really unsettling for everyone in the community.
“Land is a resource that is overlooked all the time. They don’t make any more of it. And when it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Debate over transparency, support
LEAP officials said they started marketing the Michigan Manufacturing Innovation Campus in October 2022 for a potential development they hope will generate thousands of high-skill, high-wage jobs.
Besides MSU’s land, LEAP is amassing options for additional property in the area, with a total of 1,400 acres for the growing manufacturing campus. The “shovel-ready site” is being positioned to compete for large-scale economic development, including for industries such as semiconductors, electric vehicles and advanced batteries.
There’s currently no development agreement for the property, LEAP’s Meadows said.
“As it stands, we are just looking forward to moving forward with the community to shape something there that meets everyone’s needs,” Meadows said.
The community appears somewhat divided on the issue.
Two recall petitions have been submitted against members of the Eagle Township Board of Trustees: One against Schafer, the supervisor, for signing a non-disclosure agreement and one against Treasurer Kathy Oberg for tabling a discussion at a February meeting on establishing a planning commission to take over duties usually left to the county.
Schafer noted she signed the non-disclosure agreement on behalf of the board and with the board’s approval. Oberg noted the vote was unanimous in favor of tabling a discussion on the planning commission.
Strahle, another Eagle Township trustee, acknowledged that the board voted to allow Schafer to sign the non-disclosure agreement on behalf of the board. That vote in March 2022 marked the first time Strahle had heard of a potential development for that area.
“We trusted what she was telling us was the right thing to do, so we said OK,” Strahle said. But the nondisclosure agreement has proven ineffective in getting additional information on potential suitors for the land, he said, and the reach of the NDA has proven daunting.
During a press conference last week, Meadows called the recall petition “really disappointing”
“We should really be rallying around our leaders who are trying to bring jobs to our community and bring our supply chain back to the United States,” she said. “I sort of see that as an unfortunate distraction from the community process that we’re very eager to be engaged with the community around.”
Eagle Township Trustee Richard Jones said he would oppose a development that would bring in a Chinese-affiliated company, as was the case in the Big Rapids area. But he said, overall, an American manufacturing operation in Eagle Township would be a benefit to the community.
But he acknowledged the issue has created a whirlwind of controversy. In a township that usually draws one or two people to its board meetings, recent gatherings have drawn packed crowds, and last Thursday’s meeting focused on the development lasted at least four hours.
“I think there’s a lot of people who are mountain climbing molehills,” said Jones, noting no company has made an offer for the site. “They’re very heated about not wanting any involvement with it.”
The township can’t stop progress, nor can it stop a private land owner like MSU from selling for an eventual development, Schafer said. But she hopes the township will have a seat at the table to ensure the land is protected from contamination if such a development comes to pass.
“If everybody thinks that we’re not all scared, then they’re crazy,” Schafer said. “We’ve never had anything like this before. But MSU does have property rights. You just can’t stop something like this, in my opinion.”
Posted By: REjournals on April 27, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Tight vacancy rates. Resilience. And growth. These are all positives of the U.S. retail sector according to the latest research from Cushman & Wakefield.
According to a first-quarter report from Cushman & Wakefield, the U.S. retail sector started 2023 riding the same healthy trends that it exhibited throughout last year. That includes a low vacancy rate for shopping centers thanks to strong tenant demand and limited new construction.
The national vacancy rate for retail shopping centers measured 5.6% across the United States in the first quarter of this year, according to Cushman & Wakefield. That’s the lowest this figure has been since at least 2007, with certain retail segments like value retail, ultra-luxury and consumer services performing especially well.
“Certain retail segments should continue to see healthy activity. While spending on discretionary goods was already slowing after a pandemic surge, the pivot to more service-based consumption is a positive for retail uses like health and wellness or experiential retail, which typically necessitate in-person transactions and drive foot traffic throughout shopping centers,” said Barrie Scardina, Cushman & Wakefield’s Head of Retail, Americas, in a written statement.
This shouldn’t be surprising. The retail sector has long been strong, showing resilience even during the heightened economic uncertainty brought on by higher interest rates and inflation. Even with weaker job growth, consumers continue to spend at shopping centers.
The first quarter of 2023 was the eighth consecutive three-month period of positive net absorption in the retail CRE market. Cushman & Wakefield reported that the country saw 2.5 million square feet of retail absorption during the quarter.
Demand was especially strong in regions such as Houston, New York and Phoenix, while markets with negative absorption were mainly clustered in the West and Midwest regions, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Diego, Seattle, Sacramento, Detroit and Kansas City. Neighborhood/community centers and strip centers experienced positive absorption, while power centers contracted for the first time in two years.
This doesn’t mean that the retail sector doesn’t face challenges. Cushman & Wakefield reported that new retail construction remained low in the first quarter of 2023, with just 1.7 million square feet of space delivered nationally. While the pipeline for new projects has improved from a pandemic-era low, tighter construction financing options and higher debt costs will limit further rebound in the near term, Cushman & Wakefield predicted.
“Near-term challenges have not yet deterred retailers from seeking out the value that physical retail locations provide in terms of profitability and customer acquisition over the long term,” said Scardina. “That is not to say that the coast is clear. Retailers are preparing for more challenging times ahead, with many large-cap names missing earnings estimates and marking down 2023 growth projections. Investors are taking notice and pressuring retailers to cut costs, which could eventually lead to rolling back of real estate investments.”
Posted By: Commercial Property Executive on April 24, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
A new survey by design firm SGA highlights both traditional and emerging preferences.
The top amenities currently in demand by office users are a mix of both continuing and emerging trends, including coffee shops, air-purification systems, access to outdoor space, grab-and-go/premade breakfast and lunch, and quiet lounges, a new survey by SGA has found.
SGA is a national, multi-disciplinary firm with offices in Boston and New York City and whose work spans interior design, architecture and master planning for commercial clients and life sciences, academic and mixed-use projects.
The firm’s survey results, SGA says, “demonstrate a reflection of larger societal shifts: a greater focus on personal well-being and safety, interest in sustainable modes of transportation, convenient places to grab food and packages, and spaces that facilitate social interactions.”
The survey also found that office workers don’t need “an overly robust amenity program in their building or campus,” with options like pet grooming or athletic courts. Instead, SGA observes, “Traditional amenities such as a staffed security desk and reservable meeting rooms continue to be important while modern amenities like IT bars, bike parking and gender-neutral restrooms are emerging trends demonstrating the state of the evolving workplace.”
Health and wellness was a key area in the survey. Besides 86 percent of respondents saying an air-purification system is a must-have or highly desirable, 78 percent said the same about access to an outdoor patio or roof deck. While two-thirds said a basic unstaffed fitness center is a must-have or highly desirable, only about one-third (35 percent) ranked a “robust staffed fitness center” as desirable.
“With hybrid work the new norm, spaces and programs that facilitate connectivity—both in-person and virtually—are highly desirable,” SGA reports. They noted, for instance, that flexible meeting areas let tenants accommodate large gatherings without having to dedicate rentable space to only occasional functions.
Also on the productivity side, quiet lounges and staffed IT/tech bars were rated by 72 percent and 64 percent of respondents as must-have or highly desirable amenities, respectively.
Basic needs
People get hungry and e-commerce is stronger than ever, so emerging trends favor pickup areas for the delivery of meals and lockers for package deliveries. Also desired are convenience stores and food trucks.
Emerging trends related to transportation include EV charging stations (52 percent must-have or strongly desirable) and bike parking and bike repair facilities (44 percent strongly or somewhat desirable).
Respondents spanned 19 states, though nearly 90 percent were in the Northeast. Generationally, survey respondents were 10 percent Baby Boomers, 26 percent Gen X, 52 percent Millennials and 12 percent Gen Z.
Posted By: The Detroit News on April 26, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Sterling Group, developer of the high-rise apartment complex that’s taking shape on the site of the former Joe Louis Arena, released new details about the project Wednesday as it prepares to begin pre-leasing this summer.
The Residences at Water Square at 222 Third St. is a 25-story, all-glass residential high-rise that developers say “redefines downtown living with unprecedented levels of design, comfort, and service.”
“This is a very unique project in terms of what it brings to the City of Detroit,” said Danny Samson, chief development officer of Sterling Group. “There’s not really been a residential tower of this nature. What I mean by that is — of this scale. It’s 25 stories, 300 feet tall and an all-glass building, so the units are floor-to-ceiling glass with spectacular views. So there’s no obstruction. So when you walk up to the outer walls of your unit, you’re looking right down the river right into the skyline of the city of Detroit.”
Each unit at the Residences at Water Square will feature 10-foot floor-to-ceiling windows and high-end touches, developers said. The 496 units will be studios, one-bedroom and two-bedroom penthouses on the 25th floor. Residents will have access to amenities, including concierge services, valet parking, fitness center, an all-season pool with an outdoor sun deck, a rooftop terrace and sky lounges.
Pre-leasing will begin in August, with an expected move-in date of February 2024. All the units will be market rate and pricing will likely be determined closer to summer, Samson said.
Crews are adding the final floors to the top of the building, while the units on the bottom are near completion, Samson said.
“At the top, we’re pouring concrete, and at the bottom, we’re installing appliances and countertops and cabinets already. …” he said. “The construction and everything in between is happening. So as we pour floors at the top, we’re finishing floors at the bottom and making our way up.”
Mayor Mike Duggan said the Residences at Water Square will be the city’s first new riverfront residential high-rise since Riverfront Towers opened 40 years ago.
“The big difference is that in 1983, our riverfront was a collection of cement silos and asphalt parking lots while today we have what is widely recognized as the nation’s most beautiful public Riverwalk,” Duggan said in a statement. “I’m grateful to the Sterling Group for adding this beautiful new riverfront tower to our revitalized riverfront.”
The new details about the high-rise come as Sterling Group is in talks with the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority board about building a 600- to 800-room hotel that would be connected to Huntington Place. The two entities entered an agreement in January. The convention center sits within a short walking distance of the Residences at Water Square. Samson provided no update Wednesday on those discussions.
“We’re really focused on delivering the residential tower on time and on schedule on budget and any future phases we’ll be announcing subsequently,” he said.
Posted By: The Detroit News on April 24, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Bed Bath & Beyond’s liquidation plan may weigh on one source of U.S. retail profits in the short term as the market is inundated with liquidated home and baby products — but it leaves a long-term prize of about $5 billion in annual revenue for competitors.
Once deep discounts from Bed Bath & Beyond’s and Buy Buy Baby’s closing sales are over, Target is a likely beneficiary, Piper Sandler analyst Edward Yruma said in a note to clients Monday. Target is in line for an eventual boost of about 40 cents a share to annualized earnings, he said. Amazon.com and Walmart will also pick up more sales.
“We believe that we are entering a new phase of retail industry consolidation and that Target and Walmart will be long-term share beneficiaries,” Yruma said.
The liquidation will accelerate market-share gains that rivals have been grabbing for years at Bed Bath & Beyond’s expense. Once lauded as a category killer in home furnishings, the retailer has watched as annual sales tumbled to a little more than $5 billion, down from more than $12 billion for the fiscal year ended in early 2019. After filing for bankruptcy protection over the weekend, Bed Bath & Beyond is winding down 360 stores and 120 Buy Buy Baby shops by June 30.
While Bed Bath & Beyond hasn’t reported results for its most recent fiscal year, sales in its fiscal fourth quarter fell by almost $1 billion, Holly Etlin, the company’s chief restructuring officer, said in a court filing. That would imply revenue of a little more than $1 billion for the period, bringing the annual total to approximately $5.2 billion. Bed Bath & Beyond estimated that aggregate net proceeds from all sales of its remaining goods will be approximately $718 million.
Minneapolis-based Target is positioned to get $500 million to $1 billion in extra sales thanks to the void left by Bed Bath & Beyond, said Michael Baker, an analyst at D.A. Davidson. That would still represent a relatively small part of the $19.5 billion that Target sold in home furnishings and decor in 2022, which was an off year for the category: Consumers pivoted away from discretionary goods last year after gorging themselves on such products when stuck at home for much of 2020 and 2021.
Smaller companies such as Williams-Sonoma Inc. will also benefit over the long term from Bed Bath & Beyond’s exit, Bank of America said in a report. Wayfair and Overstock.com will probably get a modest sales boost.
Bed Bath & Beyond said it’s still searching for a buyer for some or all of its assets, so some parts of its business may stick around in one form or another. A shutdown of Buy Buy Baby would leave the U.S. without a national retailer dedicated to selling baby goods, giving rival companies another category to potentially pounce on.
“There really is no one doing that, at least on a national scale,” Baker said, referring to baby-related merchandise. “That means opportunities for mom-and-pops and online solutions, although we never really knew the profitability of it.”
Posted By: DBUSINESS on April 26, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
Our very own, Bruce Baja and Marvin Petrous are proud to represent Caribou Coffee as they plan to open 50+ new locations right here in Michigan.
Caribou Coffee, a premium coffeehouse franchisor and Panera Brands company, has announced the signing of several multi-unit development agreements to add more than 300 new locations domestically, including multiple locations in Michigan.
Paul Saber and Patrick Rogers, who own the California-based Manna Development Group that operates 25 Panera Bread franchises across Michigan, including locations in Grand Rapids, Holland, Kalamazoo, Traverse City, and Jackson, plan to develop more than 50 Caribou Coffee outlets in the state (exact locations have yet to be announced).
Caribou Coffee is part of the Panera Brands’ portfolio consisting of complementary brands, which includes Panera Bread and Bagel Brands.
“Over the past 30 years, Caribou Coffee has refined and elevated the guest experience through an unwavering commitment to quality, as well as strategic investments in innovation,” says John Butcher, president and CEO of Caribou Coffee. “With a shared vision and commitment to Caribou’s core values, we’re thrilled to be further expanding our footprint nationwide alongside such experienced and passionate operators, and we look forward to supporting their success.”
Founded in 1992, Caribou Coffee has emerged as a leader in the coffeehouse segment, known for innovative handcrafted products and award-winning customer experience.
Industry-leading innovations in restaurant design have positioned Caribou Coffee for nationwide expansion, including the 2019 roll-out of its drive-thru focused Caribou cabin prototype featuring a significantly smaller footprint, designed to offer speed and convenience without sacrificing quality and service.
The Caribou cabin design coupled with the concept’s traditional coffeehouse prototype featuring a larger footprint for sit-down dining offers franchisees flexible real estate offerings that can cater to the unique criteria of their market.
From using premium ingredients like real chocolate chips and real caramel sauce for their handcrafted beverages, to sourcing 100 percent Rainforest Alliance Certified green coffee, Caribou Coffee offers retail products in all 50 states.
Caribou Coffee provides handcrafted coffee-forward beverages and food options in more than 750 coffeehouses worldwide.
As of March 28, Caribou Coffee has 330 company-owned, 141 non-traditional, and 294 traditional franchise locations in 11 countries. The company is also a craft roaster and retailer of specialty bagged coffee, K-Cup Pods and ready-to-drink products, which can be found online and in grocery stores, mass retailers, club stores, dining venues, and offices in the U.S.
COSTAR IMPACT AWARDS – 2023 SALE/ACQUISITION OF THE YEAR
REIT’s Warehouse Acquisition Taps Demand for Industrial Space in Northwest Ohio
About the Project: One Liberty Properties, Inc., bought the 251,500-square-foot, two-building warehouse 6305 and 6507 Fairfield Drive in Northwood, Ohio, in a deal that closed on Nov. 15, 2022.
What the Judges Said: “Broker stuck with the property/client for 20-plus years, did leasing prior, and consummated a large sale in town. He added value to the client through leasing in preparation for marketing the asset.” — Evan Lyons, senior director, Encore Real Estate Investment Services.
Continued leasing activity and substantially increasing rents over two years of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the demand and potential of two warehouses to real estate investment trust One Liberty Properties, which closed on a deal to buy the two buildings for $17.2 million.
The sale, which involved 6305 and 6507 Fairfield Drive in Northwood, a suburb of Toledo, also included a trailer parking lot on 18.2 acres. The total square footage of the warehouses is 251,500. The price includes $6 million of mortgage debt with an interest rate of 3.57%, according to a news release issued by One Liberty Properties at the time of sale.
Robert Mack, vice president and principal of Signature Associates, brokered the deal. He also brokered the sale of the land to Miller Valentine Group of Dayton — now Kuhlmen Realty Services — and has been a listing agent for the property for the past 24 years.
A long-term dedication to bringing and maintaining key industrial space in the Toledo market earned the warehouse lease a 2023 CoStar Impact Award, as judged by real estate professionals familiar with the market.
“Fast-forward through COVID, and with continued leasing activity and increasing rents within the building and especially within the marketplace, the partners were revisiting the prospect of a sale,” he wrote.
“Purchaser candidates submitted offers from both the east and west coast and also locally.”
“The buyer [One Liberty Properties] recognized substantially increasing rents and the immediate submarket as a result of the successful leasing of new spec buildings, revealing substantial demand that would outpace the existing supply and future supply of buildings under construction. The buildings remain 100% leased.”
Based in Great Neck, New York, One Liberty Properties has a portfolio of 121 properties in 31 states, totaling more than 11.3 million square feet of space. The properties range from industrial to retail, restaurant, fitness, grocery and office.
CoStar’s Impact Awards highlight the commercial real estate transactions and projects that have transformed their markets over the past year. The winners are chosen by independent panels of industry professionals who work in the markets they judge. Learn more about the awards here.
Posted By: Hometown Life on April 13, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
City officials recently took another step toward approving a proposed $30 million luxury apartment complex along Northwestern Highway.
City council voted 5-1 Monday to approve a planned unit development for a four-story apartment community at 32680 Northwestern Highway, near the corner of 14 Mile Road. Developers revised their original proposal for the 5.5-acre site, which was a five-story building presented in 2021.
“As I’ve said many times before, I think this is a very nice development,” Councilman Randy Bruce said. “This has been an eyesore in the city for decades.”
Councilman Ken Massey voted against the plan, citing previously noted concerns with long-term maintenance of apartment communities in general. Councilwoman Valerie Knol was absent.
Developers with NWH Holdings are planning to build 217 apartments with options from one to three bedrooms. Monthly rent is projected between between $1,800 and $3,000. Amenities would include in-home laundry, a gym and a pool.
The original proposal, which was approved by the planning commission, included 249 units at the site, which has been vacant for years. Council tabled the proposal last year and requested revisions to the plan.
The proposed apartments are targeted toward young professionals with higher incomes. Multiple council members said they think the development will help bring more young adults to the city.
“As a mom of three — three under 30 — I know how hard it is to own a home,” Councilwoman Mary Newlin said. “This rent is a little bit higher than I expected, but it is in line with what’s being paid out there. It’s going to be a big draw.”
The proposal still needs site plan approval from council and the planning commission. Developers said they expect to break ground next year if a site plan is approved.
Posted By: Hometown Life on March 1, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
New plans for the under-construction RH building will put Birmingham in a unique class, according to its architect.
The Birmingham City Commission Feb. 27 approved a special land use permit and final site plan for the building under construction at 300-394 S. Old Woodward that will change the design from what was approved in 2021.
“We’re very excited about the new design, the new direction. This was not being done to save money, this is actually going to cost a lot more money,” architect Victor Saroki said. “But it is a beautiful, more elegant design and it is in the spirit of where RH is going as a company.”
This new design, Saroki said, is a new concept for the company formerly known as Restoration Hardware.
The new plans will shift parts of the building, including the restaurant planned for the top level, to the east so it faces Old Woodward.
“In flipping the entire building 180 degrees, it allowed the stairs and elevators, as I mentioned earlier, to move to the back,” Saroki said. “When we allow those to move to the back, that then allowed the restaurant orientation to face South Old Woodward and those outdoor terraces.”
The development has been in the works for years. The changes were first presented to the city’s planning board in December and received a recommendation for approval. Once constructed, the building will stand four stories and provide customers with a vast showroom of furnishings and other items for their homes.
The site will be the first full-service RH gallery in Michigan. The national, high-end home furnishing company currently operates a smaller outlet store at Maple and Telegraph in Bloomfield Township.
Most of the commission members spoke positively on the development, including Mayor Therese Long. She said while the new building was exciting, she wants RH to be sensitive about parking in the area and not affect those who live nearby.
“All of the comments we made about sensitivity about parking in the neighborhoods still stand. We want you to be aware that they still stand,” she said. “We are thrilled for this development, but we do not want it to be a burden to the surrounding neighborhoods.”
Posted By: The Detroit News on April 9, 2023. For more information, please click here to read the source article.
The idea that would eventually become a business valued at more than $1 billion first struck Mujeeb Ijaz in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic when he — like many people — was spending a lot of time in Zoom meetings.
“I’m thinking a lot about, what am I actually doing? What am I accomplishing? Is this the right use of my time?” he told The Detroit News in an interview. “And then I’m kind of also simultaneously observing that the market of electric vehicles is emerging. And I wanted to be a part of that.”
Ijaz wrote down three problems, as he saw it, with the current EV market: Range, chemistry and supply chains. Months later, Ijaz — a former Apple Inc. and Ford Motor Co. engineer with decades of experience in the automotive industry — founded Our Next Energy, an energy storage technology startup dedicated to solving those problems.
The ambitions are high: double the range of EVs on the road today, go all in on a battery cell chemistry that is not yet widely used, and contribute to the buildout of the nascent U.S. EV supply chain — a goal increasingly considered a national security imperative amid China’s dominance in the space even as securing supplies remains a business necessity.
“My worst case scenario is I’ll leave Apple and I’ll need a job because this will fail,” Ijaz recalled thinking at the time. “My best case scenario is that I can make these three come true together, and it’ll become an invaluable company with the capability to grow into the U.S. battery supply chain.”
Now, nearly three years on, ONE has 10 customers, a product on the market and revenue on the books — plus the help of federal incentives designed to support exactly the type of work the startup is doing. The company, which just closed a Series B funding round, is preparing to launch production at a $1.6 billion battery plant in Van Buren Township next year. It’s expanding into the utility grid sector, with a product launching in 2025. And it’s developing a battery that targets more than 600 miles of range on a single charge.
All of this, Ijaz believes, is laying the groundwork for ONE to begin supplying passenger EVs in the coming years, just as federal policies, business strategies and consumer demand are aligning to create a mainstream market for plug-in vehicles. That market, he believes, will require vehicles that can seamlessly handle real-world conditions.
“That’s the market we’re going after solving,” he said from ONE’s Novi headquarters, “because that’s the mass market.”
Going all-in on LFP
Ijaz, a 1990 Virginia Tech graduate, first found himself in Michigan as part of the GM Sunrayce USA, which sent college students across the country in solar-powered cars. He opted to make a career out of EVs, landing after a couple of years at Ford, where he became known as “the battery guy.”
He left after 16 years there for battery tech startup A123 Systems before joining Apple, where he spent several years working on the tech company’s secret car project.
An EV enthusiast who owns several models across different brands and has a collection of early 20th-century electric cars in the lobby of ONE’s headquarters, Ijaz has long been a proponent of battery-powered vehicles. But he saw electric projects come and go over the course of his career, and only in the last few years saw automakers going all in on electrification amid Tesla Inc.’s success and tightening government mandates to phase out fossil fuel-burning vehicles.
Even now, he believes some auto executives may not be fully attuned to what he believes consumers want from an EV: enough battery range to avoid inconvenient, time-consuming charging stops on trips — especially in conditions that deplete batteries, like cold temperatures and highway driving speeds.
“The real-world range of an electric car that promises you 300 (miles) is about half that, or two-thirds to be best case,” Ijaz said. “And in that context, I decided that if we were to target 600 miles on a single charge for an electric car, that that would be enough range that we would actually make it past the market slowing down, and it would fully emerge.”
The Aries LFP battery, ONE’s first product, is making its way to customers in the coming weeks. The pack has 150 miles of range on a single charge and is geared toward commercial customers like delivery drivers. The Piston Group, which is a contract manufacturer for the Aries, launched mass production of saleable packs last month, and ONE is starting to generate revenue.
ONE is now prototyping the next-gen Aries II, targeting more than 350 miles of range for cars and light trucks.
That’s in preparation for ONE’s next big step, which is the start of production late next year at ONE Circle, a battery plant that is slated to have the capacity to produce enough cells to power 200,000 EVs annually by 2027 and to employ more than 2,100 people. The plant will initially produce the next-gen Aries battery, then in 2026 will add the Gemini platform that targets more than 600 miles of range. That product would incorporate two cell chemistries in a single pack.
All of ONE’s products are centered on the same cell chemistry: lithium iron phosphate, or LFP. To date, the automotive industry has primarily focused on lithium-ion batteries with nickel-cobalt chemistries that boost range. But there are ethical, cost and supply constraints with those materials. And battery chemistries that use nickel and cobalt tend to carry a higher fire risk.
“There’s a lot of potential for LFP,” said Sam Abuelsamid, principal research analyst at Guidehouse Insights.
LFP, he explained, has the advantages of lower costs, better safety and greater durability than nickel-rich chemistries. The downside is lower energy density, and thus lower range — but ONE and other companies are mitigating that by moving to a battery pack architecture that eliminates packaging and boosts density and range.
And ONE expects the hybrid design of the Gemini pack to have further advantages. It will rely primarily on LFP, but incorporate proprietary anode-free chemistry to extend range on longer trips.
“At the heart of our company, everything we’re doing is LFP,” Ijaz said. “But we don’t need to wait for the auto market on that. The commercial market is a much faster market.”
Not waiting for the ‘Holy Grail’
For all of Ijaz’s ambitions around transforming the EV experience, he says he is in no great hurry to enter the market for passenger EVs. For now, ONE is focused on customers in the commercial and utility grid sectors, where it sees a $7.5 billion revenue opportunity over a five-year period.
The startup has a $1.3 billion revenue target over the next three years, ahead of an eventual initial public offering.
“I’ve seen a lot of startups fail because they wait too long to get to the Holy Grail” of generating revenue, said Ijaz. “So what we’re doing is, let’s do LFP commercial, then LFP grid, then let’s transition to automotive, and then let’s get the automotive market to adopt us. But we’re not rushing it. We’re not going in and trying to pitch that we’re ready for automotive. Because actually, we do have a lot of work to do to stand up our investment, our infrastructure, our first factory.”
ONE started amid waning investor confidence in EV startups, as those that have gone public have been slow to produce revenue or products at scale. The result, noted Guidehouse’s Abuelsamid, is that many mobility startups have seen their stock prices plummet, cutting them off from fresh capital markets funding.
“If (ONE) can demonstrate, ‘We can do this here,’ and show how they can scale it up,” he said, “they’ll be more likely to start getting some of those big automaker contracts.”
Even in ONE’s few years in business, the dynamics of the battery market have shifted considerably. Backed by federal policy, automakers have accelerated their electrification plans and are increasingly embracing vertical integration. All three Detroit automakers have ownership stakes in battery plants; Ford is even building its own LFP battery plant in Marshall, Michigan.
Ford executives say introducing LFP batteries into their lineup will help contain costs and better meet the full range of customer needs: “LFP has a much lower cost structure — and quite honestly, the characteristics of the LFP battery aligns with our commercial vehicle business much better — higher density, you can charge it multiple times, less degradation,” Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said at a recent investor event.
Much of the battery investment by ONE, Ford and others has been driven by federal policy like the Inflation Reduction Act, which is aimed at boosting domestic production of EVs, batteries and other components, and from which ONE, among others, will get subsidies.
Since President Joe Biden has taken office, companies have announced some $210 billion in investments in the EV industry, according to a report commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council, putting the United States on track to attract nearly a quarter of all announced EV investments globally. Automakers and battery manufacturers have committed some $54 billion to build or expand 37 EV battery plants across the country.
Ijaz isn’t deterred by the stiffening competition, including from automakers he hopes to one day supply. Nick Twork, ONE’s vice president of business development and marketing, said the company has talked with “pretty much every large auto company,” in part because sourcing batteries from ONE would help automakers meet the criteria needed to qualify for IRA tax credits.
“I’m glad to see the OEMs embracing vertical integration because what it means is they’re building up expertise internally,” said Ijaz. “But there’s always going to be a make-buy decision. And OEMs will get deep vertical skill, followed by a pendulum settling into, what do we want to make, what do we want to buy?”
Abuelsamid estimated that some 1.5 terawatt hours of battery capacity will be needed in the coming years to support EV production in North America alone: “Right now, the battery plants that have been announced through 2026, get us about halfway there. There’s still lots of room for growth.”
Where Ijaz believes ONE can be competitive as a battery cell supplier because of advantages he thinks the startup will derive from its sourcing strategies: “We plan also to go deep on materials — not just the value chain of putting a cell together, but the value chain of creating the raw materials and the battery materials. We’re going to go all the way vertical ourselves.”
ONE is now in the process of developing partnerships to make cathodes. Eventually, Ijaz expects a division within the company to focus solely on materials.
“We don’t know where their (automakers’) decision-making will go,” Ijaz said. “But we certainly think diversification of supply chain and the industry growing and transitioning, is going to need companies like ONE, especially here in the U.S., to stand up manufacturing. And we think the OEMs will embrace that eventually.”