Inspired by Beaumont Children’s patient, Jonny Hendricks, Zeal Credit Union CEO Tony Carnarvon and other Zeal employees paid a visit to Beaumont Children’s in mid-December to present a donation of $1,500 to Jennifer Shea, manager of Student Heart Check for Children’s Miracle Network.
Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Brooke Proverb, from Macomb, helps identify a patient’s correct prescription for glasses at one of two medical sites. The hospital ship USNS Comfort is on an 11-week medical support mission to Central and South America as part of U.S. Southern Command’s Enduring Promise initiative. The deployment reflects the United States’ enduring promise of friendship, partnership and solidarity with the Americas.
Comcast has promoted Lisa Kocsis-LeCureux to Vice President of Customer Service Strategy and Operations for the company’s Heartland region which includes Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky. She will also retain responsibility for Comcast’s Project Management Office.
Fierce Conversations, a training company that teaches how to have effective conversations, recently released its 2019 workforce predictions, and it was no surprise that there was a lot about Generation Z.
There is no doubt that the makeup of organizations is rapidly shifting as baby boomers retire while millennials and Gen Z take over the majority of new jobs. With this fountain of youth comes a fearless, public and often tactless communication style, which is impacting the workplace in real ways.
“At Fierce, we help companies and individuals talk about what they truly need to talk about — tackling their toughest challenges and building relationships in the process,” said Stacey Engle, president of Fierce Conversations. “This year’s predictions highlight a growing awareness of the need to address problems head on – which a new generation of workers has thrust into the spotlight.”
Fierce through Engle predicts Generation Z will no longer be ignored. An estimated 61 million Gen Zs will apply for jobs in the U.S. next year, many entering the workforce for the first time. Organizations will be forced to adjust to this new reality in 2019, and in order to be successful, will need to find innovative ways to invest more heavily in their training from the get-go.
Fierce believes 2019 will be an area of growth in this regard, as organizations figure out the best way to engage with this new generation. A part of this will no doubt be providing the right resources to this tech-savvy generation to help them succeed both in the short and long term.
Gen Z grew up during the 2008 recession, with smartphones a way of life, and an on-demand economy that provided what they wanted, when they wanted it. They value different things, and it’s important for employees to understand these disparities.
Here’s what Engle had to say about how a business can attract Gen Z workers:
Be Authentic — Perhaps more than anything else, Gen Z values authenticity, and the workplace is no exception. Organizations that communicate openly, honestly and frequently will have a leg up on those with more archaic, stale communication systems in place.
Provide Job Stability & Opportunity Quickly — Not surprisingly, Gen Zers have an incredibly low attention span — only 8 seconds compared to 12 seconds for millennials, according to Vision Critical — and have a low threshold for boredom. To attract and guarantee your Gen Z workers stick with your organization for the long term, be open with details into the health and future of the company often, and provide insight into what an employee’s career trajectory could look like more frequently than a simple once-per-year performance review. Gen Z wants to feel immediately that they are secure in their job and can picture what could be on the horizon for them in the coming year, 5 years and even 10 years from now.
Make Social Welfare a Priority — Providing opportunities to give back both as an organization and individually is highly attractive to this generation, such as allowing time off for volunteering or matching donations.
Highlight Diversity Programs — This generation is more diverse than any other before it and is also more welcoming of those who are different than themselves. They seek organizations that not only are accepting of a diverse workforce, but encourage it and commit themselves to inclusion programs.
Technology Innovation – Organizations that are constantly updating their technology as the latest and greatest will prove successful in engaging Gen Z. Ensure everything from recruiting (video resumes!) to onboarding to internal learning and communication is done in a tech-savvy way, as this generation has come to expect it. They will want the ability to work anywhere and any way that they please and communicate with those they work with this way as well (from co-workers to company leaders).
Create In-Person Opportunities —While technology is important, do not make assumptions about technology use. This generation will still have a strong desire to travel and interact in-person. Do not swing the pendulum too far to only digital offerings.
Hello West Michigan has become a model for what a successful talent attraction organization can be, according to Rachel Bartels, and that is why she is thrilled to become its next Executive Director.
Her goal, beyond working with what she describes as “an amazing team that I’m now privileged to lead,” is to educate, attract, and connect people to West Michigan.
Started by local companies in 2007, Hello West Michigan promotes the 13-county West Michigan region as a place where business thrives and people want to live and work. It seeks to increase the rate of success member companies have in their effort to recruit top talent and collaborates with organizations across the region to help new residents and those interested in relocating find their fit in West Michigan.
For almost six years, Bartels served as program manager for Hello West Michigan, which is based in Grand Rapids. In this role, she was responsible for the organization’s marketing, event planning and communications. A graduate of Aquinas College, also is the founding co-chair of AQ Women’s Connection and on the Association for Corporate Growth, ACG Cup Competition planning committee.
Corp! magazine caught up with Bartels and found out her goals for this year and beyond. Here is a part of the conversation:
Q: What are you most excited about in this new role?
A: In my new role as executive director, I’m excited to dedicate more of my time towards brainstorming the strategic side of things. While I did quite a bit of that as program manager—a necessity when part of a small team—I also had a lot of tactical responsibilities. This new role gives me the opportunity to better focus on strategically developing our programs and partnerships.
Q: What makes West Michigan a great spot to invest in and be?
A: How much space for this column again…? All kidding aside, there are so many things that make West Michigan a great place to invest in and call home. The region houses 30,000 payroll companies across various industries, each contributing to the diverse economic profile of West Michigan. With several companies in each industry, ranging from small, family-owned operations to large, global firms, it’s never a ‘one-and-done’ deal for job-seekers. If someone relocates here for a job and it doesn’t work out, there’s almost always opportunities elsewhere within the same industry. When you combine our economic diversity and the depth of our industry clusters with great quality of life, low cost of living, and a beautiful locale, you really have a top-notch destination for talent.
Q: What are your goals for the next 6-12 months?
A: In the next 6-12 months, my biggest goal is onboarding a new team member to fill my vacant program manager position. It’s the first full-time role we’ve hired for in almost six years, so onboarding will look much different from when I began, due to how much the organization has grown since then. I’m excited to help the next person shape their role within Hello West Michigan. Programmatically, we’re looking at a new event concept for West Michigan Intern Connect, now in its 6th year, as well as continuing to grow our multi-location Thanksgiving Eve event, ReThink West Michigan. We’ve also begun brainstorming a retention program with high school students, which would be an entirely new undertaking for us.
Q: What do you like to do with your free time in West Michigan?
A: I’m not orginally from West Michigan, so I love discovering what the region has to offer, which means spending time outdoors, winter or summer. In the summertime, I prefer not to travel outside of Michigan, because I’d almost always rather be at one of our beaches along Lake Michigan instead. I also love the access to fresh, local produce we have here. It’s not uncommon for my family and I to visit a u-pick farm and take home 30-40 pounds of blueberries at once. In winter, I love cross country skiing. When talking with newcomers, I always suggest picking up a snowsport as a great way to thrive during a West Michigan winter. You could never get me out of bed on a winter day at 8:00 a.m. to go running for 30 minutes, but I’ll be up just as early with bells on to go skiing for a couple of hours. Year-round, I spend a good amount of time volunteering with the community boards I’m on, which I feel is a pretty big deal for young professionals. In larger cities, young people don’t always have access to those types of opportunities.
Architect Doug Campbell, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, has joined Dearborn-based architecture and engineering firm Ghafari Associates as Director of Education. Ghafari is thrilled to welcome Doug, who brings over 15 years of design experience and an impressive portfolio of higher education projects.
Senior leaders from Canton-based clinical research organization MMS Holdings visited the MMS Bloemfontein, South Africa office. The company’s
regional operations in South Africa has more than doubled in the past fiscal year.
Stratacomm, a full-service communications agency, announced growth in the Detroit office with three new hires, Ava Frakes, Sarah Kuzdak and Tonie Wells and two promotions, Ashleigh Artist and Marcella Dudek.
Many businesses, urban planners and government officials knew Michigan, especially cities in Metro Detroit, for being an attractive place for factories and similar developments. That model was fine for many decades, one think tank says, but it is now time for a new set of ideas.
Recently, Michigan Future released a report that focuses on how Michigan has missed opportunities because it has focused too much on its local needs rather than keep up with the changing international economy. That has created many issues, especially a talent gap, officials from the Ann Arbor-based think tank says.
The report, “A Path to Good-paying Careers for All Michiganders: Creating places across Michigan where people want to live and work,” is the latest of a series that aims to help Michigan grow into a more diversified workplace that creates vibrant cities and a broad middle class, says Lou Glazer, president of Michigan Future.
Michigan needs to think about how it is going to create regions and vibrant central cities where college-educated individuals want to live and work, Glazer says. By creating a talent abundance, Michigan can retain and attract knowledge-based companies to our state.
“Our mission (since 1991) has been to try to help Michigan be prosperous, especially in an era of technology and globalization,” Glazer says. “What made the state prosperous for most of the 21st century was factory jobs. But that won’t be in the forecast for the next century. We have to advance or companies will go somewhere else.”
Creating good policy
The report identifies five “placemaking policy levers” that matter most:
1) Welcoming to all: A legal framework that prohibits all forms of discrimination and access to the resources necessary for social and economic mobility.
2) State and local development-friendly regulations that facilitate the creation of high-density, walkable, high-amenity neighborhoods in our cities and inner ring suburbs.
3) Understanding that economies are regional, and each region needs the flexibility to develop and implement their own talent attraction and retention strategies.
4) Providing and paying for world-class 21st Century infrastructure, basic services and amenities.
5) Transportation as the most important placemaking public investment.
The answers in part lie in creating places where college grads want to live, work and play, Glazer says. Talent like this tends to concentrate in areas where middle- to upper-class jobs are centered. They offer high density. They offer great transportation options. They have well-established and full neighborhoods. They offer interesting places for entertainment, tourism and family life.
Talent equals economic growth, Glazer says, and the key to keeping talent is cool cities. Not the kind of cool cities previous Michigan governors have suggested. But really great cities where there are historical landmarks, amazing restaurants, strong schools, impressive cultural institutions and more.
To Glazer, a key to Michigan’s future comes in the form of a quote. The comment comes from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who recently wrote in a Financial Times column: “The most creative individuals want to live in places that protect personal freedoms, prize diversity and offer an abundance of cultural opportunities.”
Even though Michigan focused on creating a business environment where cost was the main factor – mostly to attract factories and the like – there is opportunity to shift into human capital and finding ways to keep talent. Even if the weather here is cold most of the year. Even if we have lots of work to do in core cities like Detroit and Grand Rapids. There is hope.
New placemaking and campuses
For example, Detroit has the massive investments of Dan Gilbert, Bedrock Detroit and Quicken. The Illitch family is building new stadiums and businesses. Ford Motor Co. purchased the old Michigan Central Station and is turning it into a huge second campus. That is impressive and speaks to the importance of investing in talent and people, Glazer notes.
“Ford now knows that placemaking is not something you can afford only after you have a strong economy, it’s what you need to do to develop a prosperous economy,” the report says. It continues, “They have also learned that this cannot be done in the suburbs. To be competitive requires public and private investments to create high-density, high-amenity central city neighborhoods where you do not need to own a car.”
But all Michigan has to do to wake up fully is think about that Amazon headquarters bid. At least one of those Michigan cities that tried out for the headquarters spot should have made the Top 20 – Glazer said it was hugely disappointing when not a single Michigan location showed up on that short list.
“Many of Michigan’s governors have focused on the auto industry and plants rather than cities and talent,” Glazer says. “Losing (the Amazon headquarters) bid is representative of what high wage work looks like in America now. It is professionals and managers. It is transit option. All of America is making that same corporate decision to situate their businesses in these cities that highlight talent and human investments.”
With just a few weeks before now-former Gov. Rick Snyder’s term ended, the State of Michigan established in legislation the formation of a three-member Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority, which will oversee the building of a $500-million utility tunnel that will replace a controversial oil pipeline.
The legislation will see Enbridge, a Canadian company that has operated the aging Line 5 pipeline system, pay all costs related to the tunnel, although ownership will remain in the government’s hands.
The tunnel will sit 100 feet below the bedrock of Lake Michigan, just west of the Mackinac Bridge, keeping the oil pipeline separated from the environmentally sensitive Great Lakes waters.
The law enacted in the waning days of the legislature stipulates that the Authority’s three-member board can have no more than two members from an individual political party.
Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, now Michigan’s Governor, campaigned, along with Dana Nessel, also a Democrat and Michigan’s new Attorney General, to shut down Line 5 and have since expressed their opposition to the tunnel project.
But Pat Devlin, secretary-treasurer of the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council, has said he hopes the new governor can be persuaded that the Line 5 tunnel project is good for Michigan.
Devlin says his members support the pipeline for its jobs and economic development. He also has been quoted as saying the project will have the necessary environmental safeguards.
“If everybody can just take a little pause and let the new administration – our new leadership – get in place and sit down and have those constructive dialogues, I think when the whole story is told opinions are gonna change,” said Devlin.
Several Democrats voted in favor of the legislation because it will lead to years of work for unionized heavy equipment operators and other union labor.
Concerns remain over the track record of Enbridge when it comes to reporting gaps in the protective layer of enamel coating around the 65-year-old twin 20-inch pipelines that lay at the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac.
At least one legislator, House Speaker Lee Chatfield, who represents Emmet and Mackinac counties, where the oil pipeline crosses the water, calls the tunnel project “the best solution we need to protect our beautiful Great Lakes and ensure Northern Michigan families continue to have the resources they need to heat their homes.”
Chatfield also said doing nothing is not an option. “This has been discussed for years. It’s time to move forward.”
A competition that will see some nine teams formed with international membership as part of their core is underway with organizing, hoping the innovations that result will result in a sustainable future. Students are competing for $30,000 in total cash prizes available through the Wege Prize, named for Peter Martin Wege, a founder of Steelcase, and provided through the Wege Foundation, based in Grand Rapids.
Teams that have been selected for the prize, which is being run through the Kendall College of Art and Design, an affiliate school of Ferris State University, have members representing 14 countries, 21 academic institutions and 40 academic disciplines. Gayle DeBruyn, an associate professor and sustainability officer at KCAD, said the annual competition is intended to ignite game-changing solutions for the future. As part of Kendall College’s collaborative design program, organizers seek to look at how the process of design influences transformative change within the structure of society.
“This is part of a systems approach,” said DeBruyn, who points to the composition of the teams selected to compete as a critical part of how the Wege Prize competition is structured. “We require students to find and build teams that cross disciplines and cultural boundaries,” she said. “It’s not just a bunch of industrial designers that are being sought.
They have to find a way to build a team that represents business, science, philosophy, whatever diversity is necessary to create a grand solution to a problem.” Also integral to the Wege Prize approach is the building of incremental project reviews into the competition.
Education and design thinking
“We focus on education and the design thinking process,” added DeBruyn. “That requires feedback loops, with judges being able to help the students be successful in how their projects are framing up.” Total funding for the Wege Prize, which is now in its sixth year (the second in a four-year cycle), is $440,000.
“These projects will have a sound business model attached to them,” said DeBruyn. “Students really have to build out a business model and prove that they have a viable solution, whether it’s for a profit or nonprofit application.” Finalists for this year’s competition will be announced on April 1, 2019, with those teams selected then set to travel to Grand Rapids to present and defend their solutions on May 31, 2019.
Global teams
The teams selected for this year’s competition include: Aqua Munda—a team from the U.S. which is working on ways to eliminate contamination of potable water sources. Bemgam—a team with students from China, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia and Pakistan, which is working on the development of a circular energy distribution system that can intelligently balance demand and supply. Considered Furniture—a team with students from Canada and the U.S. that is working on addressing waste in the furniture industry by exploring the reuse potential of furniture that has reached the end of its life cycle. Natural Dream—a team with students from China working on the development of a framework for assessing the effectiveness of China’s 2008 “Circular Economy Promotion Law,” especially as it relates to scalability in urban areas.
NKUNIM—a team with students from Ghana working on the persistent problem of plastic waste, one of Ghana’s largest waste streams, by exploring the potential for upcycling/reuse.
Norena Group—a team with students from Gabon, Ivory Coast, and Togo is addressing the problem of food waste by upcycling food waste into other useful products/commodities. NTU—a team with students from Taiwan is exploring opportunities for disassembly/materials recovery within existing second-hand retail markets.
Redent—a team with students from Nigeria is exploring the reuse/upcycling potential of the organic waste generated in cocoa production to create bio-soap, animal fed, and other useful products. Wet Technik—a team from Uganda which is exploring the potential of greywater reuse and plastic waste reuse in the country. Past Wege Prize winners have developed a sustainable, circular online tourism platform for indigenous communities in Mexico, converted organic waste from food/beverage processing plants into insect protein-based animal feed and agricultural fertilizer, and created an onsite waste treatment system for hospitals that minimizes environmental impact while maximizing the potential for resource recovery.
For many years—generations even—there might not have even been a well-used vocabulary for what we today refer to as diversity and inclusion.
In many businesses, it wasn’t even considered for the people who worked there, because they looked pretty much like everyone else.
And with those managing an organization’s hiring practices either not aware of the concept or the need to seek a diverse workforce, it would have been natural, albeit less than ideal.
At Corp! magazine, which happens to be owned by a woman, the idea of promoting diversity and inclusion through events like the Salute to Diversity event that occurred this fall is hardly new.
In fact the annual event has been an integral part of the magazine’s mission of providing value to the business community, in large part by recognizing the efforts of companies and individuals who are making a difference in the workplace.
Following this year’s event—held on September 13 at Detroit’s International Banquet and Conference Center—we reached out to a select number of winners, hoping to engage them in roundtable-style conversations intended to accelerate the change around diversity and inclusion.
Through those conversations, which were conducted in groups and several one-on-one sessions, we were able to gather insights, share challenges and, yes, congratulations for progress made in the kind of cultural change that those involved in advancing diversity and inclusion practices remain committed to achieving.
Embracing diversity ‘by accident’
One of our one-on-one conversations was with Joe Gerstandt, a well-recognized authority on diversity and inclusion who spoke at the Corp! diversity event.
Based in Omaha, Gerstandt told us he took on the mission of helping organizations with their diversity challenges “a little bit by accident.”
When we spoke, Gerstandt said there was a day—probably 30 years ago or more—when the topic of diversity in the workplace would have had him rolling his eyes.
“I don’t think I took diversity terribly seriously,” he said, recalling a story that included him exhibiting homophobic behavior, perhaps the result of growing up in a small rural area and then spending four years serving in the Marine Corps.
The “change agent” for Gerstandt was his post-military enrollment in an agricultural business studies program at Iowa State University, where he earned a degree in the subject.
“While before it was safe to be homophobic, things were different in college,” said Gerstandt. “When I said things, people weren’t afraid to push back and that meant my logic was being challenged. I’d say that was one of the turning points, a small one, but it caused me to re-examine my thoughts.”
At the end of a long series of those examinations, Gerstandt says he came to recognize much of what he had grown up with and practiced was simple bigotry.
With a career that has included working for the Nebraska AIDS Project and the National Conference for Community Justice, today Gerstandt spends much of his time helping leaders design and deliver a more inclusive employee experience.
Through his work, he has come to understand just how complex the ideas related to diversity and inclusion can be.
For example, even the definition of inclusivity can be a problem for some, not because they disagree with the concept, but because it’s not clear what it really means.
“I don’t know if there’s one correct answer to what inclusion means,” said Gerstandt. “It can vary from organization to organization and in order to see change take place, we need to know what we’re talking about.”
Which is why conversations like the one we had preparing for this article are so important. And so key to advancing change.
Diversity around special needs
Ask Brent Mikulski, the CEO of STEP—Services to Enhance Potential—and the discussion around diversity and inclusion starts with his own constituency and mission, which is to provide support and services to over 1,400 individuals with disabilities and other mental health needs in the Wayne County area.
“Inclusion is important to us for the simple reason that when one of the individuals we serve is able to help an organization fill a talent need, we’re making a difference,” he said.
Mikulski is seeing evidence of a change in attitude among employers who are now more aware than ever of the opportunity that is represented in being more inclusive in their hiring decisions.
Looking at another piece of the diversity and inclusion mosaic is Stephanie Burnley, co-CEO at Devon Industrial Group, where she is in the process of succeeding her father (David Burnley Sr.) in running the business.
What would Stephanie Burnley most like to see when it comes to change related to diversity and inclusion?
“Being an African-American woman, I’d like to see the men I come across hear me rather than just look at me and make assumptions,” she said. “I’ve been around and no, I’m not going to lead us into failure.”
Success, she added, will come when “everyone understands who you are.”
Something as simple as “making sure everyone gets to come home with something” is part of Burnley’s mission.
Another woman who leads a next-generation firm is Tricia Ruby, who took over as CEO of Ruby + Associates, an engineering and construction firm, from her father, David Ruby, in 2011.
For somewhat obvious reasons, she remains passionately committed to advancing gender equality in a typically male dominated industry, doing so by supporting women in STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Diversity around special needs
Ask Brent Mikulski, the CEO of STEP—Services to Enhance Potential—and the discussion around diversity and inclusion starts with his own constituency and mission, which is to provide support and services to over 1,400 individuals with disabilities and other mental health needs in the Wayne County area.
“Inclusion is important to us for the simple reason that when one of the individuals we serve is able to help an organization fill a talent need, we’re making a difference,” he said.
Mikulski is seeing evidence of a change in attitude among employers who are now more aware than ever of the opportunity that is represented in being more inclusive in their hiring decisions.
Looking at another piece of the diversity and inclusion mosaic is Stephanie Burnley, co-CEO at Devon Industrial Group, where she is in the process of succeeding her father (David Burnley Sr.) in running the business.
What would Stephanie Burnley most like to see when it comes to change related to diversity and inclusion?
“Being an African-American woman, I’d like to see the men I come across hear me rather than just look at me and make assumptions,” she said. “I’ve been around and no, I’m not going to lead us into failure.”
Success, she added, will come when “everyone understands who you are.”
Something as simple as “making sure everyone gets to come home with something” is part of Burnley’s mission.
Another woman who leads a next-generation firm is Tricia Ruby, who took over as CEO of Ruby + Associates, an engineering and construction firm, from her father, David Ruby, in 2011.
For somewhat obvious reasons, she remains passionately committed to advancing gender equality in a typically male dominated industry, doing so by supporting women in STEM—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Building a ‘different’ workforce takes time—and commitment
On the west side of Michigan is Luis E. Avila, a partner at Varnum LLP, where he co-chairs the diversity and inclusion efforts at the law firm, one of the state’s leading practices.
“It’s important to be more intentional with recruiting efforts and that’s something we’re doing here,” he said.
Varnum also helps, on an ongoing basis, entrepreneurs who come from ethnically diverse backgrounds and who might not otherwise have the resources to start a business.
The firm also takes diversity and inclusion a step further by reaching out to community leaders for advice on its hiring practices.
“We look for ways to improve what we’re already doing,” said Avila. “And we’re willing to be vulnerable in that area.”
Clifford Brown, whose 20 years of experience in urban development has taken him to the managing partner role at Woodborn Partners based in Southfield, would most like to see equality of opportunity for people who “start behind and don’t have the resources to take the risk” necessary to advance.
Sabrina Gaddy-Bollinger, director of Affordable Housing at FOURMIDABLE, a national real estate management company, now sees the organization as benefiting from a much more diverse workforce than existed when she joined the firm some 23 years ago.
She adds that people who work at FOURMIDABLE appreciate the fact that their differences are now celebrated.
“When you have a variety of people, there are so many different views and that actually gives us an advantage over other firms,” says Gaddy-Bollinger. “At one point most of the people working here were Caucasian. That’s no longer the case.”
Thanh Tran, a software developer by profession, who came to America as a youngster, says his childhood—growing up in an almost exclusively white environment (his family’s immigration from Vietnam was sponsored by a Grand Rapids church)—had a deeply negative impact. When he started his firm he promised himself he would actively seek to build in diversity.
“It’s not just about how people look, but how they think and the creativity that comes from having different traditions,” he said.
Now a serial entrepreneur, Tran is the founder of AccelerateKID, a business that provides after-school exposure to technology, while balancing for-profit work by directing a portion of revenue to under-resourced schools.
Bankers reflecting their community
At Flagstar Bank, Mary Mbiya, now vice president of Diversity and Inclusion, found herself leading a strategy around an action pledge made by CEO Alessandro P. DiNello in 2017.
While directing the bank’s diversity strategy, Mbiya says she sees the need to keep in mind that there are so many different experiences and cultures in the organization.
“Taking the time to listen and learn is key,” she said. “The learning curve has been very steep and we’re such a large organization, with mortgage lending operations in all 50 states. It’s also important to remember that we all have bias and we all come from different places. For me, I get to inspire people to become more aware of those differences.”
That sense of different perspectives is also important to Mary Oxendine Adams, owner of Human Capital Staffing, LLC, the firm she founded some 22 years ago.
“At one point, we were all female and mostly Caucasian,” she notes. “Today, we have a much broader range of ethnicities and also ages. That gives us different perspectives and different opinions that come from life experiences. It does make for a stronger company.”
That is also true with Swatee Kulkarni, owner of GDI Infotech, Inc., an Ann Arbor software development firm that she and her husband started in 1993.
Originally from India, Kulkarni says the color of a person’s skin is irrelevant. She estimates the firm has recruited at least 1,500 candidates from around the world and it’s how people work together that makes the difference.
Elinor Ho, the principal advisor at Secure Planning Strategies, would agree, although the “internationalization” of her firm was not by design.
“It just happened that way,” says Ho, who is originally from Hong Kong and whose firm specializes in providing services to individuals with special needs.
Painting a big picture around diversity
And then there’s Quicken Loans, the Detroit-based financial services powerhouse that counts itself as being “more than a profit” enterprise.
Diversity and inclusion efforts at the firm are largely steered by Trina Scott, who was recruited from Ernst & Young, where she spent a decade before being tapped by Quicken Loans to take on a diversity and inclusion role in January 2017. In March 2018 she was promoted to vice president of the Quicken Loans Family of Companies.
It was that first year that Scott, who was a certified bank fraud examiner, looked to the firm’s HR director and others. One of those was KimArie Yowell, the firm’s vice president of Talent Development, who helped her create a path by which the organization could begin to dramatically improve its diversity stance.
A big part of that is identifying the people in the geographic areas where Quicken Loans operates, to see where improvements could be made.
“When we talk about attracting top talent from a diverse perspective, it has to be intentional,” said Scott. “We’ve expanded our scope from being dominantly white and looking outward to become much more intentional in our recruitment strategies.”
That included forging relationships with schools that are in the Historically Black Colleges and Universities network.
“Bringing intentional resources to those relationships was another key thing that is driving us,” Scott adds.
The organization has also recognized the need to advance the financial literacy skills of its target audience, which it is doing with a custom curriculum (nothing it does is “off the shelf”) that is designed to remove barriers (including federal regulations) to selecting a career in banking.
The landscape at Quicken Loans continues to improve and with the energy of people like Scott and Yowell, that will almost certainly continue, finding its way not only into the organization, but beyond, into suppliers where there is ongoing opportunity for improvement.
A process approach to improvement
Skot Welch runs Global Bridgebuilders, an organization based in Grand Rapids, but with a reach—as its name suggests—well beyond the borders of America.
Welch sees one of the major challenges facing the diversity and inclusion movement being the need to transition from programs—where progress can be tied to a particular strategy—to a process approach, one that comes from a world where firms adopting quality methodologies are commonplace.
“Using this approach is more rigorous,” said Welch, who launched his firm in 2015, having previously worked at Diversity magazine.
Talk to any number of leaders who manage efforts to advance diversity and inclusion and there is clearly no shortage of accomplishments.
In short, things keep getting better.
But there’s also a sense of the work yet to be done.
“There is evidence that we’ve made progress,” notes Joe Gerstandt. “It’s encouraging to see that more and more leaders say they get it. They’re very sincere and there’s authentic work to show for it.”
And then he pauses before continuing, adding a reference not just to diversity, but to inclusion, a part of the equation that is still not very well defined.
“In all honesty, most of the work that needs to be done in this area lies before us,” he adds. “For example, some employees are still not sure it’s okay for them to disagree with their supervisor and that brings up the risk that comes with ‘group think.’ We need to work on breaking down barriers and building a healthy orientation between people.”
Nonprofit organizations are affected by some of the same powerful forces as the private sector—the economy, government regulations and changing demographics. In Michigan, experts in the nonprofit sector note these particular trends, among others:
• expanded inter-agency collaboration
• a major turnover in nonprofit leadership
• new methods of giving
• challenging tax policies
The recession of 2008 is cited as a central event in the nonprofit world. “Between 2008 and 2015 Michigan lost 11,000 nonprofits. This led to mergers and collaborations. We needed to reinvent ourselves to be a whole lot smarter,” says Robert Collier, executive director, Michigan Council of Foundations.
“In 2008 we lost a lot of corporate foundation money, so federal and state contracts became more important. Funders were looking for innovation. Nonprofits had to provide a fully fleshed out project and budget. For workforce development programs, you need to have a corporate alliance so that there is a job at the end of the training and education,” says Diane Renaud, executive director and CEO of the St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher Center in Detroit.
Donna Murray-Brown, president and CEO of the Michigan Nonprofit Association, concurs that the recession was a catalyst for change—specifically breaking down barriers or “silos” between nonprofit organizations.
Collaboration for bigger impact
“When resources were scarce, there was pressure from the foundation community to collaborate. They thought it would be more efficient. Now it is partly money, but also a desire for greater impact,” she explains. Plus, collaborations are easier than mergers, Murray-Brown says. The Michigan Nonprofit Association has almost 1,000 nonprofit members and serves all nonprofits in the state.
Rick Kress, a nonprofit consultant who specializes in big gifts and governance, has chaired five local nonprofit boards and serves on the Planned Giving Roundtable of the Association of Fundraising Professionals-Detroit Chapter. He acknowledges that cooperation and collaboration between organizations are meaningful to donors, but difficult to accomplish.
According to Jennifer Miller Oertel, a partner and practice group leader of the Tax-Exempt Organization and Impact Investing Group at law firm Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer and Weiss, her clients collaborate when they realize that they’re not the only ones working in a particular area and want to maximize their resources.
“Collaboration is a common criterion now. Foundations ask nonprofits, especially new ones, who else is providing this service? We ask about their collaborations and partnerships,” said Collier of the Michigan Council of Foundations.
Renaud views partnerships as a way to address competition for sponsorships and other funding for nonprofits. “We have to avoid redundant services and fill in each other’s gaps,” she says.
St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher Center provides GED classes and “soft-skills” training (communication, time management and other work-related skills) at other nonprofit organizations, such as Focus: HOPE. This improves access for clients and reduces transportation costs. Also, the space is provided rent-free. After completing an educational component, these individuals become applicants for partners’ programs. The Center also collaborates with other nonprofits on grants, pilot programs to test new approaches, and shared resources.
Nonprofit collaboration can take many different forms—backroom operations, IT, shared social media communication to advocate for an issue, and joint programs, Collier explains. Bridging organizational barriers is a strategy for foundations as well as nonprofits today.
Foundations increasingly work with other organizations
“There is more collective giving. Funders are getting together to solve a particular problem—collaborating around early childhood, education and health,” says Oertel.
“If foundations want to have an impact, they need to collaborate. Michigan has a history of public/private partnerships in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Detroit, the UP, and other areas.” says Collier. “How can we leverage our financial and human resources—both public money and private foundation funds—on behalf of Michigan residents?”
One example of public-private cooperation is Michigan’s Regional Prosperity Initiative. Ten geographic areas were designated by the state in 2014 to encourage “local private, public and nonprofit partners to collaborate to create vibrant regional economies.
Competitive annual grants of $250,000 to $500,000 are offered for local collaborations to advance economic development, workforce training, higher education, and transportation. The goal is to promote strong regional economic strategies based on collaboration among local government, nonprofit and for-profit organizations.
CEO turnover is affecting nonprofits
Besides encouraging collaboration, the recession had another effect on nonprofits—a delay in CEO retirements, according to Renaud and Gary Dembs, CEO and executive director of the Michigan Non-Profit Personnel Network. Out of concern for job and financial security, nonprofit executives were likely to put off potential moves to other jobs or retirement during the recession.
But recently, that has changed. Dembs says that this year there will be 240 leadership transitions among Michigan nonprofit CEOs—75 percent through retirements. He says this is part of a national trend.
According to Collier, the increase in new CEOs and joint CEOs (serving two nonprofits) is contributing to inter-organization collaboration.
“Transitions make or break an organization. A succession plan is part of strategic planning in a way that it hasn’t been in the past. There is a lot more movement since the end of the recession.”
Dembs says that boards are “looking farther ahead and that the biggest thing is growing their own talent—an ‘heir apparent.’” He says that nonprofit boards typically consider at least one internal candidate, several external nonprofit candidates and one or two corporate candidates for a CEO position.
“There is an intentional process to include more diverse candidates in terms of ethnicity, race, gender and experience. Candidates may come from another sector,” says Murray-Brown.
Demographics are also a factor in this leadership transition—many nonprofit CEOs are baby boomers, an age when retirement or semi-retirement is appealing. Demographics are also affecting giving trends in the nonprofit world.
Donors want to have an impact
Baby boomers are the major holders of wealth—80 percent according to Kress. He says that women are responsible for most giving, especially those who have their own companies and money. However, nonprofits must also reach out to millennials, who often have a different approach to philanthropy.
“Millennials and other new donors want to know what impact you are having. They want stories and data to show how are we making a difference,” says Collier.
Kress says that donors want to be kept informed, with the idea that it’s “not just a giveaway. It’s an investment for me. I want to know how it’s working.” He adds that very successful fundraising organizations provide personal reports to donors, lunch with a president or doctor, or private tours.
“Everybody is driven by return on investment. No one wants to see that their money is being thrown away,” says Renaud.
From her perspective, people are giving in different ways, which is often generational. In the past, donors would send an annual check but now, she says, “People would rather spread out their donations unless they have a personal connection.”
One new trend is “impact investing” which merges capitalism and philanthropy for greater social impact, Oertel explains. Instead of grants, funders offer low-interest loans. “You are recharging your giving pot,” she says.
Donors can loan money at 2 percent interest to nonprofits, individuals or small businesses to create sustainable revenue streams, she says. “There are trillions of dollars of need and only bills of capital to give. This can solve that gap,” Oertel claims.
Another trend is donor-advised funds—nonprofit funds created by individuals or families for charitable purposes. Some are maintained by local community foundations while others are set up through brokerage firms such as Schwab and Fidelity.
Donor-advised funds increasing
Collier points to an “enormous” increase in donor-advised funds, partly because they are easy to set up and flexible. Community foundations are required to have policies that require distribution of more than 5 percent of fund assets annually, Oertel says. Also, they are familiar with local social service and other charitable needs, so funds are likely to be allocated in worthwhile ways.
However, brokerage firms, which provide immediate tax benefits for donor-advised funds, have fewer rules about distribution. According to Kress, there is no public record of who has donor-advised funds, which he considers “untapped resources” for nonprofits. He suggests that nonprofit organizations “plant the seed in their newsletters” or connect with financial planners.
Tax policy changes challenge nonprofits
While tax policy has been an important aspect of for-profit business planning and success, taxes have not been a major concern for many nonprofit organizations. However, this is changing at both the state and federal levels. As of 2011, the State of Michigan eliminated the deduction for charitable contributions on state income tax returns. Since then, Murray-Brown says that people continued to give, but at lower levels.
Changes in federal tax regulations are potentially more serious.
“The (federal) Tax Act of 2017 caused some real issues for nonprofits,” says Collier. One provision doubled the standard deduction for taxpayers, which means that some donors won’t be able to itemize and gain a tax benefit from their charitable gifts. Collier predicts that the Tax Reform Act won’t have much impact in 2018 because people don’t understand it, but he anticipates a drop among middle-class donors in 2019.
“For the wealthy, this is not as relevant, but for others, it’s not clear. It may be an issue,” says Murray-Brown.
Kress agrees. “For million dollar givers, taxes are not a big issue. For people on the fence, that could tip it a bit.”
Diane Renaud at St. Vincent and Sarah Fisher Center, based in Detroit, is very concerned about the impact of tax law changes on philanthropy. “It’s terrifying to me. I have no idea which way it’s going to go. It’s a mixed bag—some people give from the heart and will continue.”
There is also uncertainty about the Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT)—a new federal tax on fringe benefits, such as parking and travel that some nonprofits provide to their employees. Since nonprofits often don’t offer salaries that are competitive with the private sector, these benefits may be especially important for their employees. There has been no guidance on this from the U.S. Treasury, Collier notes.
“There is national advocacy to delay the tax since nonprofits didn’t know about it in advance,” Renaud says. The Michigan Council of Foundations is part of a national coalition addressing this issue, Collier says, and multiple bills have been introduced in Congress to delay implementation or repeal the UBIT.
The uncertain impact of these federal tax policies is bound to be an important challenge for nonprofit leaders—both CEOs and voluntary directors. Unlike for-profit businesses, nonprofits can’t simply raise their prices.
Choosing your career is one of the most exciting and challenging things a person can do – whether they want to work in business, teach at a school or serve as a lawyer, it can be confusing to select a job for life.
Detroit-area author Andy Gutman knows that jobs change and careers evolve. After all, the longtime businessman recently started writing books and publishing them as well as creating songs to go with his stories.
To help young people find out what they want to be and raise funds for three nonprofits he wants to support, Gutman has put out a new book and will donate its sales in January to three organizations that focus on literacy. They are Detroit-based Brilliant Detroit; Southfield-based Beyond Basics; and San Francisco-based Project Night Night. Along with the donation of profits, Gutman has donated books to each of these organizations.
Gutman’s latest children’s book is called “Charlie the Caterpillar: What Can I Be Today?” The colorful, 38-page story, conceived by Gutman and his daughter Riley, focuses on the dreams that all kids have about what they can be when they grow up. This is Gutman’s fourth children’s book.
The star character from Gutman’s first book Charlie the Caterpillar (2017), Charlie, returns in this upbeat sequel to spend a day imagining what it would be like to be employed in many different careers. He tries his hand at being a teacher, a lawyer, a zookeeper and more. The story shares the important message that children can pursue any career they can imagine and for which they are passionate. It is a story of hope for children with a message that the world is wide open for them.
“Who better than Charlie to help us turn those daydreams into reality,” said Gutman. “I want to thank my daughter Riley for helping to create the concept for this book. She is my greatest accomplishment.”
Earlier this year Gutman released two other books, Even and Pop Lullaby. Each book is richly illustrated, featuring stylized images that pair perfectly with the gentle rhyming words of his stories. Each book is accompanied by a song that allows parents and children to sing and dance along.
In his day job, Gutman is president of Southfield-based Farbman Group and its related companies. In this other “job,” he is a writer, songwriter and dreamer who tries to see the beauty in the world.
“Children reading at grade level by third grade have been found to be more successful in life overall,” said Gutman. “As unbelievable as it sounds in this great country, part of the reason children may not read or be behind in reading is that they often lack access to books. It doesn’t have to be that way. I’m excited to be able to donate profits from this book so we can help children reach their full capabilities and live their dreams of whatever they choose to be.”
If Jennyfer Crawford sees a problem, she is just the kind of small-business owner and proponent to come up with a solution.
That is the case with her newest project, All Things Ticketing. This year, All Things Ticketing is available to event organizers and event goers alike. Meant to support small and independent business owners, the platform is free to use and those interested can sign up now. Crawford will also use it for her own All Things Detroit events – the first of which is set for March 31 at Eastern Market.
As the founder of such successful shop small expos as All Things Detroit, Crawford found that business owners were struggling to use fee-based ticketing services to promote their events. Without hesitation she created a new option.
Crawford knew from experience that when you’re running a small business, what you spend on services counts. Instead of using an external service to manage ticket sales online, she created and branded one of her own. And now, that service is ready to support Ask Jennyfer events – and any others across the U.S.
“I felt there were some things missing from our current ticketing partner,” she said. “I wanted to create a way for business owners to promote events with minimal fees.”
All Things Ticketing is now be available at https://allthingsticketing.com/. It is a free resource for event organizers to use, and any costs incurred per ticket sold will remain competitive with other online ticketing services. When using All Things Ticketing, event organizers are also supporting the growth of small businesses.
The first chance to try it out is coming up soon. Crawford will be using the service for her March 31, 2019 All Things Detroit shopping event in Detroit’s historic Eastern Market.
Ask Jennyfer is a Detroit-based firm specializing and branding and promoting small businesses. The firm is available to curate and coordinate small business vendors for events. Its roots are in Michigan and its reach is nationwide.
Some people might ask: Why in the world would you set up a design company that wants to compete on a global scale in a small building near Eastern Market in Detroit?
There’s an easy answer for Kyle Hoff and Alex O’Dell, founders of Floyd, an innovative furniture company that proudly calls the Motor City home. You put a design company in Detroit because it a place that values form, function and fun.
Floyd has been turning the furniture industry on its head for years now, all from its design headquarters off of Gratiot in Detroit. There, they dream up new products for the company, which was known initially for its unique furniture leg but has grown into offering everything from tables to sofas to beds.
Everything inspires these two friends, who are drawn to designers who changed the world with their relatively simply ideas. One of their favorite designers, Ray Eames, once said, “What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts.”
According to Hoff and O’Dell, Detroit shows that every city has design in its DNA. There’s the great auto plants, such as Warren’s General Motors headquarters designed by noted architect Eero Saarinen. There’s the amazing Cranbrook campus, which was the brainchild of Eliel Saarinen with Albert Kahn responsible for the Booth mansion, creating everything from school buildings to museums to houses.
That is what Floyd is all about — creating design that is friendly, approachable, quality and easily moved. Everything they make can be taken apart quickly and put back together in other spaces, something that appeals to Millennials and Gen Z as they move from apartment to apartment before setting up in a home.
They also are trying new ideas all the time, using Detroit as their design lab. They’re working now on a new bookshelf for Floyd, and they hope to have plenty more out there soon. Their goal is to take over the furniture industry with their unique approach, taking big-box furniture stores on and making a shift toward long-term investment.
“We were trying to solve a problem IKEA and other furniture companies haven’t solved yet,” Hoff says.
Metro Detroit is enjoying what some describe as a mini-hotel boom. New hotels are opening up across the area, including hot spots in Wayne and Oakland counties.
Some of the newest locations also have beautiful public areas that are designed to offer meeting space for guests as well as the public. With Wi-Fi access, food options and large meeting rooms, a new hotel may be a good spot to meet and greet your clients or host events.
Here are some of Metro Detroit’s newest hotel meeting-space options:
1. Shinola Hotel: This whole city block has been revived through the development of this world-class hotel and retail spaces. The main floor of the Shinola Hotel, which officially opened in January, has a great living room and the stairs there lead to a smaller space that is elegant and unique for meetings. There also will be a ballroom and conservatory offered soon.
2. The Element Hotel at the Metropolitan: This hotel just opened in Detroit after a 40-year shutdown, and the wait was worth it. The unique triangle shape and its former use as a retail hot spot makes it great for meetings. All of those former storefronts are now glass-enclosed spaces where you can meet or have an event. The second floor mezzanine has huge windows that overlook downtown, making it a showstopper.
3. Royal Oak Hyatt: This new location is just steps from much of the Royal Oak scene, including the Emagine theater and the Royal Oak Music theater. Along with its meeting spaces, there are great businesses centers and areas for classes, such as yoga or more. The hotel, which opened recently, also is pet friendly so people could bring Fido along if needed.
4. Detroit Foundation Hotel: This hotel, which opened in 2017, was a former fire department headquarters, so there is lots of meeting room. Its location across from Cobo Center also makes it ideal for having those all-important conversations around the North American International Auto Show. There is a good-sized meeting room right off the front lobby that can accommodate at least 15-20 people with breakfast and lunch options.
At the holidays, many companies get together for a holiday party and to share the cheer of an approaching new year. Many also add a time to give back, and that is exactly what one local financial company recently did.
Bank of America employees volunteered at the Salvation Army Community Center in Farmington Hills. For the sixth straight year, Bank of America has packed thousands of holiday meals for distribution at the Salvation Army as part of its Bountiful Boxes program. This year, bank employees went one step further and handed out those meals and toys to families.
The holiday boxes come in four distinct cultural menus: traditional, Southern, Mexican and Middle Eastern. In addition, families are able to select from a wide variety of toys and clothes for all ages to take home to their children.
Bank of America officials said the company is committed to building stronger communities and making financial lives better. Bank employees said they are excited about the partnership with the Salvation Army and look forward to making a closer connection with families through the program.
“Once again this holiday season, our Bank of America Michigan teammates are proud to partner with The Salvation Army to provide so many meals to those in need,” said Matt Elliott, Michigan Market President, Bank of America. “It is essential that people have access to food and the resources necessary to help lead toward financial stability.”
December has been a banner month for Detroit development – its neighborhoods got a $35 million investment from seven companies, and Bedrock broke ground on its 1.4 million square-foot Monroe Blocks project situated on two city blocks at the corner of Monroe Street and Campus Martius in Downtown Detroit.
Project plans include the first high-rise office tower to be built downtown in a generation, as well as more than an acre of open space, nearly equivalent to the size of the adjacent Campus Martius Park.
“Monroe Blocks will serve a purpose much larger than just providing much needed office and residential space to downtown Detroit. It will be a magnet for excitement and activity on a previously dense and vibrant site that has been underutilized for decades,” Dan Gilbert, Chairman of Bedrock, said in a written statement.
“The world’s most innovative professionals and companies demand an environment that inspires and has a positive impact on the surrounding area,” Gilbert said. “Monroe Blocks places ample open space and cutting-edge technology at the literal center of the city, while offering a new landmark gathering place for Detroiters and visitors alike.”
In total, Monroe Blocks will offer 847,000 square feet of office space, an estimated 482 residential units and 117,000 square feet of retail space.
The development is slated for completion in 2022, and will fill in the final missing piece surrounding Campus Martius Park where some of Detroit’s most well attended events take place, from tree lighting and ice skating to dining and outdoor concerts. Some of Detroit’s most iconic buildings also face the park, including the historic First National Building and the Chase Tower (also known as The Qube), designed by Albert Kahn.
The Design
Following an international search, Bedrock worked with Danish architecture firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen based in Copenhagen to design the project alongside renowned Detroit-based firm Neumann/Smith Architecture. The team imagined a master plan that re-introduces historic alleyways and public access points, while prioritizing the public realm both outdoors and in each structure’s ground floor. Monroe Blocks is Schmidt Hammer Lassen’s first U.S. project.
Office, Residential, Retail and Open Space
The December groundbreaking took place on Monroe Blocks Block A, the block located at Campus Martius and Monroe Street. Block A represents roughly two-thirds of the project and will be anchored by a 35-story glass and terra cotta office tower offering a combination of large floor plates, tall ceiling heights and access to sunlight currently unprecedented in Detroit.
The structure is designed to be Detroit’s first WELL Certified building, placing emphasis on health and well-being through dozens of criteria related to light, air, water, fitness, nourishment and more. Sustainability is a priority throughout [Monroe Blocks], with the buildings on Block A seeking LEED certification.
Block A will also contain a 17-story, 148-unit residential building and a total of 66,000 square feet of retail space designed to attract signature shops and restaurants.
Block B, located at Monroe and Randolph Streets, will be largely residential, and designs are still evolving.
The two blocks (Block A and Block B) are bisected by a stretch of Farmer Street that will be closed to vehicular traffic beginning December 17, 2018 and converted to pedestrian-only open space. The converted street complements a spacious courtyard at the center of the development for a total of more than an acre of open space at Monroe Blocks.
Workforce Development
In 2017 Bedrock announced four transformational projects that when complete will add more than 3.4 million square feet of office, residential, retail and open space to Detroit’s Central Business District. Together, these projects represent $2.1 billion in investment and will create up to 24,000 construction and permanent jobs.
Monroe Blocks is one of the largest among the transformational developments, which also include the Hudson’s Site project, the restoration of the historic Book Building and Tower, and a 310,000 square-foot addition to One Campus Martius. Turner Construction Company, in its capacity as General Contractor for the project, predicts that Monroe Blocks alone require a total of over 11,000 construction professionals to complete.
Site History
The two blocks along Monroe Street that make up the development were known historically as Detroit’s first theater district, lined with Italianate stone and brick buildings built between 1852 and 1911. The site was razed in 1990 with the exception of the National Theater, which was designed by prolific Detroit architect Albert Kahn and opened as a vaudeville house in 1911.
The theater hosted a series of acts after vaudeville went out of fashion, including motion pictures and burlesque. After finally closing in the 1970s, the theater remained vacant and open to the elements for over 40 years. During that time the structure incurred extensive and irreparable damage.
Bedrock is committed to retaining the façade of the historic National Theatre, and incorporating the magnificent terracotta archway into the development. The façade will be carefully disassembled, cataloged, and relocated to span a pedestrian walkway that will bisect Monroe Blocks. The walkway, which is currently a stretch of Farmer Street, will be closed to vehicular traffic and be a part of the development’s open space totaling over an acre.
In another whirlwind week of development news for Detroit’s downtown, two signature hotels with meeting spaces, restaurants and bars have opened in the core area along the Woodward corridor – the Shinola Hotel and the Metropolitan.
The Element Detroit at the Metropolitan is an extended-stay hotel and is part of the Marriott family. It will be open in early January, just in time for the North American International Auto Show. It is located at 33 John R Street between Woodward and Broadway. The Shinola Hotel is a partnership between Bedrock Detroit and Shinola, and it is open for reservations online now.
The Element
The Element Detroit is a $33 million development between Metropolitan Hotel Partners, a joint venture between Detroit developers the Means Group and the Roxbury Group. The 14-story building, which sat empty for about 40 years, has been completely redone with an eye on maintaining its historic charm and character.
The Element is a Neo Gothic skyscraper with a Great Hall, wooden beams, graphic designs and metal work. It formerly held jewelry designers, silver workers and goldsmiths as well as jewelry stores. All of those elements were maintained, only now the jewelry stores will be meeting rooms and gathering spaces available for reservation or use by hotel guests.
Also, the Element features 110 one- and two-bedroom extended-stay hotel rooms featuring energy-efficient kitchens, spa-inspired bathrooms and large desks. There will be a rooftop cocktail lounge and outdoor terrace called The Monarch Club.
Shinola Hotel
At the Shinola Hotel, rooms range from 250 to 2500 square feet, each one with its own unique design. The hotel, which opened Tuesday to a large crowd, has many of Shinola’s signature products in its rooms, including Shinola clocks, leather goods, blankets and more.
Located on Woodward, officials at the grand opening event described the world’s first Shinola Hotel as “Detroit’s new living room,” offering an original hospitality experience “infused with a spirit of authenticity” from the moment guests cross the threshold. That includes fun touches such as its custom T.B. Rayl bath amenities, a nod to the building’s original purpose as a hardware store.
Shinola Hotel’s 129 guest rooms and more than 50 room configurations are appointed with custom millwork, wallpaper inspired by patterns found during the renovation process and Shinola audio equipment. The property marries two restored buildings—the T.B. Rayl & Co. department store and a former Singer sewing-machine store—with three brand new buildings inspired by Downtown Detroit’s historic architecture.
The hotel is outfitted to host events, either within the ballroom, the glass-enclosed Conservatory or within one of the six other dining spaces offering menus ranging from southern Italian to craft beer and snacks. On-site shopping options within historic storefronts and lining the brick alley offer a mix of global brands like Madewell and Le Labo and homegrown businesses like Drought and Good Neighbor that celebrate the Detroit entrepreneurial spirit.
