20100823-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 8/20/2010 5:43 PM Page 1 ® www.crainsdetroit.com Vol. 26, No. 34 AUGUST 23 – 29, 2010 $2 a copy; $59 a year ©Entire contents copyright 2010 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved Tax bill snafu puts Pinnacle Special supplement Packaged with today’s edition is Living and investing in the D: 25 dimensions of Detroit, which uncovers the city’s hidden treasures and examines NATHAN SKID/CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS The opening of Frost Cadillac in Novi is just one recent business twist for Dan Detroit’s ongoing reinvention. To in arrears Frost, who with his business partners has lost two Hummer dealerships and buy copies, call (877) 824-9374. seen competitors to his Chrysler dealerships close. Page 3 Racecourse fights assessments, $30M senior living complex Surviving car dealers battles other financial problems planned for east riverfront BY BILL SHEA CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS WHAT THE BILLS ARE Tigers’ $100M-payroll era Pinnacle Race Course in Wayne These are some of the financial could draw to a close find stability, profits County’s Huron Township hasn’t issues facing Pinnacle Race paid a combined $1.46 million in Course: property taxes for 2009 and 2010 Property taxes: $730,000 because it didn’t receive its tax owed for 2009 and $730,000 for 2010. Inside Sellers adjust to low volume bills — a bureaucratic snafu, the county and township said. Police: $150,000 owed to BY DANIEL DUGGAN standards — nearly $1 million at Huron Township. The track’s owners are disput- More trouble predicted as CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS each — and the startup costs of the ing, via the state tax appeals Utilities: Water and electricity new Cadillac franchise. had been shut off, but turned Wayne budget woes linger, court, the assessments on the Dan Frost’s business represents, “It’s just what you deal with,” he back on after arrearages were Page 6 in many ways, the ups and downs of said. “But we were lucky, things property that generated the settled. $730,000 taxes that are unpaid for the local car dealership community. worked out for us.” Also: Track is appealing 2009- In the past With the bankruptcies and arbi- each of those years. 2010 tax assessments in a bid to 18 months, he DEALER DETAILS tration hearings of the past 18 They say the market value of have them reduced. Crain’s List and his busi- months behind them, the network the property Source: Huron Township, Wayne County, ness partners The list: Fates of metro Detroit car dealers is sta- has declined, Pinnacle ownership lost two Hum- of area franchises, bilizing, settling in to a new land- and they want Largest staffing companies, livered tax bill) we’ll pay it if we mer dealer- Page 24 scape of franchises and owners. the property’s get it.” Page 16 ships, opened Neighbors: Overall, 29 dealerships have assessment re- The unpaid taxes are just some a new Cadillac Buick lots too closed since the beginning of 2009 duced so a close? Page 24 of the thoroughbred horse dealership in the Detroit statistical area, ac- smaller tax bill track’s financial problems. and watched Coasting: Some cording to data from Detroit-based is due. This Just In dealers wind Pinnacle is $150,000 in arrears competing consulting firm Urban Science. “We have no down, Page 24 on its contract for township po- Chrysler LLC In addition to the reshuffling of outstanding lice protection, said township Omni Detroit to be closed dealers near franchises from closed dealers to bills that we Campbell Clerk Dawnette Bowers, and the his three Chrysler dealerships get open dealers, two new franchises know of. All of township-provided water service if sale falls through closed down. have been created. our property taxes are current. had been cut off to Pinnacle for a The Omni Detroit Hotel on the Now he’s faced with the escalat- Eight local dealers have been We’ve paid all the bills we’ve got- city’s riverfront will be sold ing costs of improving his remain- ten,” said track owner Jerry or closed by mid-October. ing Chrysler dealerships to new See Dealers, Page 24 Campbell. “(If there is an unde- See Pinnacle, Page 21 A potential buyer is lined up for the hotel, but if the sale does not close by Oct. 12, the hotel will be shut down, said Caryn Statman Kboudi, vice president of corporate Law school apps up, fewer graduate to legal jobs communications for the Irv- ing, Texas-based hotel chain. BY CHAD HALCOM mission at the region’s five largest law schools University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, the She would not name the CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS this fall semester, to a combined 18,532 com- Auburn Hills campus of Thomas M. Cooley Law pared with 17,065 for fall 2009. School and Michigan State University College of Law. potential buyer or the price. Investment always comes with risk — and lo- However, if the hotel is sold, Deans and admis- That’s compared with 1,279 in fall 2009. cal universities have begun to warn the sions officers note The National Association for Law Placement Inc. Omni will no longer be the swelling ranks of prospective law school stu- ENROLLMENT operator. that student competi- in Washington reported last month that as dents that investing in a future legal career is tion has soared for The trends: A school-by- much as 11.7 percent of 2009 law graduates were See This Just In, Page 2 getting riskier. fewer job prospects, school look, Page 23 not employed nine months after graduation — Applications jumped almost 9 percent for ad- since the economy has the highest rate among recent grads since 1996. eroded the supply of new attorney positions. It’s the second consecutive year the employ- Anecdotal evidence also points to interest by ment rate has fallen. some law students in simply beefing up their business education résumés without any inten- tion of working at a law firm. Alternate paths Despite the application surge, the schools John Nussbaumer, associate dean of the themselves held enrollment almost constant. An Auburn Hills campus of Cooley, said the latest estimated 1,291 first-year students start classes data tends to support the idea that graduates NEWSPAPER next week through Sept. 7 at the University of Michi- gan Law School, Wayne State University Law School, See Law schools, Page 23 20100823-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 8/20/2010 5:42 PM Page 1 Page 2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS August 23, 2010 Festival in Rochester Hills to host fice not only expands our firm’s Inc. of East Brunswick, N.J. THIS JUST IN The way it was: 1986 its summer concert series. national footprint, specifically in The two-story, 73,000-square- — Chad Halcom the western portion of the coun- foot development is planned with ■ From Page 1 Throughout our 25th-anniversary try, but it adds depth, experience 10 movie screens and 16 bowling year, Crain’s will use this space and additional clients to our suc- lanes on 11 Mile Road east of The 108-room hotel, south of to look at interesting items from VC financing in state jumps 35% cessful, growing intellectual Main Street in Royal Oak. It will Jefferson Avenue near Stroh Riv- past issues. Venture-capital financing in property and gaming practice ar- also have a restaurant and bar. er Place, is considered a boutique Michigan was up 35 percent in eas, which is consistent with the The project has hit several hotel and has views of the Detroit A lot of the first seven months of the firm’s strategic growth plans,” roadblocks in the approval River and access to the River- “ year, according to the Ann Arbor- said Dickinson Wright CEO process and financing. Glantz Walk. people thought based Michigan Venture Capital As- William Burgess. said he personally raised $7 mil- — Daniel Duggan sociation. The deal marks Dickinson lion in private equity from in- typewriters Its members report doing fewer Wright’s fourth expansion out- vestors he knows. He secured a deals but for more money. As of side of Michigan in less than two $12 million construction loan Palace Sports seeks would be a dying market the end of July, there had been in- years, and brings its attorney from Charter One and will replace to clear up two tax liens vestments in 10 companies total- headcount to more than 260. The most of that with a long-term because of the computers, but ing $123 million, compared to in- deal did not create a new legal en- $9 million loan also from Charter Auburn Hills-based Palace vestments in 12 companies tity and there was no exchange of One. He also has secured a Sports & Entertainment Inc. expects the typewriter manufacturers totaling $91 million for the first cash for folding the firm’s assets $2.9 million loan from the U.S. to clear up shortly two liens for seven months last year. into Dickinson, the firm said. Small Business Administration. unpaid taxes at the Oakland are up at bat. — Tom Henderson — Chad Halcom Troy-based Ronnisch Construc- County Register of Deeds, total- ” tion will build the project, and In- ing more than $279,960. Ron Rutkowski, dianapolis-based Studio 3 is archi- The parent company of the De- The Typewriter Shop, Southgate Dickinson Wright expands into Emagine ready to build theater, tect. Southfield-based Signature troit Pistons, currently up for sale From a May 5, 1986, article about Associates is the broker on the by owner Karen Davidson, has two Las Vegas by absorbing firm bowling complex in Royal Oak a surge in electronic typewriter deal.