20100906-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 9/3/2010 5:55 PM Page 1 ® www.crainsdetroit.com Vol. 26, No. 37 SEPTEMBER 6 – 12, 2010 $2 a copy; $59 a year ©Entire contents copyright 2010 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved Page 3 Space to grow is hard to find Lions invest in players – and see signs it could pay off ing operations and dispensaries Leases scarce where medical marijuana is dis- tributed. Nextek hopes new product Landlords in some areas have for medical shied away from taking on tenants will spark DC revolution in the industry and local govern- ment regulations have added lay- marijuana ers of complication. Women to Watch So those land- BY DANIEL DUGGAN lords accepting CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS marijuana-ori- Meet 15 innovators and ented tenants regional After David Greene came up not only have to with an idea for his manufacturing be tolerant, they leaders, company, he set up a 23,000- need to be flexi- Pages square-foot lease at a building on ble, said Saman- the brink of foreclosure. tha Moffett, a re- 9-16 Was it a perfect real estate deal? cent law school Not so much. graduate wait- Moffett The term “manufacture” is ing to be sworn loosely used to describe the busi- DAVID DALTON in as an attorney. ness, which grows medical mari- The city of Royal Oak denied David Greene’s medical marijuana growing operation, She works for the Walled Lake- juana. And after a 12-month effort, Your Comfort Care LLC, permission to use this warehouse in Royal Oak. based Ambrose Law Group, and has culminating with a public hearing been dedicating most of her time to Crain’s List in Royal Oak, Greene’s company, said Greene, who is also the direc- dustry and it’s missing out on medical marijuana businesses. Your Comfort Care LLC, was not ap- tor of brokerage services for $950 million of it when medical “Cities are requiring a lease as Largest women-owned proved to use the warehouse. Southfield-based real estate com- marijuana is not grown here.” part of the application,” she said. “This is the perfect use for a pany First Commercial Realty and De- Greene is one of many in Michi- “So we have to go to the landlord businesses, Page 17 building that’s one of thousands velopment Co. gan’s new medical marijuana in- and negotiate the terms, but then that will never get leased unless “I have a perfect business mod- dustry running into roadblocks we find an alternative use for it,” el. Michigan created a $1 billion in- trying to find real estate for grow- See Grow, Page 24 This Just In Renaissance VC Fund to close on final round Recovery firms The Renaissance Venture Opera works hard Capital Fund I LP is expected to announce this week that it has closed on its second and ‘roll the dice’ final round of funding. This closing, of nearly $10 million, to stay on high note puts the fund at almost $50 million. The fund of funds, which every hurricane invests in other venture capi- Trimmed MOT breaks even tal funds, also will announce early results from its invest- but owes $18M to banks ments. It has committed Mobilizing is costly, about $20 million to seven BY SHERRI WELCH VC firms, and thus far has CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS doesn’t always pay off written checks to six funds totaling about $5.8 million as Michigan Opera Theatre’s General Manager BY SHERRI WELCH those funds made capital David DiChiera shocked leaders of Opera Pacif- CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS calls. ic in Santa Ana, Calif., when he resigned in As Hurricane Earl took aim at the East Coast Those funds, in turn, have 1996, after 10 years of commuting between last week, locally based disaster recovery com- invested more than $23 mil- Santa Ana and Detroit. panies plotted their moves each time the storm lion in 12 Michigan compa- Who, they asked, wouldn’t rather live in shifted, much like a game of chess. nies, which have leveraged California than Detroit, especially if they were But in the disaster recovery game, the stakes that money to raise a total of born on the West Coast as DiChiera was? are higher than bragging rights. $146 million in venture capi- “I can produce opera anywhere,” he told Timely response to disasters can quickly add tal and create more than 200 them. “But what I needed to do in Detroit was up to millions of dollars in jobs. Four of the VC firms help revitalize the city.” revenue and position compa- are based out of state, but Opera Pacific, like at least three other major nies for even more business two of them, MK Capital of Illi- operas across the country, has since fallen the next storm around. nois and Arsenal Venture Part- silent, a victim of the recession. But MOT, founded by DiChiera 40 years ago “We track the storms even See This Just In, Page 2 this season, is holding its own — at least oper- as they come off the African coast … so that we can keep ationally — in spite of the economic hits De- GLENN TRIEST General Manager David DiChiera says Michigan up to speed,” said Mark Opera Theatre has to stretch its dollars, but “we Davis, president and CEO of can live within our budget.” Troy-based InStar Services Group LP, from the company’s Davis troit has weathered. Long Island offices Friday. For the first time in several years, MOT Company managers were meeting three broke even on operations for fiscal 2010, ended times a day as Earl threatened, evaluating up- June 30, DiChiera said. dates from the National Hurricane Center and plot- He credited tight controls on spending and ting where to send scores of employees, trucks NEWSPAPER See Opera, Page 24 See Recovery firms, Page 25 20100906-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 9/3/2010 6:03 PM Page 1 Page 2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS September 6, 2010 estate from the 500,000-square- struction for free. THIS JUST IN The way it was: 2002 foot warehouse it currently uses, Doak has designed more than said Dennis Webb, chief develop- 30 courses worldwide. ■ From Page 1 Throughout our 25th-anniversary ment officer for the company. Since 2001, Midnight Golf, year, Crain’s will use this space W.H. Whelan is a logistics firm which also teaches life skills in- ners of Florida, are opening to look at interesting items from that works for auto suppliers and cluding financial literacy, college Michigan offices. past issues. other industries. The company preparation and community ac- “We had hoped Michigan com- moves 600 to 800 ocean shipping tivism, has sent 351 students to 60 panies would be able to raise 10 We’re all containers each month, supply- colleges and universities. times more than we had invested ing 36 assembly plants. — Shawn Wright in them, but, instead, the multi- increasing“ The Southfield office of Colliers Williams Walsh International represented both ple is 25,” said Fund CEO Chris signing and maintaining Web sides on the deal. State seeks bids to upgrade Rizik. “And our hope ultimately vigilance and and print systems in Crain Commu- The warehouse, at 8249 N. Hag- was that the funds we invested in UI computer system nications Inc.’s production, new would put twice what we invested watching who comes onto our gerty Road, was the fourth-largest The state of Michigan is media and circulation depart- back into Michigan firms, and vacant industrial space on the preparing to seek bids for a major ments. they’ve doubled our expecta- properties. market, according to Bethesda, upgrade to its unemployment in- Williams, 34, is working on an tions.” Md.-based CoStar Group. ” surance computer system. upcoming redesign of the Crain’s At least one new investor, the — Daniel Duggan Neil De Koker, Original Equipment A request for proposals is Detroit Business Web site, and Kellogg Foundation, invested in scheduled to go out in mid-Octo- heads the technical aspects of the this round, as did some past in- Suppliers Association Marygrove donates land ber. The upgrade could cost up to publication’s Web product devel- vestors, including DTE Energy, From an Aug. 26, 2002, article $90 million and will move Michi- opment and refinement. Huntington Bank, AAA Michigan and exploring how business had for Midnight Golf program gan from a largely mainframe Williams is a graduate of Cen- CMS Energy. Eleven have invested changed in the year since the Midnight Golf, a Detroit-based system to a server-based system tral Michigan University. in the fund in all. Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Many businesses noted youth development and college designed to significantly improve Dustin Walsh was named the re- Rizik, who started fundraising increased insurance costs and readiness program that works UI administration. porter covering auto suppliers, in October 2008 — “when the disaster preparedness training. with 140 students per year, is get- The state expects to award the higher education, steel and world was falling apart,” he said ting a new practice facility at contract in 2011. The federally Washtenaw and Livingston coun- — plans on raising a second fund. Marygrove College. funded project could take three to ties. Mark Heesen, president of the Na- W.H. Whelan to expand into The college, off McNichols in five years to complete. Walsh, 29, joined Crain’s and tional Venture Capital Association , Detroit, is donating five acres on — Amy Lane Detroit Make it Here as an intern said the Renaissance Fund, affili- former Kmart warehouse the east side of campus for the in March 2009.