20150413-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 4/10/2015 5:49 PM Page 1 CRAIN’SReaders first for 30 Years DETROIT BUSINESS April 13-19,2015 LOOKING BACK Data Detroit: Making deals: Mall evolves as 7.2 sq. miles It’s as hard as shoppers do drive the city you think PAGE 6 PAGE 3 PAGE 3 GOP balks at funding Healthy Michigan plan With the state facing a budget Governor’s planned ‘lockbox’ is bare shortfall of at least $400 million in fiscal 2016, there also is no propos- By Jay Greene Healthy Michigan Medicaid ex- al this year to set aside state sav- [email protected] pansion started to decline and the ings from Healthy Michigan ex- When championing Medicaid state needed to contribute up to 10 pansion. Ann Arbor startup expansion under health care re- percent of total costs to keep the “We are concerned about fur- form in 2013, Gov. Rick Snyder program going. ther funding for Healthy Michi- spoke often about his desire to But despite Snyder’s budget rec- gan,” said Rick Murdock, executive place half of the near $1 billion in ommendations to fund the lock- director of the Michigan Associa- state savings over the next decade box in fiscal 2014 and 2015, the tion of Health Plans, which repre- gets a regional lift into a “health savings lockbox.” state Legislature failed to place 50 sents 12 of the state’s 13 Medicaid The state savings, primarily percent of state savings — which HMOs. from lower general fund spending amounted to more than $220 mil- Murdock said his concern is TechTown, Automation Alley help Civionics grow on mental health and prison lion — into the health savings sub- two-fold: One, how legislators will health costs, would be used in fis- account of the governor’s budget By Tom Henderson cal 2017 when federal funding for stabilization fund. See LOCKBOX, Page 29 [email protected] Can a village raise a tech startup? Ann Arbor-based Civionics LLC hopes so, as it tries to make the MLB’s reach to women in play at D Shop switch from being a company exist- ing on government research grants for its wireless sensors to one that By Bill Shea will make products to sell to cus- [email protected] tomers. The Detroit Tigers’ D Shop retail store at Comerica The company, spun off from the Park is a petri dish in which the economic results of University of Michigan in 2009 to Major League Baseball’s ongoing effort to market the provide wireless sensors to monitor game to women can be viewed. the health of civil engineering proj- The walls, racks and shelves inside the 6,000-square- ects, is a poster child for the regional foot shop brim with jerseys, hoodies and T-shirts de- cooperation that has evolved in re- signed specifically for women in a full range of sizes, cent years to help promising tech and other apparel and merchandise aimed at female startups become actual companies. fans — designed to appeal to what MLB has said is the Civionics was founded by Jerome gender that makes up 46 percent of baseball fans. Lynch, a UM professor of civil and [LEISA THOMPSON] Both the brick-and-mortar Tigers ballpark shops environmental engineering, and Jerome Lynch, chief science officer for and the team’s official online store are filled with jew- Andy Zimmerman, one of his doc- Civionics, holds one of the company’s elry, footwear, handbags, makeup, swimwear, medical toral students. Lynch is now chief sensors. scrubs, maternity wear, luggage and fitness gear. science officer; Zimmerman is CEO, Also for sale are Pandora bracelets and charms and though he lives in Colorado now, being mentored by an executive in a Dooney & Bourke line of handbags, all in Tigers livery. [GLENN TRIEST] and a new CEO likely will be named residence at Detroit’s TechTown The past couple of years have seen the amount of The D Shop at Comerica Park has walls, racks and shelves soon. who likely will become the compa- full of hats,T-shirts, hoodies, purses and jewelry for the Civionics is based in the tech in- See TIGERS, Page 28 discerning female Tigers fan. cubator at UM’s north campus; it is See CIVIONICS, Page 27 © Entire contents copyright 2015 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. crainsdetroit.com Vol. 31 No 15 $2 a copy. $59 a year. Intellectual property? WNJJ.coom Game on. (see our ad on page 2) ATTORNEYS AT LAW NEWSPAPER 20150413-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 4/10/2015 5:14 PM Page 1 2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS // April 13, 2015 fense contractor,” said Eric Icard, of Western Michigan University’s MICHIGAN project manager at The Right Place College of Aviation. INSIDE Inc., the Grand Rapids business de- Ⅲ Tanger Factory Outlet Center THIS ISSUE velopment organization that Inc. moved up the opening date for BANKRUPTCIES . 6 BUSINESS DIARY . 23 helped facilitate the move. its West Michigan mall to July, CALENDAR . 24 The company’s decision to relo- MLive.com reported. Previous CLASSIFIED ADS . 25 cate was driven largely by increases dates had set the opening for the KEITH CRAIN . 8 in efficiency and operating costs, $80 million, 80-store retail center in MARY KRAMER . 17 BRIEFS said Keith Rayborn, president of Kent County’s Byron Township for OPINION . 8 Plasan North America. Plasan’s two this fall. Tanger Outlets, which OTHER VOICES . 9 largest ground vehicle OEM cus- broke ground last summer on the PEOPLE . 23 Strong medicine deal? rigo completed a similar tax ma- tomers are in Warren, adjacent to center, has two other malls in the RUMBLINGS . 30 Mylan offers to buy Perrigo neuver in 2013, acquiring Elan Corp. the U.S.Army’s Warren-based Tacom state, in Howell and West Branch. STAGE TWO STRATEGIES . 16 so it could be domiciled in Dublin. Life Cycle Management Command. Ⅲ Walker-based MeijerInc. said it WEEK ON THE WEB . 30 Mylan NV has offered to buy fel- plans to invest about $50 million in Perrigo Co. low drug maker for $28.9 Vt.defense contractor MICH-CELLANEOUS upgrades at four supercenters in COMPANY INDEX: billion — a deal that would create a plans move to West Mich. the Dayton, Ohio, area, MiBiz re- powerhouse for generic medicine. Ⅲ LINC Community Revitalization, ported. The company expects work SEE P 29 According to a statement last week Bennington, Vt.-based defense a neighborhood revitalization non- to begin this month and wrap up by reported by Bloomberg, Mylan of- contractor Plasan North America Inc. profit in Grand Rapids, said it plans year’s end. schedules due to historic ice cover fered $205 a share in cash and stock announced plans to invest $12.3 mil- a $15 million project to create at In Michigan, at least one in and brutal weather. The Lake Carri- for Perrigo, which is based in lion to relocate its headquarters and least 70 apartment, townhome and five jobs is tied to water. That’s ac- ers Association said the ice-related Dublin but operates from Allegan operations to the Grand Rapids sub- row housing units, filling the major- cording to the new Michigan Blue shipping slowdown last year cost in West Michigan. urb of Walker, MiBiz reported. ity of a city block and creating what Economy report, from the Annis 4,000 jobs and about $705 million That represents a 25 percent pre- The manufacturer of a variety of LINC is referring to as Eastern Vil- Water Resources Institute at Grand in economic losses in steelmaking, mium over the April 8 closing price ballistic armor, composite struc- lage, the Grand Rapids Business Valley State University and the power generation and construction for Perrigo, which makes a range of tures and other protection systems Journal reported. LINC said the Michigan Economic Center at Prima industries in the Great Lakes basin. products including skin gels, in- primarily for land vehicles used by properties would be “priced afford- Civitas, Michigan Radio reported. Mark Gill, U.S.Coast Guard director jectables and nasal sprays. Perrigo’s the U.S.Department of Defense and ably to appeal to working-class in- Transportation, ports and shipping of vessel traffic services in Sault Ste. board will meet to discuss the pro- other government agencies will dividuals and families,” with con- add more than 65,000 jobs and $3 Marie, said he anticipated the Coast posal, the company said. consolidate its corporate offices, re- struction to begin next spring and billion to the economy each year, Guard will cease ice-breaking by The bid by Mylan, which makes search and development and pro- completion in 2017. said the report. April 30. about 1,400 medications, would duction into the new leased facility Ⅲ South Lyon-based Aerius Flight Ⅲ Shipping on the Great Lakes Ⅲ The Fresh Thyme Farmers Mar- add to a record period of consolida- in Walker, where it expects to create LCC is the first company in the state has groaned back to life after an- ket in East Lansing will open April tion in the pharmaceutical indus- 120 additional jobs over the next to get Federal Aviation Administra- other rough winter. Freighters were 29 in Trowbridge Plaza near Michi- try. Mylan, with operating head- three years. Plasan — which also tion approval for commercial-ap- moving mostly unhindered gan State University and replace quarters in Canonsburg, Pa., agreed considered locations in Texas and plication drone photography and through U.S. and Canadian waters what used to be Goodrich’s, last year to acquire non-U.S. opera- Tennessee — plans to begin opera- videography, MLive.com reported.