Stephen Ross NEWSMAKERS ne of two CRAINSDETROIT.COM I JANUARY 6, 2020 billionaires behind the M. Roy Wilson University of NEWSMAKER HALL OF FAME OMichigan’s planned Detroit Center for Innovation, real estate developer Stephen Ross is Crain’s Newsmaker DECADE of the Year. And in observance of Crain’s 35th anniversary, we are OF DAN creating a new honor, the Newsmaker Hall of M. Roy Wilson | Page 19 Fame. e honoree is the How Gilbert changed Gretchen Whitmer man who helped sell Ross Detroit’s trajectory on Detroit, Dan Gilbert. Ross will be featured BYCHAD LIVENGOOD and Gilbert honored at In early 2009, Quicken Loans was a luncheon saluting all trying to weather the worst housing the Newsmakers on Feb. foreclosure crisis in the nation’s his- 21 at the MGM Grand tory while two of Detroit’s Big 3 auto- makers were begging for federal bail- Detroit. For tickets, go outs — and the mortgage company’s to crainsdetroit.com/ chairman was stewing about Wayne newsmaker. County building a new jail at the foot Fran Parker of downtown Detroit. Gretchen Whitmer | Page 18 Stephen Ross Mark Stewart Matt Cullen had been working for Page 10 Quicken Loans Chairman Dan Gil- bert for only about a year when the boss called him into his oce in a Li- vonia low-rise oce building along- side I-275. Gilbert was fuming about Wayne County’s plans to build a new 2,000- bed jail on Gratiot Avenue alongside I-375. “is doesn’t make any sense,” Gil- bert told Cullen. “You have to get into it and try and change the trajectory of Fran Parker | Page 12 this thing.” Tom Shea Cullen came to work for Gilbert Mark Stewart | Page 17 from the real estate shop at General David Provost Motors Co. — one of the automakers freefalling into bankruptcy at the time — and was ummoxed by the boss’ demand. “Well, there’s a couple of problems with that — we’re not even in De- troit,” he told Gilbert. “And this thing is already cooked.” Cullen was wrong. And it was an ex- ample of strategic thinking that would play out over and over in the ensuing year — which might as well be called Tom Shea | Page 13 the Downtown Decade of Dan. David Provost | Page 16 Gary Jones For that inuence, which has land- Andrew Brisbo ed Gilbert on Crain’s annual list of top newsmakers no less than eight times, Crain’s will honor Gilbert at our annual Newsmaker of the Year luncheon with our rst Newsmaker Hall of Fame award. e jail construction project melt- ed down in 2012 when then-Wayne County Executive Bob Ficano had to abandon the project after sinking $150 million of taxpayer money into the ground. Gary JonesSuzanne | PageShank 13 See GILBERT on Page 21 Andrew Brisbo | Page 15 VOL. 36, NO. 1l COPYRIGHT 2020 CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. l ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ILLUSTRATIONS FOR CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS BY CHRIS MORRIS NEWSPAPER Suzanne Shank | Page 14 NEED TO KNOW THE GREEN OOZE THE WEEK IN REVIEW, WITH AN EYE ON WHAT’S NEXT Not a festive green `LEVEL ONE CLOSES DEAL FOR decided, FCA spokesman Kevin Fra- WHY IT MATTERS: e higher regular ANN ARBOR BANCORP zier said. FCA is a “founding partner” `Making national news from Southeast Michigan over the holi- minimum wage will add to employ- in the hub, which represents a “signi- days? An outpouring of green ooze. ers’ costs but amount to a 2.12 percent THE NEWS: Farmington Hills-based cant investment” for the company, he e apparent pollution leaking out onto I-696 at I-75, photos of increase in wages. Employers are get- Level One Bancorp. on ursday com- said. which were run by media nationwide, is believed to have emanated ting a cut in their unemployment in- pleted its $67.8 million acquisition of from the site of Electro Plating Systems in Madison Heights, which surance tax ranging from $65 to $217 Ann Arbor Bancorp. e combined WHY IT MATTERS: e hub will welcome was shut down by the state in 2016 for environmental violations. per employee due to the elimination bank’s 15 banking centers in Ann Ar- “all technology startups, with an em- Its owner, Gary Sayers, has received a federal prison sentence. of a special tax the state imposed in bor, metro Detroit and Grand Rapids phasis on those owned by women and e state has done some testing of the area and found can- 2012 to pay o unemployment system will operate as Level One (NASDAQ: minorities,” the release said. e plan cer-causing chemicals remaining after a $1.5 million EPA cleanup in losses sustained during the Great Re- LEVL) and be headed by Level One comes at a time when FCA is investing 2016, and regulators are drilling around the site to gure out how cession. CEO Patrick Fehring. Ann Arbor Ban- about $2.5 billion at the Mack Avenue widespread the contamination might be. So far, the state has found corp’s three locations, doing business Engine Plant on Detroit’s east side, that no drinking water has been contaminated. `ENBRIDGE CREWS RETRIEVE as Ann Arbor State Bank, will be re- which is expected to add 4,950 jobs in ROD FROM LAKE MICHIGAN branded and integrated into Level the city. One’s system by March 23, the release THE NEWS: Temperatures just above said. freezing at the Straits of Mackinac be- tween Christmas and New Year’s al- WHY IT MATTERS: e deal creates a bank lowed Enbridge Energy’s crews to re- with $1.8 billion in assets and $1.5 bil- trieve a 45-foot-long borehole rod lion in deposits, which would move it they left at the bottom of Lake Michi- from the 20th-largest bank in Michigan A green substance gan this fall during a geotechnical in- to 14th-largest. It’s the fth acquisition oozes out onto I-696 vestigation for a planned under- since Level One’s founding in 2007 by at I-75 in metro ground oil pipeline tunnel. regional banking veteran Fehring. Detroit. | MDOT `LIONS WILL BE PARTLY WHY IT MATTERS: In early December, `FCA TO OPEN DETROIT UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT Enbridge disclosed that it had lost two INNOVATION HUB steel drilling rods during a four- THE NEWS: e Detroit Lions are giving month-long geotechnical investiga- THE NEWS: FCA US LLC and the Michi- head coach Matt Patricia and General leave from the profession. `MICHIGAN’S MINIMUM WAGE tion to plot the path of a tunnel the gan Minority Supplier Development Manager Bob Quinn another year af- INCHES UP 20 CENTS company wants to build under the Council are partnering with a Silicon ter a dismal 3-13 record in 2019. But WHY IT MATTERS: ere isn’t anyone in bedrock of the Straits of Mackinac to Valley-based tech accelerator to open some of the team’s coaching sta will Detroit below retirement age who can THE NEWS: Michigan’s minimum wage house its controversial Line 5 oil pipe- an innovation hub in downtown De- be on the way out. Patricia red six as- remember the Lions’ last NFL cham- workers got a New Year’s Day raise line. e Michigan Department of En- troit. e automaker and nonprot are sistants, including several position pionship in 1958. And team owner that’s just below the increased cost of vironment, Great Lakes and Energy working with Plug and Play tech center coaches and two strength coaches. Martha Firestone Ford has made clear living for metro Detroit. e $9.45 had chastised Enbridge for not in- to open the hub by June. It will be And defensive coordinator Paul that she wants a winner. e team’s hourly minimum is increasing to forming the agency about the debris called Plug and Play Detroit powered Pasqualoni is leaving to be closer to poor performance means the Lions $9.65 under a 2018 citizens-initiated at the bottom of Lake Michigan until by AmplifyD, which stands for “Ampli- his family, and oensive line coach will have the third pick in the draft this law that puts in place gradual increas- Nov. 19, more than two months after fy: Diversity.” e location has not been Je Davidson is taking an indenite year. es to $12.05 per hour by 2030. the rods were lost. PREMIUM OFFICE SPACE AVAILABLE • UP TO 13,194 SF • LOBBY EXPOSURE • UNDERGROUND PARKING • PINEHURST 39400 WOODWARD AVENUE BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MI 248.644.7600 KOJAIAN.COM 2 | CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS | JANUARY 6, 2020 HEALTH CARE Beaumont responds to sta ng complaints Concerns at Trenton, Royal Oak hospitals BYJAY GREENE Beaumont Health, an eight-hospital system based in South eld, has re- sponded to surgeon and nurse com- plaints about short surgical sta ng at its Trenton hospital by hiring more sta and opening a dialogue between man- agement and front-line providers, a move that its surgery chief has said is a good rst step toward repairing a breakdown of trust. Over the past several months, Beau- ENTREPRENEURSHIP mont has cut nurse anesthetist costs at its Trenton and Royal Oak hospitals as part of a restructuring and expense-re- duction e ort that also includes at least 50 layo s or resignations of primarily managers and executives in its corpo- rate o ce and operating units. STORING UP Four doctors and four nurses, several of whom requested anonymity, told Crain’s that the cutbacks and other op- erating changes have resulted in wide- spread confusion among its clinical sta and patients at Beaumont’s Royal Oak and Trenton hospitals.