20150406-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 4/3/2015 6:17 PM Page 1 CRAIN’SReaders first for 30 Years DETROIT BUSINESS April 6-12,2015 OPENING DAY Will The News’ Cuts threaten Big money not fate be mental health always best decided soon? authority PAGE 3 PAGE 6 PAGE 10 Mexican mogul tied to Marquette deal Downtown building sale signal of more to come? [COURTESY OF SAFE ROADS YES] The pro-Proposition 1 ad campaign emphasizes safety concerns about poorly main- By Kirk Pinho ourian, managing director of the track record, that he could build. tained roads.Would more facts build more support? [email protected] Southfield office of Colliers Interna- There is need for lots of apartments An entity with ties to Carlos Slim tional Inc. “If they show some suc- and a need for office space.” Helú, the Mexican business mogul cess with it, the floodgates could See MARQUETTE, Page 28 with a net worth Forbes magazine open. With that much ability, what Roads tax ad push pegs as $77.1 billion, has pur- might be a small investment for chased a downtown Detroit office him could be huge in the city of building. Detroit. A fraction of his net worth Real estate brokers are watching could be a monster investment.” hitting potholes the deal closely and speculating Steve Morris, principal of Farm- that the purchase marks the begin- ington Hills-based Axis Advisors ning of an effort by Helú to scoop LLC, said the purchase might be Prop 1 message concern: Emotion over detail up other Detroit properties. considered a market test. The 164,000-square-foot Mar- “The probability is that this quette Building at West Congress building certainly has a demand By Dustin Walsh cation funding as well as road safe- Street and Washington Boulevard now with what’s going on, and that [email protected] ty, would have made a difference. was sold to 243 Congress LLC, he’s just getting his feet wet and Proposal 1, the May 5 ballot The proposal would have faced which is linked to Helú, late last will look to do other things,” Mor- measure to provide additional an uphill battle with either strategy. year for $5.8 million. ris said. funding to repair Michigan’s crum- Other obstacles are the expected December’s purchase, docu- “You can’t buy major office bling infrastructure, faces its own low voter turnout common to mented in county records, of the buildings that have a lot of va- rough road as the advertising cam- stand-alone elections and the com- 115-year-old vacant office building cancy that you can turn paign may be falling flat. plex nature of the overall proposal gives Helú an entry to a Detroit around. Those are gone. The campaign surrounding the — only part of which is on the ballot real estate landscape dominated So this gets the ap- proposal, which would generate — which is difficult to explain in by another billionaire, Dan Gilbert. petite wet and $1.2 billion for roads repairs soundbites. “It’s unlikely he would stop at there is the pos- through a sales tax increase, has The ads, led by Lansing-based one, isn’t it?” asked Paul Chouk- sibility, with his been focused on the dangers of public relations firm Martin [AP] Carlos Slim Helú Michigan roads. But is feeding on Waymire and Lansing-based GOP the emotions of drivers enough? advertising agency WWP Strategies, That’s the question being asked by focus on a campaign called “Safe some advertising and public rela- Roads Yes.” Blue Cross cash kept HMO afloat tions experts who assert the cam- The Safe Roads Yes effort had paign is too thin on the education more than $3 million on hand at the of Insurance and Financial Services. needed for voter buy-in. last campaign finance reporting $30M needed to meet state requirements Flint-based HealthPlus Partners lost And if the proposal fails, it could mile marker, on Feb. 10, according $8.9 million in 2014. raise questions about whether an to an analysis by MLive.com. By Jay Greene All of the state’s 13 Medicaid The financial losses for Blue earlier proposed strategy, which [email protected] HMOs have increased member- Cross Complete were attributed, in emphasized improvements to edu- See PROPOSAL 1, Page 29 Blue Cross Complete, a Medic- ship in the past year as Michigan part, to the Medicaid plan adding aid HMO owned by Blue Care Net- has added more than 600,000 administrative staff, technology and © Entire contents copyright 2015 work, needed a $30 million cash people through its Healthy Michi- infrastructure to support a push for by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved. infusion last year to stay financial- gan Medicaid Expansion. Nearly greater market share over the next crainsdetroit.com Vol. 30 No 14 $2 a copy. $59 a year. ly solvent and meet the state’s re- 20 percent, or about 1.8 million, of several years. Blue Cross Complete serve requirements. the state’s population is now cov- is licensed to enroll Medicaid mem- Under health care reform and ered by Medicaid. bers only in Washtenaw, Livingston Healthy Michigan Medicaid ex- But Blue Cross Complete — and Wayne counties. pansion, Blue Cross Complete has one of two Medicaid HMOs that New Medicaid patients also used more than tripled in size to more lost money in 2014 — has lost medical resources at a slightly high- than 75,000 members in the three $22.7 million during the last two er rate than expected. Southeast Michigan counties years, according to annual reports NEWSPAPER where it is licensed to do business. filed to the Michigan Department See BLUE CROSS, Page 28 20150406-NEWS--0002,0003-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 4/3/2015 4:08 PM Page 1 2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS // April 6, 2015 MICH-CELLANEOUS Inc., Amway Corp., auto supplier MICHIGAN Faurecia SA, Meijer Inc., Spectrum INSIDE Ⅲ Comstock Park-based Perrin Health and Priority Health are also THIS ISSUE Brewing Co. LLC was acquired by involved in the Seamless Coalition BANKRUPTCIES . 6 BUSINESS DIARY . 23 Colorado-based Oskar Blues Brew- and Accelerator. CALENDAR . 24 ing Co. Ⅲ Michigan Department of , MiBiz reported. Terms of The CLASSIFIED ADS . 21 the deal were not disclosed. In Environmental Quality awarded a $1 CRAIN’S LIST . 17 2014, Perrin produced almost million grant to help the city of KEITH CRAIN . 8 BRIEFS 14,000 barrels, while Oskar Blues Grand Rapids clean up the future OPINION . 8 produced 149,000 barrels. Joe In- site of the Biomedical Research OTHER VOICES . 9 fante, a Grand Rapids-based attor- Center being built by Michigan State PEOPLE . 22 Metro Health CEO in CHS in January said it plans to ac- ney at Miller Canfield Paddock & University’s College of Human Medi- RUMBLINGS . 26 whistleblower lawsuit quire 80 percent of Metro. The Stone PC who runs the firm’s alco- cine, MiBiz reported. The Grand WEEK ON THE WEB . 26 sale is subject to review by Michi- holic beverage team, said M&A ac- Rapids Press building used to be on Metro Health CEO Michael Faas gan Attorney General Bill tivity will continue to increase the site. is the target of a whistleblower Schuette. among craft brewers, particularly Ⅲ The Western Michigan Universi- COMPANY INDEX: lawsuit filed by Laura Sacha- among the larger players and pub- ty Thomas M. Cooley Law School SEE P 25 Staskiewicz, former director of Dow Chemical to sell lic companies. added two directors to its board, Metro’s foundation. Sacha-Stask- chlorine business to Olin Ⅲ Benton Harbor-based MiBiz reported. They are Kenneth processing the annual harvest of iewicz accuses Faas of “a pattern Whirlpool Corp. will become the ex- Miller, a principle in the Kalama- sugar beets, the Bay City Times re- of illegal and unethical conduct,” Midland-based Dow Chemical clusive supplier of home appliances zoo-based investment manage- ported. The Monitor Township- questioning his actions regarding Co. agreed to sell almost all its for Dan Ryan Builders, MiBiz report- ment firm Havirco and the owner based, grower-owned cooperative the proposed sale of the 208-bed chlorine business, the world’s ed. Dan Ryan Builders has built and CEO of Millennium Restaurant produces sugar under the Pioneer hospital in suburban Wyoming to largest, to Olin Corp. in a $5 billion nearly 10,000 homes and operates Group, also in Kalamazoo; and Sugar and Big Chief Sugar brands. an out-of-state for-profit compa- deal as it pares less-profitable in six Eastern states. Richard Suhrheinrich, a judge on In the fall, growers delivered more ny, MiBiz reported. products, Bloomberg reported. Ⅲ Chemical Financial Corp. the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th than 4.72 million tons of beets, up Sacha-Staskiewicz alleges she The deal allows Dow Chairman closed on the $27.2 million acquisi- Circuit. from more than 4.17 million tons in was fired in January after raising and CEO Andrew Liveris to ex- tion of Coldwater-based Monarch Ⅲ California-based Gourmet 2013. concerns about plans to dissolve ceed his target of selling $7 billion Community Bancorp Inc., MiBiz re- Mushrooms Inc. acquired Diversified Ⅲ In March, J.C. Huizenga sold Metro’s charitable foundation be- to $8.5 billion of low-margin as- ported. Monarch will operate as a Natural Products Inc. in Scottville, Holland-based J.R. Automation and fore the sale is approved with Ten- sets as he focuses on products subsidiary until the bank’s IT sys- east of Ludington, in a deal worth its smaller sister company, nessee-based Community Health such as genetically modified corn tems are converted, at which point about $3.3 million, MiBiz reported.