20141020-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 10/17/2014 5:17 PM Page 1 ® www.crainsdetroit.com Vol. 30, No. 42 OCTOBER 20 – 26, 2014 $2 a copy; $59 a year ©Entire contents copyright 2014 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved Page 3 Hungry for growth funds Granddaughter’s idea gives Diversified opts to sell, lease back buildings entrepreneur a leg up BY KIRK PINHO The company (Nasdaq: BAGR) expects to CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS RETAIL REALLY close on a $24.6 million sale of 11 of its BWW ‘New’ Asterand, old home; and Bagger Dave’s buildings totaling about Nearly $25 million goes a long way when JUMPING 79,000 square feet to Scottsdale, Ariz.-based HQ moving back to Detroit you’re expanding your restaurant business. real estate investment trust Spirit Realty Capi- As Southfield-based Diversified Restaurant Vacancy rates low, tenant tal by Nov. 1. It will then lease them back for Holdings Inc. plans to open three or four new Buf- interest high in an initial term of 15 years with the option for falo Wild Wings and five new Bagger Dave’s Burger metro Detroit up to 20 more years in five-year increments. Tavern restaurants — plus renovate existing ones markets, Page 11 The buildings are in Canton Township, — one way to get the money to pay for it is to sell Birch Run, Cascade Township, Gaylord, and some of the buildings. Clinton Township, along with others in Indiana and Florida. So that’s what CEO and President Michael Ansley “It’s a way to recapitalize,” Ansley said. “Building stand- is doing, funneling real estate value into new bar fur- nishings, technology upgrades and other expenses. Ebola FAQs answered by See Diversified, Page 32 Beaumont doc, Page 23 COURTESY OF DIVERSIFIED RESTAURANT HOLDINGS The Big Bet on Detroit ‘Its’ an issue Our annual Detroit doing so, but it has been fighting 2.0 supplement, poly- Tesla’s sales limits similar bans in states across the bagged with this issue, is aptly labeled. Lots country. On Sept. 15, the Califor- of folks are betting in Michigan tightened nia-based company won a key on Detroit: the gov- ruling in its favor from the Massa- ernor, mayor, in- chusetts Supreme Court. vestors and residents. by one word of law Seventeen days later, Republi- To win, Detroit needs more jobs can lawmakers, at the behest of and investment. That’s why Crain’s BY CHRIS GAUTZ Michigan Automobile Dealers was proud to produce the Detroit CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT the Homecoming in September. We Association, amended and shep- brought 160 of the area’s most suc- y the removal of a personal herded through both houses a cessful “expats” back home to see pending bill that would make it how they could re-engage with pronoun from state law, a their hometown. They included Bbill awaiting Gov. Rick Sny- tougher for Tesla to challenge philanthropist Eli Broad, for- der’s signature would make it Michigan’s law in court. Snyder mer NBA star George “Ice- harder for Tesla Motors Inc. to sell has until Oct. 21 to decide man” Gervin and “Rehab whether to sign it. Addict” Nicole Curtis. its electric vehicles directly to cus- Here’s how it happened. Commitments are com- tomers in Michigan. ing and conversations Tesla already is barred from See Tesla, Page 33 are starting. Check BLOOMBERG out the expats who wrote essays for the supplement. We take a hard look at what it takes to actually make things happen in the Greektown Casino-Hotel to modernize with new look city, including neighbor- hoods, from West Vil- BY SHERRI WELCH plan is to differentiate the casino by positioning lage to Brightmoor. CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS it as a boutique hotel yet “with a neighborhood Plus, don’t miss feel,” meaning changes ranging from finishes on how Dan Gilbert and Renovations meant to refresh Greektown Casi- the ceilings to a newfangled $12 million-plus Warren Buffett became no-Hotel’s look, plus provide easier traffic access HVAC system to improve the air quality. besties, and a look at and upgraded food options, are on the table for the odd couple of Among other planned upgrades are new gam- the coming months. politics, Mayor Mike ing machines and technologies, the new I-375 Duggan and Gov. Rick Athens Acquisition LLC, whose sole shareholder ramp now under construction to provide more Snyder, and what their is Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert, is invest- access to the casino, and a curb cutout to the alliance means for the No- COURTESY OF GREEKTOWN CASINO ing $50 million to $60 million on the renovations Lafayette median to provide faster valet service. vember election. Greektown Casino-Hotel will receive up to to the Detroit casino to give it a more modern $60 million in renovations by the end of 2015. look and improve customers’ experience. The See Greektown, Page 31 MGM GRAND DETROIT, NOVEMBER 19 @ 5 P.M. REGISTER TODAY! crainsdetroit.com/events NEWSPAPER OR CALL (313) 446-0300 20141020-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 10/17/2014 4:09 PM Page 1 Page 2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS October 20, 2014 MICHIGAN BRIEFS Parking’s pricey, so firm will move how long a person lives. The WELL project will start next year 300 more workers out of GR State redesigns world’s-best license plate so U C type and focus on wellness rather than California-based Advantage Sales diseases, MLive.com reported. & Marketing plans to move an addi- Apparently, the aphorism “Beauty is And so state officials recently released a Ⅲ The Michigan Court of Appeals tional 300 workers from downtown in the eyes of the beholder” applies even tweak of the plate, which, The Associat- ruled that Jackson-based Con- Grand Rapids to a suburban office to something as innocuous as a license ed Press notes (and you can see for your- sumers Energy will not be held re- because it no longer wants to pay plate. self here) has “a more subtle yellow-or- sponsible for a 2009 fire and explo- for parking, MLive.com reported. Last year, the Michigan license plate, ange background with black letters. sion that forced more than 4,500 Advantage Sales already has featuring the Mackinac Bridge against a COURTESY OF STATE OF MICHIGAN Michael Yott Jr. of the St. Clair Shores people to be evacuated in the Clio moved its sales department to an of- bright orange sunset with white letters, Police Department collected more than area north of Flint, MLive.com re- fice near I-96 in Cascade Township. was voted the world’s best license plate by the Auto- 700 signatures on an online petition to replace the ported. The courts said the statute By the end of the next year, it plans mobile License Plate Collectors Association. Which, plates. of limitations barred Consumers to move about 270 more employees. among other things, tells you that members of the “We made some changes to the design after a year from being added as a defendant. The cost of employee parking is association don’t go on many high-speed chases. But to ensure it can be very easily read in all conditions, Ⅲ Flint will lose an estimated getting too high, said Bonnie Mor- police officers do. particularly at night,” said Fred Woodhams of the $400,000 a year because General Mo- And police officers have this thing about being Michigan secretary of state’s office. The new plates gan-Becker, an Advantage Sales di- tors Co. will stop using Flint River able to read the numbers and letters on the plates. were tested by the Michigan State Police and the sec- rector. “We hate to move,” she said, water at its engine plant, The Flint Something that’s hard to do when they are white. retary of state. “but the cost of parking has become Journal reported. TM said the wa- a huge issue, and the availability. ter supplied caused engine parts to rust. My guess is the cost is going to go up cans and Hispanics. up 300 percent over 2013, with 630 lendale campus of Grand Valley Ⅲ as parking becomes more scarce.” In West Michigan, loans to non- units under construction. State University. Last week, it offi- Lest we forget: Anila Quayyum Hispanic whites fell 21.4 percent All told, construction began on cially stopped being considered Agha of Indiana won $300,000 in the annual ArtPrize competition in from 2005 to 2013, while loans to 1,632 living units through Septem- and started being a reality. Report: West Michigan Hispanics, Grand Rapids for a sculpture called African-Americans and Hispanics ber, up 61 percent compared with The Rapid, the region’s transit sys- “Intersections,” taking not only the blacks struggle to get mortgages were down 65.9 percent, the study the first nine months of 2013. tem, said 14 stations are to be built Plainfield Township replaced top spot in the public vote but also West Michigan is the nation’s showed. along the 13-mile Laker Line route, Caledonia Township as the coun- sharing honors in the juried compe- most “racially uneven” housing and planners expect 13,000 riders ty’s hottest housing market. tition. Her work was a cube that’s il- market when it comes to helping Kent County homebuilding each day. Construction probably luminated from the inside. And if African-Americans and Hispanics won’t start until 2017, passengers that description seems lacking in a recover from the housing bust, report: Sore spot to soar spot ‘The Rapid,’ indeed: New route boarding the year after.