20140428-NEWS--0001-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 4/25/2014 7:50 PM Page 1 ® www.crainsdetroit.com Vol. 30, No. 17 APRIL 28 – MAY 4, 2014 $2 a copy; $59 a year ©Entire contents copyright 2014 by Crain Communications Inc. All rights reserved Page 3 Biz tied to Libya wins airport deal “Neither of into a landscape and events busi- Planterra loses landscaping them is on the ness with $5 million a year in rev- U.S. State Depart- enue. It has such high-end clients ment’s statutori- as Somerset Collection in Troy and contract over $40K difference ly or adminis- the Mansion at MGM Grand, an ex- tratively clusive suite hotel in Las Vegas. debarred com- BY AMY HAIMERL not by a U.S. competitor, but by a The company creates living green panies. So the walls and elaborate interior gar- Headset startup seeks CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS division of British multinational company Rentokil Initial PLC, which management dens as well as throws lavish par- investors for hi-def device Every week, Planterra Corp. staff has ties to late Libyan leader team really had ties in Planterra’s 11,000-square- comes to the Detroit Metropolitan Moammar Gadhafi. Shane Pliska no reason not to foot greenhouse. Airport’s North Terminal to care for The difference in the two bids recommend “They don’t care about Detroit,” The ups and downs the landscaping. They water, was $40,000 over the three-year them considering that they were said Pliska, referring to Rentokil. of metro Detroit real estate groom, clean and generally main- contract. the lowest responsive and respon- “They don’t care at all. We’re proud tain all of the potted plants and fo- Michael Conway, director of sible bidder.” of our local airport. It’s a real pride liage that is the backdrop of the 26- public affairs for the Wayne County The loss of that contract, effec- point to do business (there).” gate, 850,000-square-foot terminal. Airport Authority, said the authori- tive May 1, was a slap to Shane Planterra continues to service Inside But after six years, the West ty’s legal team looked at Rentokil Pliska, whose father, Larry, start- the airport’s larger McNamara Bloomfield Township-based com- and the U.S. division actually bid- ed Planterra in the 1970s and has Ex-Detroit pany lost the contract. It was beat ding on the airport work. grown it from a small retail shop See Contract, Page 35 Lion works to expand clothing line, Page 5 Fear not the ’bot? Legislators may enact new compound pharmacy rules, As robots take jobs, experts ask if humans will keep up Page 29 BY DUSTIN WALSH Belle Isle fountain cleanup CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS a crusade for caretaker, A robot can screw in a bolt, run a conveyor system or track Page 33 inventory — and, so far, can even be trusted with large sums of This Just In cash. At the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in Detroit, automated hi- Invest Michigan leases los move wrapped pallets of cash, downtown Detroit office often as much as $8 million at a time, to and from the counting Invest Michigan, a new orga- room to the vault, which is home nization affiliated with the to $14 billion of U.S. currency. Michigan Economic Develop- The hi-los replaced traditional ment Corp. that will run the laborers in managing the cash Michigan Pre-Seed Capital pallets, a local example of how ro- Fund 2.0, signed a lease Fri- COURTESY FANUC AMERICA bots increasingly perform some A Fanuc America CNC machine loads and unloads brake components day for an office in the previous functions of blood- while a worker packages the output. Guardian Building in down- pumping, oxygen-breathing hu- town Detroit, beginning May mans. mates that robots could re- and shift human jobs to the 1, according to President and Advancements in automation place nearly half of the current right parts of the manufactur- CEO Charlie Moret. and artificial intelligence have U.S. workforce. ing or service-providing Previously, Moret was already eked out or radically Technological change is oc- process: programming the ro- managing director of tech- changed job duties for certain lo- curring at a rapid pace, faster bots, repairing and maintain- nology-based entrepreneur- gistics, manufacturing, mass than in any point in history, ing them, and adapting work ship at Detroit’s TechTown. transit and health care workers. but is it threatening the liveli- processes as the economy con- The 2.0 fund will typically During the next 10 to 20 years, hood of the American, and tinues to evolve. invest $250,000 in startup and real estate agents, cab drivers — Southeast Michigan, work- In other words, humans re- young companies that have even associate lawyers — are force? main in control of the discov- been able to raise matching subject to automation, according Experts say that depends on ery. funds. to an Oxford University report pub- whether organizational lead- — Tom Henderson lished in March. The study esti- ers learn to embrace the robot See Robots, Page 36 Rocking the Intellectual Property World WNJ.com ATTORNEYS AT LAW (see our ad on page 2) NEWSPAPER 20140428-NEWS--0002-NAT-CCI-CD_-- 4/25/2014 2:58 PM Page 1 Page 2 CRAIN’S DETROIT BUSINESS April 28, 2014 MICHIGAN BRIEFS Grand Rapids malls rebound by 3.95 percent next academic year, The AP reported. with increased capacity HopCat exports craft beer cool to land of Hoosiers With the rate change, the resi- Here’s a good sign that Grand dence hall double-room rate for Rapids retail has rebounded from The rapidly expanding HopCat craft beer bar MiBiz broke news in February that Sellers was undergraduate students will in- the Great Recession: For the first chain — already set to clink its first bottles in De- tapping investors to help fund the launch of 12 to 15 crease $144, to $3,780 per year. The time in years, its malls are at or troit this fall — is branching out beyond Michigan HopCat beer bar locations in Michigan and nearby school said its unlimited dining near capacity. and into the Hoosier State. states. The company earlier announced plans for a meal plan will increase $204, to “We’ve had some great momen- Grand Rapids-based BarFly Ventures LLC last week HopCat location at 4265 Woodward Ave. in Midtown $5,374 per year. tum in the past couple of years,” detailed plans to launch a fourth HopCat restaurant that is expected to open in October. Ⅲ After record levels of ice cov- Andrea Lukens, Philadelphia- and bar in Indianapolis, MiBiz reported. According to state records, Sellers set up HopCat er on the Great Lakes, one of the based director of leasing for Penn- The $2.5 million bar operation, the company’s LLCs with the cities of Ann Arbor, Detroit, Chicago Shepler’s Mackinac Island Ferry sylvania Real Estate Investment first venture out of state, is expected to open in ear- and Indianapolis in their names. boats finally took a stab at making Trust, the company that owns ly August in Indianapolis’ Broad Ripple Village, Last year, EL Brewpub LLC, a wholly owned sub- it to the island from the ice-bound Woodland Mall in Kentwood, told one of the city’s cultural districts just north of sidiary of BarFly Ventures that does business as St. Ignace harbor on Thursday. In MLive.com during a visit to West downtown. HopCat East Lansing, also received funding from five hours, the boat, fitted with Michigan. “Broad Ripple’s history as a place with an artistic state-backed mezzanine fund Grow Michigan LLC. ice-breaking capabilities, made it Woodland is at 99 percent occu- heart and musical soul made it the ideal area for us BarFly Ventures operates a handful of bars and about one mile through the 1 to 3 pancy for the first time since its lo- to open our first HopCat outside of Michigan,” restaurants in West Michigan, including Stella’s feet of ice clogging the harbor, cal competitor, Grandville’s River- BarFly owner Mark Sellers said in a statement. Lounge, McFadden’s and Grand Rapids Brewing Co. in MLive.com reported. The plan is Town Crossings, opened in 1999. BarFly projects the new location will create 100 Grand Rapids and HopCat locations in Grand to ensure the path is wide enough The Grandville mall now has a 98 jobs. Rapids and East Lansing. to remain open. “It doesn’t sound percent occupancy rate. like much, but from where I’m sit- Centerpointe Mall, across the ting it’s a big victory,” said Chris But there may be bigger chal- space on the second floor of the 99 federal dredging of the Muskegon street from Woodland, is at full oc- Shepler, ferry service owner. lenges on the horizon, not the Monroe building. It is scheduled Lake port by finding a new use cupancy for the first time in least of which is potential compe- to open in June. Worklab was de- that would boost shipping, such as Find business news from decades after going through a re- tition from an 80-store outlet mall veloped based on research from agricultural products or industrial around the state at crainsdetroit cent “de-malling” that essentially going up in Byron Township. Stay office furniture manufacturer use. .com/crainsmichiganbusiness. rid the development of its indoor tuned. Steelcase Inc., and the project will Ⅲ Michigan State University Sign up for Crain's Michigan space. The newly configured Cen- utilize Steelcase technologies. trustees voted to raise room-and- Business e-newsletter at crains terpointe, which now lets shoppers Ⅲ Consumers Energy is commit- board rates for the school’s dorms detroit.com/emailsignup.