Crain's Detroit Business, 1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, MI (2025)

09/04/2025

More than 37% of qualified applicants, even those already with bachelor’s degrees, were rejected from Wayne State University College of Nursing this year.

It’s a national trend. More than 65,000 qualified applicants were not accepted into undergraduate nursing programs across the U.S. last year. It's not because they're not needed — the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration projects a 15% gap between nursing demand and available nurses in Michigan by 2035.

There are not enough nursing educators to train the next generation to meet the demand in the field.

It’s a matter of economics and safety regulations. Michigan regulations restrict how many students can be overseen by a single faculty member in the clinical setting, and pay in academia is outpaced by pay for nurses in hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices.

“It comes down to a complete mismatch of incentives for nurse educators, providers and nurses,” said Christopher Friese, vice provost for academic and faculty affairs at the University of Michigan and professor at the UM School of Nursing. “We absolutely need more slack in the system. We can’t run health care with the absolute bare minimum. This is an all-hands-on-deck moment and this issue is keeping qualified people out of the hospital.”

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/health-care/michigan-needs-more-nurses-students-are-getting-turned-away?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

09/03/2025

A Washtenaw County estate has sold at a sale price that’s among the highest in Michigan in years.

The estate of late Ann Arbor businessman Louis Ferris closed on the sale of nearly 100 acres in Superior Township — which includes a 17,000-square-foot home with architecture inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright — at a price of $12.8 million.

Such sale prices are rare in the area, with only a few properties going for more than $8 million in the past several years, according to multiple listing service data.

Listed last summer at a price of $10 million, the buyers emerged within the last few months and sought to buy additional acreage not initially part of the offering, driving up the price. Now, the new owners will have the W. Keith Owen-designed home that includes an updated kitchen with high-end appliances, a backyard infinity pool and dozens of acres dedicated to agriculture and wildlife, including sheep and cattle, as well as a pond and blueberry farm.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/estate-near-ann-arbor-fetches-one-highest-michigan-prices-years?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

09/03/2025

Detroit could generate a minimum of $14.1 million to $46.9 million a year by levying an admissions tax to attend professional sports games, concerts and other entertainment events in the city.

The move would require approval from the state Legislature, City Council and Detroit voters.

The deep dive was done by the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council of Michigan at the request of council members, who are exploring ways to reduce high property taxes without losing revenue and still maintaining or enhancing services.

President Mary Sheffield, who could be the next mayor, has indicated a need to study tapping into new revenue streams from "economic activity" in the downtown area — via a hotel tax, an amusement tax or an entertainment tax — or assessing a city sales tax.

The report looks at revenue scenarios if a 3%, 5%, 7% or 10% excise, or admissions, tax were assessed at Comerica Park, Little Caesars Arena, Ford Field, Masonic Temple, Fox Theater and Fisher Theater.

34 states allow some form of an amusement tax, including in Detroit's peer cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Columbus, Indianapolis, Denver, Atlanta, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. It typically is percentage-based, ranges from 3% to 10% and is directed to general funds, public safety or arts/cultural programming.

Michigan does not levy the 6% state sales tax on event tickets.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/politics-policy/ticket-tax-could-generate-revenue-detroit-elsewhere?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

09/02/2025

David Di Rita remembers exactly what Capitol Park in Detroit was like roughly two decades ago.

When his and Stacy Fox’s then-fledgling real estate development company opened its first office on the 31st floor of the 38-story Art Deco David Stott Building around 2006, the tiny central business district enclave was a far cry from what it is today.

“It was a bus station and open-air drug market surrounded by vacant or nearly vacant buildings,” said Di Rita, who is principal of the Detroit-based Roxbury Group, today one of the city’s most active developers in hotel and multifamily space. “It was a place that had been completely forsaken and forgotten, as bad as any square block in downtown in terms of abandonment and crime and public infrastructure.”

Through a concerted, complicated and sometimes controversial effort involving the public, private and nonprofit sectors, today Capitol Park is now chock-full of pricey rental housing (with only a modicum of affordable units thanks in part to the timing of its ramp-up), chic architecture and insurance offices and a mix of date night and other restaurants that make it a fashionable draw for those in the city, from the suburbs and out of town.

Grit has been supplanted by glam.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/how-detroit-transformed-capitol-park-chic-enclave?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

09/01/2025

The 2024 Michigan Non-Gaming Tribal Economic Impact Study found Michigan’s 12 federally recognized tribes have grown their influence on the state’s economy “exponentially” over a five-year period, thanks to investments in non-gaming sectors like AI, life sciences and manufacturing.

The study found that Michigan’s 12 federally recognized tribes generated a total non-gaming economic impact of $1.24 billion in 2024 across 78 tribal business entities, up from $288 million when the topic was first studied five years ago in a report that included nine tribes.

The 2024 total includes “direct, indirect and induced” economic effects of tribal businesses, per the report.

Grand Rapids-based Waséyabek Development Co. LLC, the non-gaming economic development arm of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, served as the tribal entity coordinating the study.

Waséyabek President and CEO Deidra Mitchell said tribal businesses’ economic power is “growing exponentially” and “delivering great benefits to tribal communities and the entire state.”

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/economic-development/tribes-non-gaming-business-adds-1b-michigans-economy?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

08/31/2025

Pickleball is big business in metro Detroit and national groups are taking notice.

The Association of Pickleball Players announced that the 2026 APP Detroit Open will take place Aug. 19–23 at the Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi. The five-day APP tournament is expected to draw more than 1,000 amateur and professional competitors, making it one of the region’s largest pickleball showcases to date, according to a news release.

Detroit Sports Commission Executive Director Marty Dobek said the group has strategically targeted pickleball as a premier event opportunity for the Detroit market.

“The 2026 APP Detroit Open is the perfect opportunity to bring this fast-growing sport to our region, help grow our sports tourism calendar, and create a positive economic impact for metro Detroit,” Dobek said in the release.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/sports-recreation/association-pickleball-players-adds-detroit-tournament?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

08/29/2025

The country’s most expensive lakefront home market can be found in the “golden triangle” of Northern Michigan, on the state’s 22nd-largest inland lake just south of Little Traverse Bay.

A new report by Lake Homes Realty, which calls itself the nation’s largest lake-focused real estate company, found Walloon Lake ranks at the top for the highest average list price for lake homes.

With an average list price of $6.44 million, Walloon Lake was the most expensive lake homes market in the U.S. during the three-month period ending July 30, according to Lake Homes Realty’s fall 2025 lake market report. That narrowly beat out celebrity-magnet Lake Sherwood outside Los Angeles, Calif. at $6.15 million, and far outpaced Lake Tahoe in Nevada at $3.83 million, according to the report.

Walloon Lake straddles Emmet and Charlevoix counties in Northern Michigan, about 5 miles south of Petoskey. It also was the fourth-largest lake market in Michigan by dollar value during that three-month period, with total active listings valued at about $84.7 million, per the report. The top Michigan lake markets were Lake Michigan ($1.1 billion), Lake Huron ($126.8 million) and Torch Lake ($90.9 million).

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/nations-priciest-lake-homes-market-northern-michigan?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

08/29/2025

A former cold storage building in Detroit's Milwaukee Junction neighborhood that was converted largely into office and coworking space has a new ownership group.

A group of investors that includes the family office of Ann Arbor tech titan Dug Song, and many others, purchased the nine-story Chroma building in late July from Detroit-based The Platform LLC, run by Peter Cummings.

State business filings also indicate that Mike Ferlito, who runs Detroit-based The Ferlito Group, and Gino Roncelli, who runs Sterling Heights-based construction contractor Roncelli Inc., are also involved in ownership through various LLCs.

In a news release, the new ownership group said it plans to lease up the remainder of the building at 2731 E. Grand Blvd. The building is about 80% occupied with tenants including the Michigan Humane Society, City Year Detroit and architecture firm Progressive AE.

The Chroma building recently lost two tenants — Bridge Detroit and the VVK PR + Creative communications firm — to Invest Detroit's newly renovated innovation hub in the former Thomas Jefferson Intermediate School in Midtown.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/real-estate/dug-song-investors-buy-chroma-building-platform?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

08/28/2025

Five years since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools and "nonessential" businesses, downtown Ann Arbor still isn’t exactly the same.

Many businesses moved to remote or hybrid work, meaning fewer office workers are buying lunch at downtown restaurants or shopping at local small businesses. While evening and weekend foot traffic downtown are higher than ever, foot traffic during weekdays remains below pre-pandemic levels. Still, weekday foot traffic has increased over recent years.

Downtown Home & Garden and Kilwins, two longtime downtown retailers that will close in December, both cited rising rents, decreased business and other expenses as factors in their decisions to close after decades in business. Kilwins co-owner Chera Tramontin also cited decreased foot traffic in Ann Arbor as a reason for closure, telling Crain’s earlier this month that “downtown is dead.”

In the college town, business is highly dependent on the University of Michigan’s schedule for many restaurants and retailers, with business dropping to a lull during the summer months. Nevertheless, business owners and managers say, things have changed year-round in the years since the pandemic began.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/retail/downtown-ann-arbor-has-changed-pandemic?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

08/27/2025

The state’s largest bike ride, the Tour de Troit, has been called off by organizers just weeks before the 24th annual event was scheduled to take place.

Organizers cited rising costs as the reason for the cancellation, asking the 1,300 registered riders for the Sept. 13 race to write letters of support for its return in an email over the weekend.

“The difficult decision to cancel this historic event was not made lightly by the leaders of our nonprofit organization, but we are simply unable to cover the additional costs of producing this event while keeping registration fees at the level they are, with the number of participants we have registered,” organizers said in the email.

The annual event aims to showcase a variety of Detroit neighborhoods with various ride lengths, including a 26-mile main ride and a 62-mile metric century ride.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/sports-recreation/organizers-cancel-tour-de-troit-citing-rising-costs?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

08/27/2025

Once one of the biggest proponents of filling in Interstate 375 to create a street-level boulevard, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan slowly withdrew from backing the project — and the business community's objections went from a simmer to a boil.

Stakeholders near I-375 have been opposed to the Michigan Department of Transportation’s project since its inception, business leaders told Crain’s, due to the impact the highway's closure would have on their bottom line.

That, coupled with Duggan moving the project to the back burner, sapped the proposal of its momentum months before it was set to begin construction, with MDOT indefinitely pausing the project earlier this month.

“I frankly couldn’t find anybody with any connection to the project that was willing to tell me they supported it,” Wayne County Executive Warren Evans told Crain’s. “If nobody supports it, where is this coming from?

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/politics-policy/business-opposition-halted-mdots-i-375-project-detroit?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=soc-own

08/25/2025

When a new ownership group took the reins at Slows Bar BQ in Detroit in 2023, expansion was at the top of its priority list.

Now, with one new location already set to open in Berkley, Slows plans to open a location in downtown Ann Arbor, co-owner Terry Perrone confirmed to Crain's. The planned new Slows location at 207 E. Washington St. will take over a space previously occupied by a Blue Tractor BBQ & Brewery, which closed in the spring.

The announcement of the Ann Arbor location comes as Slows readies to celebrate its 20th anniversary in September.

Read more here: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/restaurants/slows-bar-bq-expanding-ann-arbor?share-code=17561457657475070-198e2aead99&utm_id=gfta-ur-250825

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