Economic Development

Coverage of projects, big and small, and the people who create them, which promote the economic health of a community, including manufacturing, retail, office, and hospitality developments.

Blimpy Burger reopens with more seats, new jobs and same legendary burgers

By Natalie Burg

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Arts & Culture

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October 8, 2014

It's been about 13 months since the Ann Arbor landmark Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger closed it's doors, and burger lovers can once again breathe easy: Blimpy Burger is back. The business reopened last week in its new location on Ashely. "So far, I've seen a lot of familiar faces," says Emily Magner, whose family owns Blimpy Burger. And the customers weren't the only familiar part of the shop's reopening. "We were able to replicate the Blimpy experience and the ordering experience that makes us so unique." Though the burgers, diners and experience may be picking up right where they left off, one change in the new Blimpy Burger location is additional seating. With seats for more than 50 diners, they're up between 10 to 15 seats from the original location. As early as Monday of last week, financial supporters of the restaurant's new space were treated to sneak preview dining experience that Magner says was well deserved. "They were the key to us being here today," she says. "Not only did they support us in just helping with our morale, but they gave us incentive to make this happen." Though still hiring and training employees Magner estimates the new Blimpy Burger will employ about 20 workers. She says though getting up and running is their first goal — the restaurant is currently operating on limited hours — long term goals for the business could include adding a catering component. Source: Emily Magner, Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger Writer: Natalie Burg

Latest in Economic Development

U-M student entrepreneur profiled

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 8, 2014

Three cool business innovations are profiled in Entrepreneur's "3 Student Startups That Are Going the Distance" and U-M chemical engineering major Carolyn Yarina made the list with her human-powered centrifuge built from bicycle parts. Excerpt: "Returning to India over the next two summers, she refined her concept and developed contacts. After graduating in 2013, she worked on her centrifuge full time, eventually developing a portable machine dubbed (r)Evolve that can alternate between manual power and electricity. She also lined up engineering and manufacturing support in India. But it dawned on Yarina that she needed to go further. "Once I created our student organization and started going to business classes, I had an epiphany," she says. "Open-source designs are not a viable option if you actually want to get your product out there. If it was just about creating a process to separate blood, we would have been done four years ago." Read the rest here.

OpEd: Make creativity a priority in Ann Arbor

By Omari Rush

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Arts & Culture

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October 8, 2014

For all of the cultural, intellectual, and economic resources Ann Arbor has, some say the city is stagnating creatively and lacks enough infrastructure for artists. Omari Rush, curator of public programs for the Ann Arbor Art Center, discusses his "listening tour" and proposes next steps needed to better support the arts.

Why traffic lanes shouldn’t be 12 feet wide

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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October 8, 2014

Wider traffic lanes are not safer, nor better for a community. We must realign our thinking away from auto-centric policies and toward people-centric policies. Excerpt: "And states and counties almost always apply a 12-foot standard. Why do they do this? Because they believe that wider lanes are safer. And in this belief, they are dead wrong. Or, to be more accurate, they are wrong, and thousands of Americans are dead. They are wrong because of a fundamental error that underlies the practice of traffic engineering—and many other disciplines—an outright refusal to acknowledge that human behavior is impacted by its environment." Read the rest here.

Sava Lelcaj makes Crain’s “40 Under 40” list

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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October 8, 2014

It was inevitable. I mean, seriously, is there an entrepreneur more responsible for transforming downtown Ann Arbor than Sava Lelcaj? Excerpt: "In the meantime, Lelcaj and her team are preparing to launch a product line and open two new “grocerants,” a concept that she describes as a marriage between a traditional grocery store and a restaurant. The markets will sell ready-to-eat/heat food as well as products from the company’s new line. Both grocerants will be located in Ann Arbor, with one at 2835 Boardwalk and the other at 12 Nickels Aracade. " Read the rest here.

Tech Transfer reports a record year for U-M inventions

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 8, 2014

Go big or go home. Entrepreneurship is becoming a way of thinking at U-M and this year saw a big uptick in relationships with companies, new inventions and the formation of start-ups. Excerpt: "U-M Tech Transfer recorded number of advancements in fiscal year 2014, the university reported. Researchers reported 439 new inventions in fiscal year 2014, which is up from last year’s 421. Additionally, U-M Tech Transfer also recorded 148 option and license agreements compared to 108 agreements a year ago. There was also 14 start-ups launched, which brings the total number of businesses launched in the past five years to 55." Read the rest here.

Stratos ramps up staff for new Ann Arbor office

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 8, 2014

The startup formerly known as Protean Payment (freshly rebranded at Stratos) has a new name, a new pool of money to draw from, and is looking for a new home in Ann Arbor to accommodate its growth. Stratos announced last week that it raised $5.8 million in a Series A round. Silicon Valley-based Toba Capital Partners led the round with Ann Arbor-based Reasonant Venture Partners participating, along with two other venture capital firms. Stratos is working on disrupting the way people pay for everyday purchases, but not too much. It is making a new card that combines all of the cards in your wallet (credit, debit, loyalty) into a bluetooth enabled device. The idea is to simplify how a person pay for things without having to build a whole new payment infrastructure (and learning curve) around it. It is also the reason behind the larger-than-usual-by-local-startup-standards initial capital raise. "We're a software company and a hardware company, so we have an increased capital requirement," says Thiago Olson, co-founder & CEO of Stratos. Stratos is still working on developing its technology and Olson declined to give some details about it, such as when it's anticipated to launch and how many people work for the startup today. He did say the company is looking to hire 10 people right now and expects to keep hiring for the foreseeable future. "We're scaling on all fronts," Olson says. "It's going to be constant hiring on all fronts." Stratos currently works from an office building in Kerrytown that it shares with Duo Security and Reasonant Venture Partners. Duo Security, also in the midst of a hiring spree, is moving to a bigger office in downtown Ann Arbor this fall. Stratos is evaluating whether his firm will expand into the newly vacated space or elsewhere as it looks for a space that could house between 40-50 people. "We're expanding and we're going to be moving into a new office and that's one of the places we're looking at," Olson says. Source: Thiago Olson, co-founder & CEO of Stratos Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Liberty Title adds jobs as real-estate market rebounds

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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October 8, 2014

This last winter with its polar vortexes forced real-estate companies like Liberty Title to go into hibernation for a few months to deal with what became a literally frozen real-estate market. Things were so slow during December, January, and February that it was almost like the company took the quarter off. "We had a big hole in the first quarter to dig out of," says Tom Richardson, general counsel of Liberty Title. That hasn't stopped the Ann Arbor-based company from realizing some solid gains this year. It helps that the local real-estate market has heated up and property values have risen with it. Richardson points out that houses that sold for $60,000 a year or two ago are not selling for $100,000, and he sees price gains continuing. "I don't see any slowdown," Richardson says. "Interest rates seem like they will stay flat in 2015 and the economy in southeast Michigan is strong." That has allowed Liberty Title to consolidate some gains across Metro Detroit and add staff. The company has moved its Brighton office into a new building near the heart of the city's downtown. It has hired six people, expanding its staff to 98 employees. Those new hires include new office managers in Birmingham and Novi. "We picked up some highly experienced people," Richardson says. Source: Tom Richardson, general counsel of Liberty Title Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Warmilu finds economic soft spot with warming blankets for seniors

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 8, 2014

The team at Warmilu has discovered that nothing is as easy as it seems, especially when you're trying to create a new product from scratch. The downtown Ann Arbor-based startup has been working to bring its warming blanket technology to market for the last year but has run into snags along the way, such as getting labeling and packaging right. However, the 3-year-old company is still looking to launch sales of its blanket later this fall, perhaps as soon as November. "That's our goal, but we know it’s an ambitious goal," says Grace Hsia, CEO of Warmilu. Warmilu represents its blanket as a non-electric heating wrap that acts instantly, is reusable, and microwave safe. Hsia and her two co-founders (all University of Michigan graduate students) developed the blanket with the idea of keeping newborns warm. It has since grown the idea to include using it for the elderly and people dealing with pain or soreness from ailments like arthritis. "There is a robust home-heat-care market," Hsia says. "It's mainly men and women over the age of 50." Warmilu and its team of five people (it recently hired a marketing and creative director) are hoping to use the revenues from its initial sales to help fund the further development of the blanket for neonatal care. The startup is also working to raise a seed capital round of $250,000 to fund the development of the technology, but Hsia and her partners would prefer to continue bootstrapping the venture by growing its sales beyond Michigan. "We want to reach out and build that Warmilu presence not only in Ann Arbor but globally," Hsia says. "We would like to self-finance our growth." Source: Grace Hsia, CEO of Warmilu Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

U-M student-led VCs look for a few good startup investments

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 8, 2014

Opportunities for finding seed capital for local startups are anything but in short supply this fall. A broad range of financial sources are looking to invest tens of thousands of dollars in promising ventures, such as the University of Michigan’s Social Venture Fund and the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition. Three student-led venture capital funds at the University of Michigan are putting out calls for applications. The VCs are looking to sink $50,000 to $100,000 per investment, and they are looking for a broad range of startups to evaluate. "We invest in 1-2 companies per year," says Joanna Herrmann, director of investments for the University of Michigan’s Social Venture Fund. "Last year we invested in two companies." The other two student-led funds (the Wolverine Venture Fund and the Zell Lurie Commercialization Fund) are looking to make investments of similar sizes in a wide variety of ventures. This is the fifth year for the university's Social Venture Fund. It has made five investments in that time, including an investment in downtown Detroit-based software mapping startup Loveland Technologies, which has hired three people in recent months. The Social Venture Fund looks for companies that are for-profit and aim to make a social or environmental impact. "We try to cast a really wide net," Herrmann says. Bigger money is at stake at the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition this fall. The annual business plan competition offers prizes that are often worth $10,000 or more. Top prize is $500,000. Startups from Washtenaw County, and the U-M specifically, have historically fared quite well, often taking the top spot and walking away with six figures in seed capital. For information this year’s Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition click here. Source: Joanna Herrmann, director of investments for the University of Michigan’s Social Venture Fund Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.