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.

U-M student entrepreneur profiled

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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.

Latest in Economic Development

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

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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.

A conversation about affordable housing in Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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Diversity & Equity

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October 1, 2014

Both Mark Maynard and the Metro Times have decided to tackle the issue of affordable housing - or rather the growing lack of such - in Ann Arbor. As usual their thoughts are both insightful and empathetic. Excerpt from Mark Maynard: "I don’t have any problem with affordable housing. I think it’s a good thing. What I have a real problem with, however, is segregation. I have a problem with a system where it’s accepted that some towns are “too nice” for the poor. And I find it doubly infuriating when these nice, liberal communities, once they’ve forced their most vulnerable citizens beyond their borders, mount campaigns to stop attempts at regional cooperation, as we recently saw play out in the battle over the AATA’s expanded role in providing bus service within Washtenaw County. Many people in Ann Arbor cried out that they didn’t want their tax dollars going to fund the transportation of people in Ypsilanti, in spite of the fact that many of those people were probably Ann Arborites before they were forced out due to the cost of living. And the same goes for everything from our public schools to our police departments." Excerpt from the Metro Times: "It's a good post, one that inspired a lot of people to join in with comments of their own. The general tone is one of despair at what Ann Arbor has become, how it has fallen from its days as a scrappy campus town with a good mix of incomes. After reading them, we come away agreeing that without lots of different kinds of people of different classes with different perspectives, a city is a less interesting place. As for subsidies, one needn't not have a job to not receive subsidies. The fact is, everybody in the United States gets some sort of subsidy, not just the odd person who makes it their life's work to avoid earning a living." Read Mark's observations and opinions here. Read the Metro Times respone here.

U-M and startup community create an entrepreneurial ecosystem

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Economic Development

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October 1, 2014

What do you get when you mix one of the biggest, best-funded institutions in the country with an ever-growing list of aggressive entrepreneurial incubators? Answers revealed in the article link below! Excerpt: "Student organizations tout entrepreneurial spirit abound — namely MPowered, optiMize and MHacks — and administrative facilities and programs, like the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovate Blue, foster startup ideas and passion, providing resources that turn those concepts into realities. Even outside the University, startup enthusiasm is everywhere. Incubators and consulting firms like TechArb, Ann Arbor SPARK and Menlo Innovations are in high demand — the former two even partner with the students through Innovate Blue." Read the rest here.

U-M spinout produces revolutionary battery technology

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 1, 2014

U-M tech innovation + entrepreneurial ambition = successful startup. See, math isn't so hard. Excerpt: "Produced by Sakti3, Inc., a self-proclaimed “spinout” company from the University of Michigan, the battery cell has double the energy density of a current lithium ion battery. In more specific terms, the battery produces over 1,100 Watt hours per liter (Wh/l) in volumetric energy density. Typical lithium-ion batteries produce between 250-730 Wh/l." Read the rest here.

Ann Arbor filled with brainiacs

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Economic Development

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October 1, 2014

Even folks in the U.K. are impressed by the size of our big brains. Which inspires one to ask: Does it also mean we also have big heads? Excerpt: Move over East Coast elite! Ann Arbor is America's most educated city but New York doesn't even make the top 50, study says: -The Michigan city is number one among the nation's 150 largest metro areas, according to Wallet Hub -The study analyzed nine metrics including number of workers in tech and science, quality/size of a city's universities and educational attainment -Ann Arbor was followed by Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina; Provo, Utah; Provo, Utah; Manchester, New Hamphsire Read the rest here.

Ann Arbor’s blossoming condo market

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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October 1, 2014

And on the flipside of the affordable housing issue... we have this. Hmmm. Any chance our fair city could find a way to create greater (not less) economic diversity? Because in case you hadn't noticed a few buildings have gone up in downtown Ann Arbor. And guess what? People are moving into them and paying big bucks to do so. Funny how the market works, huh? Demand meet limited supply. Excerpt: "Many of the current and earlier developments specifically cater to U-M students, offering additional near-campus living options aside from blocks of grubby old houses. Other projects have targeted high-earning professionals and empty-nesters and are filling up faster than local observers anticipated. Fueling the boom has been an eagerness among lenders to finance high-end student housing projects, the willingness of parents to pay upwards of $1,400 a month for a child’s college bedroom, and what appears to be pent-up demand in general for amenity-filled Ann Arbor apartments." Read the rest here.

Ann Arbor charms the socks off a Canadian travel writer

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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October 1, 2014

They come from all over but leave singing our praises. Another travel writer (this time from the Great White North), another glowing report about Ann Arbor as a travel destination. Excerpt: "As I explored the downtown area by foot, I found that this city seemed to resonate with its own special vibe, and its plethora of performing arts theatres, art studios, microbreweries, specialty shops, world-class museums, and numerous parks and green spaces all contributed to the special feeling I had there." Read the rest here.

Try2See app works to better connect people, places, things

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 1, 2014

Lots of startups are trying to master the 21st Century version of customer loyalty programs. A new Ann Arbor-based startup, Try2See, thinks it has found the way to do it. The 1-year-old startup has come out with a mobile app that utilizes QR codes and smart phones that enable customers, businesses and locations to better connect and keep track of who does what where. "We're looking for a way to automate that process," says Barry McDonald, founder of Try2See. The general idea from the three-person team is to enable customers to swipe in their purchases at local stores with the scan of a QR code at the establishment. That way customers don’t need to carry an extra card to scan or wait for a cashier to punch a paper card. All of it can be done with a simple QR code scan. Try2See is working with local businesses districts in Royal Oak, Ferndale, and the Avenue of Fashion along Livernois Avenue in Detroit. So far 62 businesses are signed up and the Try2See team is working to get more businesses owners and their customers on board. "We're trying to get the entire business district to use the system," McDonald says. Source: Barry McDonald, founder of Try2See Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.