Ann Arbor

Happy hour startup DrankBank capitalizes on 4 years of growth

By Newsroom

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October 21, 2015

Jordan Eckstein, Ian Sabbag and Brian Shepanek were working in digital marketing five years ago when the trio of recently graduated University of Michigan students stumbled upon a business idea: centralizing happy hour specials on the web. That idea launched DrankBank, an Internet startup that helps people find the best happy hour in their city. It started in Ann Arbor in 2011 and has grown to include major cities across North America from Portland to Chapel Hill. All of these dozens of cities shared one thing in common. "The happy hour information wasn't available," Sabbag says. "It wasn't easy to find." Most of the time people go to happy hours at bars they like to frequent or ones friends mention in passing. There wasn't a real option to find new ones outside of that person's regular orbit. DrankBank does that by collecting and centralizing happy hour information for bars and breweries across several major metropolitan areas. DrankBank has grown about 20-30 percent each year since its launch. The number of visitors has increased each month since its launch. The DrankBank team wants to grow it further by collaborating with some major alcohol brands to expand its reach and sharpen its offerings to users. Despite all of this growth, DrankBank is still an offshoot of the trio's digital marketing firm, Handprint Digital. The downtown Ann Arbor-based company calls an office in Nickels Arcade above Comet Coffee home. However, Eckstein, Sabbag and Shepanek believe they can turn DrankBank into its own standalone business in the not-too-distant future via its current growth curve. "We're profitable because we have a low-cost model," Eckstein says. "We want to make it into an viable business in the long run." Source: Jordan Eckstein and Ian Sabbag, co-founders of DrankBank Writer: Jon Zemke

City Administrator Steve Powers at Ann Arbor City Hall

As Ann Arbor’s top administrator exits, he offers thoughts on the city’s future

By Newsroom

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General

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October 21, 2015

Steve Powers, Ann Arbor's city administrator is moving on. Concentrate asks him to talk about his four years with the city, what challenges it faces in the future, and what advice he has for his replacement.

Akadeum Life Sciences scores $1M in investment

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 14, 2015

Akadeum Life Sciences has landed seven figures worth of seed capital thanks to recently announced $1 million seed round for the Ann Arbor-based life sciences startup. "It will help us build out our team," says Brandon McNaughton, CEO of Akadeum Life Sciences. The 1-year-old startup spun out of the University of Michigan by developing a platform that helps researchers prepare research and diagnostic samples faster and more efficiently. The buoyancy-activated cell sorting technology uses tiny floating spheres, which Akadeum is describing as "microbubbles," to acquire target cells from biological samples. Check out a video describing it here. "Our product goes into biological samples, like blood, and pulls out specific cells to improve research diagnostics," McNaughton says. "We do that using microbubbles." Akadeum Life Sciences raised $150,000 from Michigan eLab, an Ann Arbor-based venture capital firm, last year to kick start development. Michigan eLab led this latest $1 million seed round. Detroit Innovate, Invest Michigan, and University of Michigan MINTS also participated in the round. Akadeum Life Sciences plans to raise a Series A next year. Michigan eLab has pushed Akadeum Life Sciences to adapt lean startup methods, which is not normal practices for life sciences startups. That means Akadeum Life Sciences iteratively built its products to meet the needs of its users, working directly with them to develop products that address their specific problems. The startup is currently selling its technology to pharmaceutical and biotech firms, along with teams from research universities. Akadeum Life Sciences currently employs four people, but McNaughton expects that number to grow over the next year. The startup plans to build out its sales and business development team as it grows. Source: Brandon McNaughton, CEO of Akadeum Life Sciences Writer: Jon Zemke

Welcome to Ann Arbor, America’s swim capital

By Patrick Dunn

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General

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October 14, 2015

For a land-locked city in the middle of the continent it may come as some surprise that Ann Arbor has been ranked the top swim city in the U.S. not once, but two years in a row. Concentrate looks into how a college town known for its football is making big waves in the pool.

Davis Row plans to bring townhouses near downtown Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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October 14, 2015

More housing is coming to Ann Arbor's downtown area, but this latest development isn't a high-rise. Maven Development plans to build a small row of townhouses just south of downtown Ann Arbor. The development, called Davis Row, will bring four high-end townhouses to the for-sale market next year. "There is a need for housing downtown," says Dan Williams, principal of Maven Development, and Ann Arbor-based real-estate development firm. "This allows people to have a house near downtown and not be in a high-rise." Davis Row will consist of four townhouses, each consisting of three bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms on the 300 block of West Davis Street. They will replace two rental houses that will be razed. Two of the townhouses will measure out 1,900 square feet and the other two will come to 2,100 square feet. Williams says they will be built in an arts & crafts-style architecture. Construction on Davis Row is set to begin in late November or early December. Williams estimates it will take 9-10 months to complete construction. The townhouses will be priced between high $500,000s and mid $600,000s. Two of them have already been reserved. Source: Dan Williams, principal of Maven Development Writer: Jon Zemke

Spencer hits crowdfunding goal, plans to open next week

By Newsroom

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General

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October 14, 2015

There is good news for Spencer, a new restaurant in Ann Arbor, and its future customers. The eatery recently surpassed its crowdfunding goal of $30,000 with about a week to spare. The restaurant and cheese bar is also set to open its doors for lunch service on Wednesday. "That gets us going and gets people in the door," says Steven Hall, co-owner of Spencer. Hall and Abby Olitzky, they are recently engaged, started experimenting with restauranting a few years ago. They gained some recognition with a pop-up called Central Provisions. They switched the name to Spencer last year because another restaurant in Maine opened with the name Central Provisions. Spencer is set to open in downtown Ann Arbor at 113 E Liberty in a 1,200 square foot space that sits 50 people. They are opening with lunch service first to start generating some revenue. The liquor license approval is a little ways behind but should be done by the end of this fall. Hall and Olitzky launched a crowdfunding campaign to help put this all together with a goal of raising $30,000. Its now at $32,000 with six days left as of Tuesday afternoon. Hall points out people can still give to help offset the administrative costs Kickstarter charges and other things and still claim the prizes for contributing. More importantly it helps with exposure. "Every person who gives is one more person that is reading about us," Hall says. Source: Steven Hall, co-owner of Spencer Writer: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor Builders plans for rare sub-division inside freeway loop

By Newsroom

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Development News

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October 7, 2015

Building single-family home sub-divisions is nothing new in the Ann Arbor area. Building one inside the loop of freeways that make up the city's defacto borders is rare. Ann Arbor Builders is working to pull off the development with its Banyan Court project. The custom-home building firm plans to turn a nearly 3-acre lot on the city's southwest side into a 10-home sub-division over the next year. The lot, located on South Maple Road between Jade Court and Country Village Court, used to house an old ranch house that is now razed. "There aren't too many parcels like this left," says Alex de Parry, developer of Banyan Court. Ann Arbor Builders plans to build a cul-de-sac straight back from the road and then build the 10 single-family houses off of that street, which will be named Banyan Court. The houses will range in size from a 1,600-square-foot ranch to a 2,200-square-foot two-story house. All of them will be made in a craftsman-style architecture, which de Parry says will match the surrounding area. "We try to build according to what is on either side," de Parry says. "That's what we did here. We want to blend into the neighborhood, not stand out." Ann Arbor Builders plans to sell the houses for $350,00 to $450,000 each. It has already taken a couple of reservations for them and will build them out to for individual buyers as they put deposits down. Plans call for construction to take about a year starting next spring as long as the city signs off on the planned-unit development. "We hope to have approval by January," de Parry says. Source: Alex de Parry, developer of Banyan Court Writer: Jon Zemke

Baltimore brewer pays homage to Ann Arbor rock band

By Newsroom

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Arts & Culture

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October 7, 2015

Ann Arbor-based stoner rock group Blue Snaggletooth has a serious fan at Oliver Brewing. The Baltimore brewery has dubbed their latest libation: Blue Snaggletooth Serpent and the King ESB (extra strong bitter). Excerpt: Originally, Serpent and the King ESB was only available on tap at the Oliver brewery in Baltimore. Taylor says the brewery was going to pay them a royalty for using Blue Snaggletooth’s name and logo, but the band opted to get paid in bottled beers instead. So Serpent and the King was put into 22-ounce bottles with a label designed by the band’s guitar player Casey O’Ryan. It will be available in this area only on Saturday in Ann Arbor. The release party is 9 p.m. at Vault Ultralounge, 219 S. Main St. Admission is free and for $5 guests get a cup of the beer and pizza. The band will have a limited supply of bottles available for sale at $25, which come with a signed silkscreen black light poster for the event. Read the rest here

Ann Arbor engineer helped expose Volkswagen’s diesel deception

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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October 7, 2015

It's pretty well known that Volkswagen tried to pull a fast one with its emissions-cheating software. What's less known is that it wasn't regulators who discovered this massive act of corporate fraud but rather a pair of engineers working at a non-profit lab with local roots. Excerpt: "Peter Mock of Berlin, Germany, and John German of Ann Arbor, Michigan, work for the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). The organization’s mission as stated at the ICCT website is to “provide first-rate, unbiased research and technical and scientific analysis to environmental regulators.” Mock became suspicious when test results on diesel-powered vehicles in Europe were inconsistent. The tests were intended to convince European environmental regulators to loosen restrictions on the sale of diesel cars by verifying claims that their engines ran on “clean diesel.” Two of the models tested – the Volkswagen Jetta and Passat – passed emissions tests in the lab, but were still emitting unacceptably high levels of pollutants under real-world driving conditions. Since US clean air standards are higher than those in the EU, Mock contacted his American colleague. Would identical testing on vehicles made for the US market produce the same results?" Read the rest here.

Q LTD transforms contractors to employees to fill out staff

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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October 7, 2015

Rounding out a creative team with independent contractors has been a popular strategy for boutique firms trying to find a balance between adapting to a flimsy economic recovery and staffing up for projects. Q LTD is moving beyond that practice, hiring the last of its 1099 workers to become full-time team members this fall. The digital strategy firm has been growing incrementally for years now and making this last handful of hires was the right move for its growing amount of work. "For us it's a nice, normal pace of growth," says Christine Golus, managing director of Q LTD. Paul Koch, a creative strategist for Q LTD adds, "Our goal is controlled steady growth." The downtown Ann Arbor-based firm has hired four people over the last year, including the two former independent contractors. It now has a staff of 14 employees and one intern. "All of the people are working full-time," Golus says. And working on a number of projects. Q LTD has helped human resources at the University of Michigan design a new website. It also put together conference programs from the American Dental Association. Currently, Q LTD is working on a website redesign for The Kresge Foundation. "The work indicates we will need that many more people," Golus says. "It's why we are hiring them on." Source: Christine Golus, managing director of Q LTD, and Paul Koch, a creative strategist for Q LTD Writer: Jon Zemke