The B2B Party Bus is everything sustainable new urbanist hipsters ever dreamed of: An entrepreneurial enterprise that runs small scale private transit on secondhand cooking oil in order to transport young party-goers around downtown.
Creating a iPhone application is so common these days it's almost cliché. But Ann Arbor's Mobatech thinks it has the experience and the skills to help make its applications stand out from the 75,000 others in Apple's App Store."Everybody from your brother, sister and grandmother is creating mobile applications today," says Greg Schwartz, founder and CEO of Mobatech.Schwartz founded the firm in 2003 in Ann Arbor. He started with making a checkbook application for smart phones before everyone and their extended family began writing code for mobile applications. "When I started it was all about the web," Schwartz says. "By the time I graduated the bubble had burst and I had moved to mobile phones."He kept it as a side gig when he worked in New York City, but made it his full-time job two years ago when he moved back to Tree Town. Today he employs five people and four summer interns from Ann Arbor SPARK's Central Incubator in downtown Ann Arbor. He hopes to hire 3-5 people within the next year."We're definitely trying to build out the team," Schwartz says.Mobatech has concentrated on the Blackberry app market so far, which has helped it pump its revenues up to 300 percent in the last year. It expects to start putting out iPhone apps by the end of the year.Source: Greg Schwartz, founder and CEO of MobatechWriter: Jon Zemke
The developer behind the controversial City Place project and the neighbors it would affect are back to the table, negotiating what everyone hopes will be the long-awaited compromise.The developer, Alex de Parry of Ann Arbor Builders, is scheduling a neighborhood meeting next week to talk about the project near the southern border of the central business district. The meeting is open to the public even though it's designed for neighbors of the development to give their input."We all want to try to work something out," de Parry says.City Place has turned into the red-headed stepchild of downtown development in Ann Arbor in recent months. Vocal neighbors have rallied against it, stalling the development which has gone through several changes. So much so that developer has pushed through a by-right design that calls for an ugly, suburban design complete with surface parking lot. That met with a demolition moratorium from the city while it studies the merits of historical status for the newly named Germantown neighborhood - something critics have called an end-run attempt to thwart the project from moving forward..The developer wants to level a handful of historic homes (including one of the city's oldest) that have mostly served as student rentals on Fifth Avenue just north of Packard Road. The original proposal called for 90 brownstone-style condos in a long 4.5-story building in what he describes as Beacon Hill-style architecture. The original project proposal included some big green, urban features such as 98 underground parking spaces and a geothermal heating-and-cooling system. The 750-1,500-square-foot units were geared toward young professionals looking to live in a vibrant downtown. This proposal was rejected by local residents.The by-right proposal calls for two, 4-story buildings that will hold 24 apartments for students. The two buildings will be split by 36 surface parking spaces. The developer is currently working on a proposal that would spare the houses and build dense housing behind them. Think C-style apartment buildings from the early 20th Century where arms would wrap around a courtyard.Source: Alex de Parry, developer of City Place.Writer: Jon Zemke
Kate Rose is part of a coveted demographic. An employee at Google and in her late 20s, she represents exactly what Ann Arbor needs more of. But is our community doing what it needs to keep her, and young talent like her, here? Concentrate went straight to the source for the answer. Each month Kate will chime in on what her generation is looking for when it comes to housing, cultural amenities, and work opportunities.
Last year was a terrible year for most financials, but the Bank of Ann Arbor was able to turn that sow's ear into a silk purse.The downtown Ann Arbor-based added 13 people to its payroll as it capitalized on one of the worst financial meltdowns in decades. The bank now employs 96 people in five branches in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. It's all thanks to more and more people choosing to bank locally. It's a trend with a future, according to the Bank of Ann Arbor brass."I don't think this local first movement is a one-year wonder," says Tim Marshall, president and CEO of Bank of Ann Arbor. "We continue to grow and I think that trend will continue."So much so that he expects Bank of Ann Arbor to continue to hire. He doesn’t foresee adding any more branches in the near future, but expansion is in the firm's plans during a time when most banks wouldn't even think about such things."Most companies are downsizing and cutting employees," Marshall says. "We have taken the opposite approach of hiring good people for the benefit of the bank and the community."Source: Tim Marshall, president and CEO of Bank of Ann ArborWriter: Jon Zemke
You can tell redeveloping the Georgetown Mall isn't an easy project because a number of developers have shied away from talking about it on the record.The strip mall (and former home to a Kroger supermarket) on Packard Road just west of Stadium Boulevard is now empty, a relic of mid 20-century suburban thinking. There have been calls to redevelop and raze it in recent months, but the seven-acre site sits foreclosed and abandoned."The problem is the financial markets don't work for it today," says Peter Allen, a developer with Ann Arbor-based Peter Allen & Associates.The site isn't without its physical challenges either. It's a story or two below the road grade for Packard. It's surrounded by residential housing. Oh, and there is that big old shopping center developers don’t want to touch with a 10-foot pole. Raze the building and it becomes more attractive, but that isn't cheap and will probably fall on the taxpayers dime if the building goes into tax foreclosure.Some of its disadvantages might turn into pluses, though. The building could make the site functionally obsolete, meaning it would be eligible for brownfield redevelopment tax incentives. It being so far below grade takes out the excavation part of the equation to create underground parking for a mid-rise residential development.Hope isn't lost on the old Georgetown Mall, but it's going to need a lot of patience to make something work.Source: Peter Allen, a developer with Ann Arbor-based Peter Allen & AssociatesWriter: Jon Zemke
It's one of those weeks... too many damn choices. Editor Jeff Meyers winnows the long list of boffo local events into six must-not-miss nights out. Who says you can't eat your cake and have it too? Click on the magic "more" button to read about the also-rans, as well as a brief reflection on Grand Rapid's ArtPrize.
The University of Michigan is playing a key part in the growth of Michigan's emerging University Research Corridor.URC is made up of the state’s three major research universities – Wayne State, Michigan State and U-M. The idea is to create one of the premier research and development clusters in the U.S., churning out patents, start-ups and higher-education graduates. A study by the Anderson Economic Group entitled "Empowering Michigan" shows that the URC has improved in a number of key areas since it was founded in 2007.Among its accomplishments are upping the URC's economic impact by 10 percent in the last two years to $14.5 billion and doubling the number of university spin-offs from 14 to 28. URC is responsible for 48,786 jobs, 132,826 students and 572,123 alumni in Michigan. It’s also the home to $1.4 billion in research, 129 patents and 135 licenses between 2004-09."U-M adds quite a big of economic impact because of its medical campus," says Caroline Sallee, lead author of the Anderson Economic Group's Empowering Michigan study.The university is also the big bread winner for federal research funding. It has also been able to follow through on developing that research with its tech transfer and commercialization initiatives."They have a bit more tech transfer activity than the others," Sallee says.Source: Caroline Sallee, lead author of the Anderson Economic Group's Empowering Michigan studyWriter: Jon Zemke
Next in line for high-density development in downtown Ann Arbor – The Moravian.The project proposed for the south side of the downtown area is coming before the city Planning Commission this month. This times it's dramatically different than the first time it came around (then called The Madison)... but at the same time, not really.The most striking difference is the design. The Madison featured a sleek, contemporary design. The Moravian is designed to blend in much better with the surrounding century-old housing stock."We have gone to much more of a traditional look now," says Jeff Helminski, the developer of The Moravian. "It's much more similar to the residential properties to the north of us."The Madison called for 14 stories of 161 apartments on Madison Street, between Fourth and Fifth avenues and across the street from Fingerle Lumberyard. The high-rise would have featured a number of green features, like several levels of underground parking, Zipcars and geothermal heating systems. All of it was geared toward workforce housing, namely young professionals who want to live and work downtown.The Moravian, is significantly downscaled, and would have 4-5 stories (depending on which end of building you start at) with 63 apartments and 164 bedrooms. Gone are the Zipcars, but staying is the geothermal heating system. Helminski plans to go for LEED certification. Affordable housing units will also be part of the mix."When we get done with this I think it will be the greenest market-rate, multi-family apartment building in the city," Helminski says.A level of ground-floor parking (90 spaces) behind 3-6 units of ground floor retail on Madison is also proposed. The ground floor retail units will be connected to residential units above figuratively but not physically because the ground floor area is in a flood plain. The retail spaces will measure between 1,500-3,000 square feet and will be available for the likes of professional offices (architects, attorneys, etc) or even art galleries."This will set the tone for future retail along that corridor," Helminski says.Source: Jeff Helminski, developer of The MoravianWriter: Jon Zemke
John Harding was Current Motor Co. first customer before the business even existed.Harding wanted a sustainable electric scooter, but the only ones he could buy were powered by fossil fuels. So he and Erik Kauppi started Current Motor Co. last year on Ann Arbor's far west side."I wanted an electric vehicle," says John Harding, president of Current Motor Co. "I am motorcyclist as well and a two-wheeler makes a lot of sense."The company now employs 10 people from its headquarters on Jackson Road. There they put together scooters --mostly from stock parts-- while creating their own electric package. They even issue their own vehicle identification numbers. The company makes its first delivery of eight bikes to customers later this month."We're rolling out slowly," Harding says. "We're ramping up our marketing now that we have our first bikes out."The next shipment of bikes will be sold out of the firm's new dealership at its headquarters, 6241 Jackson Road, which is set to open by the end of the month. Current Motor Co. plans to product about 100-200 electric scooters within the next year. At the same time it plans to develop a national network of dealerships."2011 is when we want to grow that dealership network nationally and sell thousands of bikes," Harding says.Source: John Harding, president of Current Motor Co.Writer: Jon Zemke
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