Ann Arbor

White Pine Systems secures financing, plans to hire

By Newsroom

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August 19, 2009

The story behind White Pine Systems is very personal for its founder, Doug Dormer. Dormer grew up in a house where both of his parents were blind and his dad suffered from diabetes. One day his dad fell sick, was taken to the wrong hospital --one that didn't know his medical history-- and died waiting on a gurney because doctors didn't realize the seriousness of his situation.That led to the creation of White Pine Systems, a provider of online personal health records. The company helps make sure doctors get the most information about a patient's medical history so they can maximize the effectiveness of treatment and avoid misdiagnosis."He obviously has some passion behind this," says Jonathan Smolowe, vice president of sales and marketing for White Pine Systems.The downtown Ann Arbor-based firm employs about a dozen people on a full- or part-time basis, along with some independent contractors. 3-year-old White Pine just went live with its product and is watching customers start to line up. Helping make that happen is $450,000 in financing from angel investors, including $225,000 from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund. The company hopes to hire a few more people soon."It's really starting to get off the ground now," Smolowe says.Source: Jonathan Smolowe, vice president of sales and marketing for White Pine SystemsWriter: Jon Zemke

Cheap Ways To Revitalize Our Downtowns

By Jon Zemke

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Arts and Culture

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August 12, 2009

From households to businesses to city government, everyone is in belt-tightening mode. But if there's one thing Concentrate believes, it's that necessity is the mother of invention. A few local communities have come up with innovative and inexpensive ways to revitalize their downtowns. Time to take notes!

Video Ann Arbor’s Robot Repair Superstore (And Really Cool Non-profit)

By Keith Jefferies

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Community Development

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August 12, 2009

Robots. Creative writing. Dave Eggers. After school tutoring. 826Michigan is the hippest non-profit organization in Ann Arbor. Offering writing workshops and tutoring to kids for free, and channeling the energy and enthusiasm of nearly 200 voluteers, author Dave Egger's brainchild has resulted in the kind of experience that changes both lives and minds.

Michigan Peaceworks to create mural for downtown Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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Arts and Culture

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August 12, 2009

More art is on its way to downtown Ann Arbor, and it’s only going to reinforce the stereotype that Ann Arbor is made up of a bunch of art-loving peaceniks. Michigan Peaceworks, which is headquartered downtown, plans to begin work on a mural this fall. The mural will be centered on, you guessed it, peace in Ann Arbor and go up on the side of the Alley Bar. It should be finished by next spring. "It's going to be a pretty large mural," says Laura Russello, executive director of Michigan Peaceworks.The Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority and Main Street Association are chipping in $2,000 to pay for the project. The rest of the cost is coming from fundraising and private donations. Weekly updates will be posted on the DDA’s website once work begins. The project still have to be approved by the city before it can go forward.Source: Laura Russello, executive director of Michigan PeaceworksWriter: Jon Zemke

Bluestone, Oxford move into new space in downtown Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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Development News

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August 12, 2009

Not every business moving into downtown Ann Arbor these days is a high-tech start-up. Bluestone Realty Advisors and Oxford Property Management are also staking their claim in the city's center.The two companies will share what used to be the space occupied by ICON Creative Services at 312 S. State St. The nearly 20 workers are leaving their space near Briarwood Mall for new downtown digs on Aug. 20."The general consensus is we all wanted to be there," says Neal Warling, president and CEO of Bluestone Realty Advisors. The second-floor space in the turn-of-the-century building already has a loft-like appeal with its exposed brick, beams and skylights. Warling plans to turn it into more of a nouveau industrial-type atmosphere with more metallic and streamlined details."It's going to be very cutting edge," Warling says.Source: Neal Warling, president and CEO of Bluestone Realty AdvisorsWriter: Jon Zemke

Loafing around on bake-cation

By Newsroom

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Healthy Communities

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August 12, 2009

Zingerman’s gets a little more love, this time from Chicago.Excerpt:ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The bright kitchen at Zingerman’s Bakehouse had the fragrant smell of a panaderia, thanks in part to the Mexican egg bread I’d made earlier that morning.By now, my thoughts had migrated from Mexico to Italy as I slathered layers of mascarpone cream on a rum-soaked ladyfinger cake. As soon as I dusted the top of my tiramisu with cocoa powder, it was time to move on to Spain and roll out the dough for some spinach-filled empanadas.I spent a good eight hours in an apron that day, whisking, kneading dough and whipping egg whites into soft peaks. I’d be back to do it again tomorrow.It might sound like work, but this was a vacation. A bake-cation, actually.For the past three summers, Ann Arbor’s beloved Zingerman’s has offered bake-cations for people wanting to learn more about the art and science behind pastry and breadmaking.Read the rest of the story here.

A book with bite: Local author debuts with “The Book That Eats People”

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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August 12, 2009

A book that eats people could only come from a town full of foodies, like Ann Arbor.Excerpt:You might want to be careful handling local author John Perry’s first children’s book. And if you’re not sure why, you probably need look no further than the glowering eyes on its bright red cover, peeking up over yellow cautionary tape that proclaims “The Book That Eats People” (Tricycle Press).“As a dad, I can’t imagine walking into a bookstore and seeing that title and not picking it up just to see what it was,” said Perry, a resident of Ann Arbor for the last 15 years, who admits that his 4- and 7-year-old daughters had pretty much exhausted his appreciation of “fairy stories, stories with morals and stories that went to the beach.”This book has none of that; the closest it comes to moralizing is when the marauding literary monster, during a stint of hard time for snacking on three neighborhood kids, also polishes off a cellmate “who deserved it.” It spends much of his time in predictable places — school, library, nightstand — with rather tragic results in each (the library’s really going to miss that night security guard) before the well-intentioned folks at the zoo decide it’s an incorrigible beast and… well, I won’t tell you what happens next. But make sure you wash any trace of peanut butter or cookies from your hands before you pick it up.Read the rest of the story here.

Executive Profile: Jim Smith III, president of Washtenaw Dairy

By Newsroom

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Healthy Communities

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August 12, 2009

Washtenaw Dairy has stood the test of time, and people like Kim Smith are the reason why.Excerpt:What makes Washtenaw Dairy such a fixture in Ann Arbor is its strong sense of community."We treat everyone like family," explains Jim Smith, who started working at the dairy at age nine when his father became a co-owner with Doug Robb. "The store is not fancy, just a little dive, but people come in and feel like they are a part of the place and that’s what we want." Celebrating its 75th year in business, Washtenaw Dairy has witnessed many ice cream trends over the years. "Years ago everyone was saying frozen yogurt would take over. Well, that lasted a couple of years then they all went out of business," Smith said. Read the rest of the story here.

Ann Arbor venture capitalists raise $73 million for 2nd fund

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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August 12, 2009

Ann Arbor’s Arboretum Ventures continues to establish itself as Michigan’s premier venture capital firm.Excerpt:Last fall's financial markets meltdown hasn't stopped Arboretum Ventures from emerging as one of Michigan's leading venture capital firms this year.In February, Arboretum finished raising its second investment fund, attracting $73 million from nine major institutional investors. That's the largest in the state, excluding a few government-created funds.And just four months earlier, the Ann Arbor-based firm scored the equivalent of a home run in venture investing when Johnson & Johnson acquired one of its companies, HealthMedia Inc. The sale gave Arboretum a nearly tenfold return on its money."Our goal is to be one of the top five venture funds in the country for health care," said Jan Garfinkle, who started Arboretum in 2002 after she couldn't get a job in the state's once tiny venture industry.Read the rest of the story here and when Concentrate first reported on it back in February here.

Killing the Ann Arbor News to save it

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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August 12, 2009

The death of the Ann Arbor News continues to make its way up the media grapevine, this time making the pages of Time magazine.Excerpt:When Larry Kestenbaum, clerk of Washtenaw County, Michigan, was in Lansing for a meeting recently, he saw something unfamiliar on the faces of the other clerks: pity. Colleagues from hard-pressed towns like Flint, Jackson and Kalamazoo were offering sympathy because, despite everything, they still had a local newspaper, while Ann Arbor, his county seat, did not.At first blush, Ann Arbor is an unlikely place to earn the dubious distinction of being the first good-size municipality in the U.S. to give up on its only daily newspaper. A2, as the town is known, is more or less the beauty queen of Michigan: pretty, confident and seemingly immune to the problems of her peers. It still has a downtown with sidewalk cafés and quirky local stores. Its biggest employers are two universities and two hospitals, and it has weathered the recession better than most of the rest of the state. Nearly half its residents have graduate degrees. How could the paper die in a place like this?The answer is that it didn't die. It was killed by its owners in a high-stakes gamble to try to create a new and more profitable enterprise. (In the past nine years, the paper lost more than half its classified-ad pages.) The Ann Arbor News ceased to exist on July 23. On July 24, AnnArbor.com was launched. The new website has a paper version — also called, oddly, AnnArbor.com — that comes out on Thursdays and Sundays. The News's owner, Advance Publications, is betting it can rebrand the 175-year-old News as a Web publication, turn a profit and still satisfy its readers' craving for local news. A lot of U.S. newspapers, and their readers, have a stake in whether the experiment in Ann Arbor succeeds.Read the rest of the story here and how Jack Lessenberry skewers Ann Arbor.com in the Metro Times here.