New York style sandwiches in your backyard? Yeah, yes please. The Bronx Deli, opened in August 2007, has been supply Pontiac and the surrounding areas with some top notch corned beef from their digs on Telegraph. They just recently moved to a bigger location and still seem just as busy.
The Oak Street program aims to put some pride back in these neighborhoods by offering educational and staff resources to help communities preserve historic character while moving forward with sustainable growth and investment.
Dennis R. Toffolo, deputy Oakland County executive, died today after suffering a heart attack at his Oxford home Tuesday evening. Toffolo, 62, oversaw the county's Department of Economic Development & Community Affairs and several other high profile programs. He was pronounced dead at 1:28 a.m. at POH Regional Medical Center.
Most people know of Daniel Cherrin, the principal for North Coast Strategies and Cherrin Law Group, not so much from what his businesses have done as much as by what he has done.Daniel Cherrin, president of both Royal Oak-based firms, in his recent role as the press secretary for former Detroit Mayor Ken Cockrell, was the point person for questions about the city. The Michigan State Law School graduate served as a lobbyist for the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. before starting his own firms. Now his client list ranges from the city of Windsor, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, Wayne State School of Medicine, and Fritz Enterprises in Trenton. All of his work deals with law, public relations, and government relations."I took the blue ocean strategy approach and took on the three areas with two companies," Cherrin says, explaining he has two companies because he can't bring non-law related work into his law practice.Right now, it's just him and the occasional independent contractor. He is still a registered lobbyist in Washington, D.C. and Canada. He also does work in Lansing and is hoping to bring in more businesses looking to navigate the tricky waters of government -- and hopefully bring a person or two to help him."I would love to develop enough business to grow and add people to Michigan," Cherrin says. Source: Daniel Cherrin, president of North Coast Strategies and Cherrin Law GroupWriter: Jon Zemke
The Oakland University business incubator, OU INCubator, is getting some respect now that one of its clients, iTrack, is in line for some large tax breaks from the state.DC Equities decided to create iTrack to help further its development of LPTS (Local Positioning and Tracking System) system. The system allows first responders to rapidly construct a network capable of providing positioning for autonomous robotic vehicles and personnel tracking. The partnership plans to invest $700,000 into the project and will receive a $210,000 state tax credit. The investment is expected to create 35 jobs and keep the start-up in Oakland County. "The tax incentive facilitate the investment," says Jerry Atkinson, CEO of iTrack. The investment allows iTrack to finish the development of its technology, which is expect to happen in 2010. Atkinson says most of the job creation will take place at the end of next year when the product hits the market. DC Equities, also known as Grindstone Capital, is an investment entity specializing in high-tech companies. It has a stake in Royal Oak Industries, a 350-person company (250 employed in Michigan) which supplies precision machine components and sub-assemblies for everything from heavy truck to high-performance engines. Source: Jerry Atkinson, CEO of iTrackWriter: Jon Zemke
While MTV was busy pimping out rides, Ferndale businesses were busy pimping out their pots. Yeah, pimped out pots. What the heck does that mean, you ask? Well, a new Ferndale DDA program is asking local businesses to snazz up a flower pot to not only bring more green to downtown but to pimp it out a bit. And by pimp, we mean snazz. Don't take it literally. Excerpt: With its new "Pimp Your Pot" program, the Downtown Development Authority's design committee is encouraging all downtown merchants to put their personality on the sidewalk by creating a "pimped-out" flowerpot for their storefront and helping the blossoms flourish all summer long. The ultimate goal, said DDA Executive Director Cristina Sheppard-Decius, is to bring more greenery to downtown Ferndale. But it is also an opportunity for business owners to express themselves creatively. "We're looking to bring some artistic elements to the downtown," she said. "This will hopefully add some flavor of what the city is all about. On display in front of our businesses, there will be living, growing plants that add to the vegetation of the downtown and give people a sort of buffer zone before they step into traffic." Read the entire article here.
Kids in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties are getting a little help from the Michigan Youth Appreciation Foundation. The program has assisted college kids in paying for school and finding jobs. Two things that are very much in demand right now. Excerpt: The Michigan Youth Appreciation Foundation has launched a new program in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties aimed at keeping youth in college and helping them find jobs. The foundation was launched in 1990 to provide partial scholarships of $250 to $1,500 to high school students from the three county area. Since then, it's given out more than 650 scholarships totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Edward Deeb, president and CEO of the Michigan Food and Beverage Association and chairman of the foundation. Read the entire article here.
Birmingham is gearing up to do a lot of work on its bridges this summer. The work includes improvements to the West Maple Road, Oak Street and Lakeside Drive North bridges, along with the replacement of the Baldwin Avenue Bridge.The Baldwin Bridge dates back to the 1920s and has been showing decades' worth of wear and tear for a while now. The city plans to spend $700,000 to replace it, starting in July and finishing by November. Gone will be the narrow, one-lane bridge, replaced by a two-lane span with a 5-foot-wide sidewalk. The city plans to recreate the historic arch underneath with a stone-cut façade. It has done this with four other bridge replacements."It will be a larger bridge than what is there today, but it should be a better looking bridge," says Paul O'Meara, city engineer for Birmingham.The West Maple Road Bridge will undergo $107,000 in painting work on the exposed steel beams. It dates to 1950 and was significantly improved in 1998. The Oak Street Bridge, built in 1960, will also receive a $72,500 paint job on its exposed beams. The city plans to install channel diverters upstream of the Lakeside Drive North Bridge (1992) to help prevent sediment build-up. That project's estimated cost is $94,000. Source: Paul O'Meara, city engineer for BirminghamWriter: Jon Zemke
The Greenleaf Trust Building is taking shape in downtown Birmingham. Construction workers are finishing off the foundation and basement walls this spring. By early June, all of the footings are expected to be in and then the 5-story building's steel skeleton should begin rising. The construction can be monitored here.The mixed-use structure will stand on the footprint of an old, abandoned gas station at the corner of Woodward and Maple. Designed by Kalamazoo-based Eckert Wordell Architecture, it will feature retail, commercial, and residential space. Five rental apartments will go on the fourth and fifth floors. The second and third floors of the 50,000-square-foot building will be dedicated to office space. Kalamazoo-based Greenleaf Trust will move its Metro Detroit offices to the third floor. The first floor will be occupied by Zazios, a modern Italian restaurant based in Kalamazoo.Greenleaf Trust is going for silver LEED certification for the building. Its environmentally friendly features include a 1,500-square-foot green roof, natural lighting, and numerous water- and energy-efficiency fixtures.The 10-year-old bank manages $7 billion in assets for individuals, foundations, endowments, and corporations and specializes in personal trust, wealth management and employee benefits.Source: Patti Owens, vice president and managing director of Catalyst DevelopmentWriter: Jon Zemke
The buzz word for today is: Diversification. Actually, it's been the buzz word for a long time. But saying and doing are two different things. Elizabeth Ardisana of ASG Renaissance thinks it's never too late for a good idea, and she's helping the auto supplier industry get with the program.
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